I regret to say that I’ve been diagnosed with another ailment. For the past two weeks, I have had pains in my hip and thigh that led to occasional difficulty walking. I also have some numbness and weakness of the muscles in that leg that led to my knee giving out and my falling into a sitting position on two occasions (on the
13th and
15th, both times while socializing in community organizations).
Sunday night and Monday morning, the pain was at its worst, almost unbearable. It had largely subsided by ten o’clock so I walked to the
doctor’s office and was diagnosed with sciatica. My primary care physician’s associate told me how nerve pain is very persistent and how physical therapy doesn’t work for everyone and how they would talk to me about pain management if physical therapy didn’t work for me. Then I went home and looked at
Wikipedia—not the most reliable source, I acknowledge—which gave a
very different story: “Often all that is required is time and in about 90% of people the problem goes away in less than six weeks.”
Wednesday morning, I limped to the nearby
radiology building for a spinal x‐ray, but that night and Thursday morning, I was nearly pain‐free and was able to
socialize. I’ll be starting physical therapy next week, but I’m feeling pretty well as I write this; today, only a little pain has returned and it’s intermittent. I’ll keep folks informed should they be interested.
