38 is too young to be walking with a cane!

Like many women, I experienced sciatica pain when I was pregnant with my second child. As the baby grew in my belly so did the pressure on my sciatica nerve causing severe pain to radiate down my leg knocking me off my feet quite literally. The pain is excruciating but, thankfully for most ladies who experience it, goes away once that beautiful baby is pushed out. Unfortunately that wasn't the case for me.

For nine years I've battled with this terrible pain off and on. It would come and go and I never really knew when to expect it. I could be walking around thinking nothing of it and boom down I'd go as the pain made an appearance out of nowhere with no forewarning at all. It would take me weeks to recover each time. I tried various treatments and was always looking for that miracle cure that I thought must exist. Only no such cure presented itself and the pain continued to play a huge role in my life. And then three years ago I got pregnant again and I was so scared of what was about to come.

Labour pain I can handle, sciatica pain not so much. It literally paralyzed me and there were days I couldn't get out of bed. I was always bracing for the next round of pain and eventually it led to walking with a cane to keep me from falling on my face. Weekly butt massages, by a registered massage therapist, were pretty much the only thing that brought me any comfort.

Once again the sciatica didn't go away after my third sweet little bundle of joy arrived.

I would get months of relief only to have it come back. This year, after a particularly bad spell in April, I decided I needed to get serious about this chronic pain because 38 was just too young to be walking with a cane!

Enough was enough already.

I knew the times I'd experienced relief in the past were due to the power walking I did a couple of times a week and I thought that was enough. Only it wasn't. It wasn't until I amped up the exercise to daily that real relief came. In addition to walking and stretching (watch the latest Juice video for lots of great tips), I've also added in a home exercise DVD that I do each morning (I'll share more about that on Thursday). Have I mentioned how much I hate exercising? I'm still waiting for that moment when I grow to love it. Do you think that will ever happen?

The bottom line is that the pain of exercise certainly beats the pain in my butt and at least with the exercise, I'm in control, and for this control freak that feels pretty darn good right about now.

For more information, Stephanie over at Keeper of the Home also suffers terribly with sciatica when she is pregnant and her post of earlier this year lists some great methods for relief, pregnant or not.

Have you ever had to deal with sciatica pain? What have you found has been the most helpful in your recovery?