Todd's Journey

The story of my cancer journey

Significant Sciatica (Leg) pain

- Posted in Medical Update by with comments

We are in to the 2nd day of significant sciatica of my left leg. It is so bad at times, I am unable to put any pressure on my leg at all, and if I do, my leg will buckle and tumble me to the floor.

This leg issue as been around for about 4 weeks, but in the last two days has gotten progressively worse.

I have a progress CT scan on Tuesday for my cancer check, so the Doctors are going to take a look to see if anything is going on down there.

One theory they are currently looking at is related to the steroids. If my sciatica issue occurred during my stent replacement surgery (4 weeks ago) the start of the steroids (high dose) may have been masking the pain. As they continue to lower my steroid dose, it is possible the pain is much more noticeable now. It does seem like a workable theory as the pain has been increasing slowly as the steroids have been reduced.

Hopefully the sciatica issue will get better with some more time (can take up to 6 to 8 weeks) otherwise they will have to look at other options like surgical intervention to heal my sciatica.

For now they want me to use my Dilaudid (pain killer) as often as I need just so I can try and be somewhat able to move around a bit and help the sciatica.

Unfortunately for me, it's another one of the two steps forward, one step back.