SteveBarnsleytrucker:
I hope ain’t trueI’ve read that if it persists for other a week then you may have to have a steroid injection in the nerve or as a last resort surgery.
Has anyone on here suffered from Sciatica if so how long did you have it for, is it true what the doctor said to her about once having it you’ll have it regular, have you had the injection or even operations and has it affected doing your job in anyway? I’m ■■■■■■ off with having time off as in 8 and half year the only time I’ve had off was 6 month with my eyes and I do hope that in the future it isn’t going to affect me doing my job.
I had to have surgery on two discs at the age of 21 because of it. I did it lifting a car body onto stands when I was removing the running gear out of a classic car I was restoring. Didn’t realise at the time, got the odd twinge, got worse and every time I stepped off a kerb it felt like I’d twisted my leg. It got to the point I couldn’t move, even turning over in bed, and by the time I finally got round to going to the doctor and seeing the specialist 2 years later I was 6 months off being in a wheelchair. I was given a 50/50 chance of success or waking up a paraplegic but the pain was that bad I didn’t care. The op worked but I had it on and off after but only to a low extent. In 2001 I did the disc above those two. Eventually stopped working when it got to the point I couldn’t walk from the truck to the goods in office at a drop at Leyland and had to take a year out of work. It got better and I went back but its always been there and I had to work agency because I couldn’t guarantee from one week to the next if I was fit. Stopped taking pain killers a decade ago because they didn’t work. I was on the strongest possible which still left you functional and they didn’t even touch it but the side effects were quite bad. In 2008 bang it went again. Back to the specialist who said it was inoperable because of the previous surgery. 5 years before I got back in a truck and it affects me now. I’m still doing agency and I do no longer than two days in a row because if I do a full week I suffer like hell so I do Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri. I suffer all the time now but after 4 days in a row it gets quite bad. I can only work at Howdens on nights doing trunk runs with trailer swaps. I can’t strap a load down. I had to stop doing pallet network jobs with double deckers because riving the curtains back knackered my back up and with the new XL load bearing ones I’ve got no hope.
Once you’ve had it you’ll have it regularly even with the op but the op will reduce that almost all of the time down to maybe a few episodes a year unless you’re stupid like I was. If you continue truck driving it will affect your ability to do the job and as happened with me, may cause more damage. If you do choose to continue truck driving it needs to be in a very limited capacity where basically you don’t touch the load and spend the majority of the driving on motorways and major A roads. Pulling pallets and cages out will knacker your back. Sheeting loads will knacker your back. Heaving open doors on fridge trailers and containers will knacker your back. Jumping on and off trailers will knacker your back. Driving down bumpy roads with the drivers seat going up and down will knacker your back. Off road driving such as quarries will knacker your back. If you’re really bad, even strapping down loads will knacker your back. Driving Scanias for me is out. Renault Premiums and the new MAN are problematic but I can cope. Ivecos and the new DAF CFs we have seem to be OK. Its literally got that bad.
This is going to affect your life and all of it. Its going to affect the bed you sleep in. In my case it affects the car, settees and chairs I can buy and use. Scatterback cushion jobs are out - its firm backed ones with decent lumbar support. Even the chairs at the doctors surgery cause me grief.
Personally I’d start considering options other than truck driving. Sitting for long periods is one of the worst things for it. If you can stand the pain you will find that moving around alleviates it a lot more than being sat on your sofa. Although I’m not condoning it I can confirm that cannabis will completely alleviate the pain for 4 or 5 hours, far better than any pain killers you get on prescription - fully understand why people call for legalisation of medical cannabis.