Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Sciatic Nerve

A couple of weeks ago I was rudely introduced to the fact that I have a Sciatic nerve and just what it can DO to me if it's pissed off. It started off just a crappy dull pain running down from my butt cheek (honest to god, the cheek) to my ankle, but it's progressed since then to giving me these sharp STABBING, HORRIBLE pains in that previously happy ghetto butt cheek. The stabbing pains only happened a couple of times a day and the lesser pain running down my leg would give up after about 10 minutes or so, until yesterday.

Yesterday made me re-think my stance on getting an epidural. If contractions and giving birth hurts WORSE (???? how is this possible????) than the crazy knife stabbing pains I put up with yesterday then I will damn well be getting an epidural. SCREW being natural and joining the ranks of natural birthing brave women. SCREW THAT.

My leg buckled from beneath me at one point! I don't blame the leg, I'd give up too if I were it. Later in the day, the last two times it happened I honest to God involuntarily screamed out loud when it struck. I'm not one for being dramatic in that way but the yell came from inside me somewhere that I apparently have no control over.

The lasting pain that runs down my leg stayed almost the whole day and I found myself limping. Sitting, standing, laying down, nothing helps, it's a nerve thing and I just have to wait for it to go away. One of the screaming-out-loud episodes happened in front of Chino and I was pretty embarrassed. He was so shocked he just stood there for a moment and stared at me :P before coming over to where I was to try and help. I writhed around and told him in between breaths that I was ok, and the baby was fine and that I'd explain in a moment or two.

Bless him he massaged the cheek and the whole leg and it felt wonderful. I hope today is better, and it seems to be so far, we'll just see.

Anybody have this nerve pain happen to them? Anything you found that would help at all? I'd love to hear any experience. :)

13 comments:

  1. I had sciatica with all of my babies at some point in the pregnancy . . . Maren was early on, while Cooper and Maren were a bit later. Thankfully, it lasted a couple of weeks, and then went away. Laying on a tennis ball seemed to help if no one is around to massage it out.

    And drugs or no drugs, there is no Bronze Uterus Award! With Cooper I had an epidural, with Maren I had a spinal, with Quinn I had IV Fentanyl, and with Briar I had nothing. Of the four, Briar's delivery was the easiest to 'bounce back' from - I felt better immediately and was up and around more quickly (though I don't know how much of that was 4th and smallest baby and how much of it was the medication.)

    Either way, the pain is temporary, and you will forget about 99% of it once she is out!

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  2. F & F - Wow you had a whole array of different options. I've never even heard of IV fentanyl? And I thought a spinal and epidural were the same thing - I believe I need to get educated. WOW.

    I guess I'm still going to try and tough it out, but lordy if it IS as bad as the sciatica - but prolonged? Count me out.

    OH! A tennis ball? That's a great idea! It's not easy to get my hand back there to massage it but a ball would be greeeaatt. OH THANK YOU, I'm so serious, thank you, thank you, I am headed to the dollar store after work to get a ball or TEN. :P

    Thank You AGAIN. :)

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  3. To tell you the truth, I would never think of not having an epidural. I had one with both of my kids. I was not going to lay in pain all day just because some people say you need to be a woman and not have pain meds. You know to each is own- right? If someone does not need it maybe their pain tolerance is better than someone else's. With my daughter I had no pain with the epidural. With my son (who was born in December) I hurt so bad and I had the epidural. What happened was they had me sitting straight up in the bed trying to get him to come down and I felt every pain from right below my breast bone to right sbove my belly button. I was crying, I was hurting so bad. I hurt so bad when the contractions got closer and stronger that I got sick to my stomach. They had to come back and dose me up with epidural juice like 3 times- no lie. My Dr. came in and was wondering why was i crying and getting sick that they needed to call anethesia to come right then. He layed my bed down so I was kind of laying down. I promise not even 5 minutes later I was a different person. My boyfriend (aka fiance) and grandmother were like are you okay? I said yeah I feel so much better. I was just so tired from fighting the pain all day. I was normal again, I was talking to everyone like I was not even in labor. It's your decision, but remember you know your body, you know your pain tolerance. You probably want to remember your labor as the best part of your life, not the day you felt like your body was going to quit or blow up because you were hurting so bad. I hope I did not scare you with my labor story. But to me, the labor was not as bad with my last as the receovery. My back hurt really bad, but I was in labor with him for 14 hours.

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  4. Crystal - THANK YOU !! I LOVE honest answers like this! I don't want to hear hearts and teddy bears I want the damn truth. I've been all geared up because I read a couple of books on natural childbirth and they make it sound so do-able and great.

    BUT - I have, honest to god, came within 2 seconds of passing out - with the darkness actually closing in on my vision - over GAS pains before! Really super bad gas pains but CRAP what's air bubbles compared to a baby? Plus, my mom and I both have these crazy-insane-menstrual cramps that if go un-medicated feel like we're being sawed in half - I've wished death over these things before, but couldn't get out of bed to DO anything about it.

    My mom told me last year that they feel just like labor and I'm thinking - oh hell the crap no, uh-uh, drugs please. I'm a weinie and I should probably come to terms with that right now.

    Thanks for your cool response :)

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  5. You are very welcome. My aunt told me that I would not care if the epidural needle was from here to California when you feel those labor pains. But you know you may be completely different.. you could go in and the pains start and you are like this is nothing. How much longer do you have? If you ever want to know anyhing about labor, I will tell you my honest opinion. :)

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  6. Crystal - YAY thank you! I'm due Dec. 18 so I've got another 2.5 months (god willing.) Geewwww do I have to SEE the needle? I was hoping they could keep that out of my line of vision :P

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  7. Man, that nerve is a bitch. Just remember that there's no awards given for having a natural birth - I'm sure you'll feel great either way the second Daisy is in your arms!

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  8. The big ball...get one asap and sit on it 24/7..it will help with the back pain...and ive got some other ways to to help too...cant wait to get back to show em to ya.
    I will help you through labor if you want me too...we can come up with a plan if you want
    ....hey you gotta see my birth video too...that way you know what to expect! Its a must....lots of water...tons of water...gallons of water..will help with back pain too.

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  9. I did not see the needle when they gave me the epidural.. I only remembered from the movie 9 months and by looking online. When they give me mine I asked them to tell me when they were going to stick me and they said okay. They also walked through it step by step so I would know what to expect next. Like you will feel cold run down your back, that felt good to my back too. Then they will say you may have a pain go through one of your legs, it may hurt a little or your leg may jump. Just be as still as you can while they do it so they get it just right. Is anyone going to be with you while you are in labor?

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  10. I have those crazy cramps when I have my period and I want to die when I get them. Those are the monents when I beg my husband to knock me up again, so I can have another 9 months of no cramps and no period for as long as I am breastfeeding, BEG I tell you! Thank God the husband is strong and doesn't listen to me or we'd be on pregnancy #8 or something.

    I think because of all the pain I have with my periods, the labor pains weren't so bad.. I had epidurals with # 1 and 2, nothing with #3 and 4 and I bounced back faster with 3 and 4. I was in so much pain from the epidurals and my back hurt for months after. I found out later that epidurals have side effects and mine was the constant back pain.

    I had epidural with #1 because the nurses kept telling me to. I didn't know anything, this was all new to me and when I had 10 nurses telling me to take the epidural, well they must know something I don't. So at the first sign of a labor pain, I got the epidural. I wish I waited a little to see if I could handle it, but too late now. With #2, I was all stressed out, I was in the car and I had visions of popping out a baby on the side of the road or going to the ER with a baby half dangling out of me.... so I was not in a good place and again, nurses telling me to get the epidural!

    #3 and 4, I was in better control of myself and my surroundings, I had the home birth with #3 and that was the best of all 4. She came quickly and I only had labor pains for a couple of hours, not too bad, but for a minute there I wondered how much longer I was going to have to deal with it, then 3 pushes and she was out.

    Bottom line, it's up to you. If you get to the hospital and you are in pain, then by all means, get the epidural. If you think you can tough it out, then do that, too. Just don't let anyone, even the nurses, push you into getting a epidural if you really feel fine. Same goes for a c-section. Don't let them push a c-section on you unless there is an emergency with the baby. This is your first baby, it will take a while and if your water isn't broken, your body will take as long as it needs to get baby out. Once your water breaks, then baby needs to come out within 24 hours --so think twice when the doctor asks you if he can break the water. Breaking the water doesn't speed things up, it just makes things more painful because you lose that water cushion between your pelvis and the baby's head. Walk around the room, you can walk the halls if you want to, and stop between contractions then walk some more. Laying in bed won't help baby ease down in the birth canal, so if you can handle it, WALK!

    Ok, I'll stop. Love ya xoxo

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  11. Oh wow you gals are the coolest people ever!
    Why do the nurses push so hard for epidural?? I'll tell them to calm their asses on down it they push me. (well, at least I say that now, but I think it's pretty neat to have advice and back-up from neat folks like you going through my head) If I DO get one, then Crystal thank you for the advice and insight :) Who knows.

    I talked to my mom this week and she's going to come down to be with me the week before the baby is due. Who knows if she might show up early but at least I've got some sort of plan for help. If not Sunshine has offered (thank you) and a lady I work with has offered to be there with me so I don't have to be alone like I thought. *sigh of relief!* :) Chino said that some of his family is able to cross the border and might want to come and be there but I actually don't really want a lot of people, an audience sounds horrifying to me so we might just hold of on the phone calls till after.

    God, I'm so serious thank you all for your stories and advice! It means so much, it really does. Thank You again.

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  12. I think (not sure- just what I have always heard) that the nurses are sometimespushy with the epidurals because once you get to a certain point you will not be able to get it.

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  13. You know I can't help you with any personal experience, since my only kid was adopted, but I did want to share a story with you. When my aunt was in the hospital after giving birth to my cousin, the women in her ward were comparing notes on how bad the pain had been, and one young lady, who had just had her first child, was actually quite pleased with herself. She declared that giving birth hadn't been bad at all, and that she got cramps worse than that every month. What was bothering her was that her 9-month break from those cramps was over. If the word "ward" didn't give it away, this was over 50 years ago, when I'm pretty sure the anesthesia used in childbirth was a lot more crude than it is today. I just thought since you have such bad cramps every month, you might be interested to know that it might actually be less severe than those.

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