Over the weekend of June 3 and 4 I began to experience a painful sensation in my right hip and down my right leg. Finally in the wee hours of Sunday evening I had to message work to say I didn’t know if I would be able to be in the office on Monday, as I could not find a pain-free way to lie down and thus could not sleep. As I recall I was up until about 3 AM when Advil and exhaustion finally got me some rest.
A little googling reveals that I have sciatica! Never had it before. I learned that 90% of sciatica is caused by a herniated disc. My herniated disc adventures began around 1994 when I severely injured my back doing the most mundane thing: picking my young son up from the floor. And I’ve never been the same since. (Fun fact: a local chiropractor examined me once for about 9 seconds before pronouncing that I didn’t have a herniated disc. Idiot. I’m still bitter.)
But I think the proximate cause of my first bout of sciatica is Main Street. Or rather the construction zone I must traverse twice daily on it. It’s not only full of dangerous machinery, deep holes and a wide variety of things to trip over, but it is also rife with uneven surfaces that have me stumbling and sliding the whole way down the street.
Anyway. The internet authorities seem to think that it goes away by itself after around six weeks. Which means I’ve got at least another couple of weeks to go!