How to get rid of Sciatica

I had been playing tennis since my teens and enjoyed it every moment. But as I grew older, a group of friends and colleagues suggested that I should start over golf as tennis is too strenuous for the elderly. I never wanted to give up tennis, but “coerced” by colleagues, I walked into the golf course and asked the coach there to teach me how to play golf. And I never knew I was being dragged into the world of Sciatica.

After a few months into golf, I started to feel terrible pain my left leg that made me difficult to walk long lengths on the golf course. The coach said that the pain would subside as it happens to the gold learners. But as days went by, it became difficult to even walk a few steps. I also started to feel numbness that travelled from my low back down to the region of little above my ankle. So I walked off the golf course and went to see the doctor. When I described the symptoms to him, he diagnosed that I was suffering from sciatica. What it meant was that a disc of my vertebra column had protruded from its normal position and was putting pressure on the radicular nerve (nerve root) in the lower back, which forms part of the sciatic nerve.

So I was given a bundle of pain killers and warned not to visit the golf course with the intent of playing. So having said goodbye to tennis earlier, now it was good bye to golf as well. I was also advised to visit the physiotherapist for massage of my lower back and the left leg. I did that for months, but nothing improved. I was then referred to the Institute of Rehabilitation for more exercises and treatment. But this didn’t work out either and I continued to suffer and live in pain.

Then someone suggested me acupuncture form of treatment. When I dug into the procedure, it looked very scary as the treatment consists of injecting dozens of needles at different parts of your body to regulate the pressure of blood and in the process lifting the pressure from your radicular nerve, being pressed by the disc. I delayed the decision for a while, but when the pain persisted, I decided to go for the acupuncture at Lahore. And as I knew, it was nothing but 21 needles that were pierced from head till my feet while lying on my back. And it was painful. I could hear people crying in the adjacent chambers, but I tried my best not to let out a cry except involuntary moans when the doctor fastened the needle to increase pressure.

To cut the details short, I underwent this painful treatment for over six months. And tell you what? It really worked. Now I could walk without pain for considerable distances and my numbness of the leg also subsided. While many other medicines and exercises did not work, acupuncture did. I am not trying to tell the sufferers of sciatica to go for acupuncture, but I would say that if nothing works, this should be given a try as a last resort, since it really works.