Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group Ever had sciatic pain with AS?

This is totally weird for me -- I have sciatic pain (outside of the thighs, and the top). No back pain, and I haven't strained my back or anything recently, just the usual low AS stuff which I'm more than familiar with.

Has anyone ever had this? Maybe the inflammation kind of spreads to those nerves and gets them irritated? Hurts to sit on those nerves, but I'm fine to walk, stand, or lie.

Tell me if you've ever had this?

Thanks,

Patty



With my daughter (Chris) in Mexico, a month before AS kicked my butt!

My cat's web page: http://www.pet-parade.com/petpages2/page.asp?id=351

Hi Patty

I have had sciatic pain off and on for the past few years plus all the AS pain. I was told it is quite normal and that I would just have to learn to live with it.

John

John,

Thanks for the reply. I here with all this pain, couldn't find anything online about the connection, and was raelly worried that I have something new! That's all I need -- I have plenty as it is!

So it's just part of AS, huh? Does yours just come and go? Tell me this won't be with me all the time!

Patty



With my daughter (Chris) in Mexico, a month before AS kicked my butt!

My cat's web page: http://www.pet-parade.com/petpages2/page.asp?id=351

Hi Patty,
Sciatic pains were how my AS introduced itself to me!
I had years of pains shooting down my leg before the rest of my lovely AS symptoms started. The weird thing is they subsided when the disease progressed.
Hope yours find a way of subsiding too.
Take care,
Megan

Hi, Patty:

The answer is always; this is exactly how typical AS begins, and the sciatica may alternate from side to side. This is probably related to the calcium deficit caused by AS. Sciatica is one of the many conditions listed by Dr. Wallach that result from calcium deficiency.

Hope that you do not suffer too long with this--it can be quite miserable.

John

Hi Patty

I have an enormous amount of pain on the outside and top of my thighs. 2 days of my work week are spent standing and this is this area is extremely painful on these days. I don't know if this is sciatic pain or what it is. This combined with the hips and the back
YIKES
Glad you posted about this as I have never heard this area mentioned before.

Maggie

Hi Patty,

Like everyone else, always!!!
It was my first pain that got me to the dr. for a diagnosis. The first clues I had many years ago was a hot burning pain in my shoulder but the sciatic pain came and never left, apparently after I fused.
I was told that the inflammation in my SI joint was hitting the sciatic nerve and that was probably going to come and go forever. When I finally realized something was very wrong, my right SI joint was fused. It made a diagnosis very easy once I convinced my regular MD that I wasn't getting any better. I had that and the fatigue.

Hope you feel better soon.
I always want heat when I hurt but a physical therapist told me inflammation is already hot, so ice it. Heat is comforting to me tho.

hugs,

linda

Sciatic pain, as you've read from the responses, is quite common with AS, I think it has to do with referred pain from nerve damage/compression. I haven't had sciatic pain, but I do have pain that goes down the front of my leg, due to damage in the L4/L5 area. It's the sciatic nerve that's causing the pain in your case, some other nerve that's causing it in mine. I ruptured a disc in the L4/L5 two years ago and the front of my right leg is still numb - - but I still get the sensation of pain sometimes, other times it's more of a tingling - - and sometimes it feels as if someone is grabbing my knee and squeezing. Neurontin sometimes helps, I was on it for a bit but it had a paradoxical effect with me, kept me wired and gave me insomnia, with most people it makes ya sleepy.

Cheryl




Dogs enjoy petting in public

Funny when someone asks a question like this and I read the anwers. Like John (Dragonslayer) I always have sciatic pain. I think its a terminolgy thing because most folks with AS if not all probably have sciatic pain.

Classic AS, whatever that means, would involve sciatic pain since it generally starts in the hips and sacrum. If your butt hurts like you describe (mine always does) or your hips hurt or you have displaced and hard to describe transitional pain in your knees or calves then in all liklihood it is "sciatic pain".

Befor eI was originally diagnosed and "it was all in my head" at about 11 years old I would see Old Doc Strayer. He was 80 or so and the biggest chiro on Staten Island. Me and a room full of octogenarians all were told we had sciatica. Funny thing is he was right in my case. He also had the gift of getting me some relief from the pain that was of course all in my head. Actually back then it was all in my butt I wonder if the Doctors were trying to tell me something by saying rear end pain was in my head!!!???

 
stevec-they also serve who stand and wait

Patty,

My AS was found after I came down with foot drop. A condition where I lost control of my reflex in my left leg and foot. I also had shooting pain down my leg and into my foot.It was only after a MRI that I was diag.with AS plus a herniated disc in my lower back.The nero surgen said that two of my disc were almost completly gone. The sciatic pain that I had was worse when I sat.Here is some info. I found that may help you determine the source of your pain. Steve

Sciatic nerve

A herniated disc may compress one or more of the nerve roots that form the sciatic nerve. Pressure on one of these nerve roots will often produce distinctive symptoms of sciatica, such as pain, numbness, weakness, and tingling in the affected leg.

Although a herniated disc is the most common cause of sciatica, sciatica can also be a symptom of other problems, such as narrowing of the spinal canal (spinal stenosis), nerve root compression resulting from injury, and certain rare tumors.