is sciatica common for MSers?

Everyday living
1

i suppose the title covers my query. while i THOUGHT i just had sciatica because i inherited it from my dad, it seems to be going potty now, and it feels almost like it’s ‘joining up’ with my other MS neuro pains and my restless leg syndrome. i keep reading snippets here and there about MSers having sciatica, and just wondered how many others had it. all my neuro pains seem to be worse in the coldest months, too, along with my walking.

i’d be grateful for any feedback, thanks.

wendy xx

2

I’ve experienced sciatica, didn’t know that it could be connected to ms though.

3

thanks for answering, i’m not sure that it IS connected, i was wondering if it could be. i keep seeing and hearing about sciatica by people with MS and thought i’d ask here… from the horses mouth, sort of thing!

4

i don’t know if it is connected , saying that i ended up with it last september, tried to claim my private medical insurance and was told no it was my MS. I waited three months for an NHS appointment to be told not your MS but Sciatica.

Saying that because of the spasm in MS I feel it has taken longer to heal.

5

Hey,

When I went through my diagnosis stage just over a year ago, my nurse and neurologist both asked if I suffered from back pain, in their long line of many questions, I said no only sciatica, they asked if I had treatment etc to which I replied yes only for them to turn around and say it’s not sciatica we believe it the Ms that’s was causing me this god awful pain. You’ve never had sciatica and we will prove it, then I had the MRI they deliberately looked at the lower back to see, no sciatica but a lesion the pain I’d suffered for years Ms not sciatica- my doctors for years said this was sciatica but I was really living with Ms and I didn’t even know.

I hope the insufferable pain goes soon.

6

hi wendy

i had sciatica in my late 20s (now ripe old age of 41), and about two months before my MS dx i went to the docs complaining about a pain in left hand side. since being dx’d in july 2014 no problems. my father in law is a retired GP who after examining me believes i now have it in left leg. could it be due to crutch use? degenerative MS? getting on? god only knows…

its certainly worse in the colder months although these are the first ‘cold’ months i’ve experienced with MS as well. this is definitely the condition that keeps on giving. lucky us.

hope all gets better for you, fluffyollie xx

7

thanks trish and fluffyO, it’s always reassuring to know that other people are doing the neuro juggling act too, not wishing the dreaded ‘IT’ on anyone of course. seriously, this time of year i make frankenstein look like a ballerina, if it’s not the usual cold weather muscle spasms, it’s sciatica and if not that it’s restless legs. or it’s various combo’s of the three, and i’m about to have my 51st birthday, but feel like about 90. well i’m just whining tonight, sorry to anyone reading it. roll on spring (or a lottery win would also be good!). yup, you’re right, MS really is the gift that keeps on giving.

thanks again, all 3 of you.

wendy xx

8

i wonder about the crutch use also , as i feel it doesn’t help either, i am writing this at this time in the morning due to sciatica and spasms , as poor hubby has to be up for work in half an hour