Sciatic pain?

[Doug]

Hi Steve.

I have suffered lower back pain on and off for several years now. Diagnoses vary depending on wether I talk to a Doctor Physio or Osteo, from bulging disk, ligament strain, muscle tear.

For the last year I have been seeing an Osteopath who works at balancing the whole body, with pretty good results.

Late last year I had quite a bad episode. I started on your self treatment programme and along with my Osteo treatment achieved incredible results, getting me up and moving freely in a couple of weeks instead of the usual 2 months.

However 3 weeks ago I developed a pain in my left groin/top of the left hamstring/and more lightly in the left buttock. I have no pain in my back in fact pretty much a full range of motion.

The groin pain has developed to the point where I can't stand straight and it is extremely painful to walk. After 6 visits to the Osteo in the last 3 weeks I have seen no improvement. Infact the treatment only seems to agravate the problem. I have also been trying the self massage with a ball on my erector muscles, buttocks, and hamstrings but this only causes more pain. The only relief I get is from taking Voltaren, not a long term option.

Do I need to let it settle down on it's own before I can treat it?

What can you suggest?

Thanks for your help.
Doug.

[Steve Lockhart]

Hi Doug, this is usually caused by nerve pressure in the lower back so the double ball compression technique very slowly getting the lower back to hyper extend for a few minutes as you go past should do the trick. Keep doing the other balancing work but make that technique to one to target the cause.

Regards
Steve