I have Sciatica, Now What?
How long is this going to take for my sciatica to go away?
How long is this going to take for my sciatica to go away?
Honestly, this depends on a variety of different factors, many of which are controllable by you.
In general, it will often take four to eight weeks to go through a normal progression of decreasing pain levels and improvement in movement. It may or may not take another month, or several months, to fully regain all of the activities that you want to do and were performing before developing sciatica.
Here are a few variables that can affect the healing process:
- Overall Health
- Nutrition
- Sleep
- Stress Levels
- Physical Activity
- Awareness
- Optimism
Each of these different areas contains things in which we are in control of (some more than others) and provide us with opportunities to make small improvements that can go a long way.
How long before I see improvements in my sciatica from physical therapy?
This is always a challenging question because there is definitely some variability to the answer but often times, people will start to see improvements within the first few visits. If you do not make improvements in the first two weeks, we will refer you to a specialist.
A majority of people are able to return to the activites they love doing without any discomfort or pain. Though this is not the case for everyone, the goal is to provide you with education, strategies and exercises in which reduce the likelihood of sciatica returning ever again. Through the education, strategies and exercises, you have new information and a new routine which allows you to be more in control of the situation.