Ignoring sciatica symptoms

On a festively snowy afternoon a few days before Christmas, I was walking down a Boston street when I slipped and landed hard on my right knee, sprang back up, and walked another mile home. After half an hour on the sofa, I tried to stand and nearly puked from the stab of pain in my right hip.

At the hospital emergency room, X-rays showed that my hip was not broken. The doctor diagnosed a severe sprain and prescribed large doses of ibuprofen and rest. He expected that I would be better in a week or so and told me to call if I developed swelling or fever, or if the pain increased or traveled down my leg.

I hobbled through the holidays and seemed to be getting better, but after a few days, my thigh started aching. A little voice reminded me about calling if I had leg pain, but it was Christmastime, and I was lazy. I decided that I must have pulled something when I fell, and after all, at 54, I couldn’t expect to bounce back like a teenager.

But days turned to weeks, and I was still limping. I finally called my doctor.

I sat in her office exactly a month after my spill. Even before she examined me wearing her tsk tsk face, she suspected sciatica, and an MRI showing a bulging disc in my lower spine confirmed it.

Ignoring the pain in my leg was not one of my brighter moves. It delayed diagnosis and treatment and could have had serious consequences like permanent muscle weakness and incontinence.