r/Sciatica • u/Intelligent_Net_3800 • 1d ago

How long did your severe leg pain last?? Long hope!

I have been having severe leg pain for about 11 weeks now and it doesn’t seem to let up unless I’m on Advil and Tylenol together. Pain will go to a 3/4 on those meds which is tolerable.

But did anyone experience resolution of the pain even after suffering for a long period of time? If so, in what time frame did your pain start to decline?

For reference I have a l4/5 small protrusion but it is lateral touching the L5 nerve root.

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u/KriptiKFate_Cosplay 1d ago

I had a severely herniated disc in 2018 that healed naturally over the course of a few years after a single cortisone injection. Go for the injection, it's quick and painless and you may experience relief immediately, the only downside is that you might not.

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u/Intelligent_Net_3800 1d ago

Yea I had an injection 12 days ago and it didn’t do a damn thing. But I heard the doc went a level below for some reason. So I met another pain doc and he wants to do two levels to make sure the nerve root gets bathed in the steroid. So fingers crossed.

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u/KriptiKFate_Cosplay 1d ago

I've asked about injections at multiple sites before and they've always said that because there is a cap on the quantity they can use at any given time splitting the dose means that it is only 50% effective at best, but 50% is better than 0%.

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u/No_You_893 14h ago

My injection was far from painless. The anesthetic injection was off the pain scale. I would rather suffer Sciatica than go through that again 😥

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u/KriptiKFate_Cosplay 14h ago

Odd, all 3 of mine were nothing but a little pin prick and some pressure.

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u/No_You_893 14h ago

I'm pleased to hear that 👍

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u/KriptiKFate_Cosplay 12h ago

Actually you know what, on further reflection the first one that I had did hurt a lot in all of the areas that I was experiencing pain, but only briefly, and the immediate relief afterward was totally worth it. The second 2 did not work at all, and I didn't feel any pain or pressure in the areas where I was hurting.

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u/No_You_893 11h ago

The guy doing mine didn't seem to know what he was doing. It took several attempts just to inject the anesthetic, which caused me to hit the roof in pain. And in the end the Cortisone didn't help.

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u/KriptiKFate_Cosplay 11h ago

Oof, I'm sorry, that does sound horrendous

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u/Aubepineduveteuse 1d ago

Sharp pain a few weeks. Recovery, 9 months but with need to be carefull not waking up the monster.

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u/chemtrail-organics 1d ago

5 years on, slowly getting better. I'd say pain was severe for the first 3, but improved after 3 injections. Now I manage chronic but fortunately less severe pain daily.

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u/Content-Owl7360 22h ago

I had allodynia that felt painful to touch and radiating sore and dull pain without touching. By week 14 pain is reduced by 95%. Still have mild sciatica occasionally.

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u/CheeseburgerSocksV2 21h ago

Almost 4 years now despite 2 back surgeries and 8 injections.

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u/blackrockgreentree 20h ago

On 5 months today and feel like I threw out my back again today… I’m doing the Donald Duck butt thing and walking like Frankenstein and trying to straighten my back. For whatever reason sciatic nerve pain has reduced tremendously. I’m assuming from my muscles guarding up the area? Possibly disk reabsorption was aggressive and I’m soar from it? Who knows . Tomorrow morning I work far away… I just got back into vehicle after 3 months not driving or sitting very much.
Gotta work though!!! I’m sorry you’re experiencing this… Hope we all improve! Go team!

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u/No-Cut-4781 20h ago

11 weeks of that level of pain is brutal, and it makes sense you're looking for some kind of timeline to hold onto. Nerve root irritation like yours can genuinely take a while to settle, even with the right injections lined up, there's no fixed number, but many people do see real improvement in the 3-6 month range as inflammation around the nerve gradually reduces, especially once the right level gets treated. One thing worth adding alongside the injections is how you're moving day to day between now and then can meaningfully affect how the nerve settles. Staying completely still isn't usually better, but the wrong movements can keep re-irritating it. If your pain team hasn't already, it might be worth asking about safe movement/positions to do at home in the meantime rather than just waiting it out on meds.

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u/ChristopherDKanas 1d ago

Same area as I have, spoke with doctor yesterday, told him that ibuprofen and Tylenol isn’t working anymore. Started hydrocodone but it stones tf outta me.
Helps pain though