What do you do when sciatica keeps coming back and you feel so frustrated and fearful again? Recurrences of sciatica are incredibly commonplace and are a major source of anxiety for affected patients. Sometimes, it just feels as if sciatica will never go away for good and leave you to live in peace.
What causes recurrences of sciatica? Will recurring episodes of pain eventually lead to chronic symptoms that never abate? Is there anything you can do to stop being victimized by flare-ups of sciatic nerve pain, often at the least opportune times? These questions deserve some attention and will receive just that during the course of this dialog.
This post details relapses of sciatica that typically plague many patients. We will provide some helpful guidance on the causes of recurrences and how they should be managed for best outcomes.
Sciatica Keeps Coming Back Again
A sciatica relapse is a recurrence of symptoms after feeling better for some time. Relapses are common occurrences in virtually all back pain diagnoses, and sciatica is no exception to the rule. In fact, sciatica is one of the most treatment-resistant of all chronic pain disorders and tends to recur often over very long timelines.
Relapses might be triggered by known or idiopathic causes. Many of the suspected triggers for relapses include exercise, sleep position, stress, injury or perceived injury, and overexertion. However, patients are warned that triggers are often conditioned behaviors that take the blame for inciting pain when they are actually part of a psychological programming mechanism, rather than an actual pathological activity or circumstance.
Many patients experience recurring pain without any provocation at all. They often wake up with pain or develop it gradually over the course of an average day without trigger. Both scenarios of causation are widely reported to clinicians in the sciatica diagnostic and treatment sector.
Episodic or Chronic Sciatica?
Episodic sciatica is often called flare-ups. These attacks come on strong and then resolve completely or nearly completely over time. The duration of pain ranges from hours to months. Similarly, the duration of relief between attacks ranges from days to months to years. There is no “typical pattern”, except that most sciatica will recur at some point.
Chronic sciatica describes pain that is present all the time or nearly all the time. This pain does not abate and return, but is virtually ever-present. The severity of pain can range greatly, as well as can the location of symptomology.
It should be known that recurring episodes of sciatica pain are linked to the development of chronic sciatica. More than half of the total number of patients who report regularly recurring flare-ups of pain will eventually develop a chronic pattern of sciatica symptoms.
Sciatica Keeps Coming Back Due to Misdiagnosis
Relapses suck. There is no denying this truth. They tend to happen at the worst times in life (which is no coincidence) and create chaos whenever they flare-up. Recurring sciatica makes life a pain-filled, unpredictable torment, complete with many activity prohibitions and fears. Sciatica is consistently rated as one of the most disabling of all chronic dorsopathy syndromes for good reason… So what should you do?
Well, the sad reality is that sciatica usually defies treatment. It does not matter if the care is holistic, natural, traditional, complementary, surgical or pharmaceutical… Finding a true cure for sciatica is almost impossible according to all statistics. Our clinical experience certainly supports this fact!
However, the main reason why cures are rare is not related to the ferocity of sciatica itself, but instead, is linked directly to the incompetence of diagnosticians. It is clear that the vast majority of sciatica is misdiagnosed and subsequent treatment is therefore misguided. This is the main reason why sciatica tends to become chronic.
Therefore, the most important piece of guidance we can offer is to focus on the correct diagnosis of your pain. Most patients blame their pain on some lumbar spinal issue, like arthritis or a herniated disc. In very few cases does this turn out to be true, supported by statistics demonstrating the horrific failure of therapies targeting these scapegoats. Do not buy into the lies. If you can find out the actual underlying source of your pain, then a cure is not only possible; it will be probable.
