I took a bad spill down carpeted stairs earlier this week and landed on
my butt.  When I got up I was fine with no symptoms and forgot all
about it.  But after 3 days of no symptoms, I woke up in the morning
with a pain in my right buttocks close to the hip.  Now it has radiated
to my front thigh and my knees.  It really hurts when I stand or walk
but feels fine when I sit. If I try to lay down in bed, it hurts unless
I get into a fetal position. I also get muscle spasms in my front right
thigh and near my knee. I assume this came about because of the fall
since I have never had this before.  Does anyone know if this is my
sciatic nerve?  I browsed for info on the sciatic and it seems that the
sciatic goes down the back of the leg, but the back of my leg is
perfectly fine.

After 10 days of this disability and of using an aluminum
baseball bat as a cane, the information packet
arrived from the "Back Institute" of a local hospital.
Most of the illustrated back exercises showed the
subject lying flat on his/her back.  I did only one or
two exercises while flat on my back.  The relief
was immediate and cumulative. For 2 years I did these
back exercises 3 times per week. All the lumbar
vertebrae eventually moved freely and popped a bit
during the workouts.  There were no back pains during those
2 years as well as up to the present time. Thirty
minutes on my back twice weekly have blocked the return of
sciatica. My 2005 age is 63.
David H
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Most of the men that you see walking and limping with a cane
were too dumb or too lazy to build up their back musculature
after the first nerve pinch (sciatica).  Sounds to me like you are
going in their direction.  The reason for back exercise is not to
build muscle in your arms and legs but to enlarge the muscles
around you spine.  Right now there is a thick pad of muscle
across my lumbar vertebrae.  This very strong flat muscle
supports the lumbar disks no matter what position my back
is taking.  I do NOT exercise this muscle every day. The
optimum exercise rate is every other day, because the back
muscles need time to mend and replenish after the trauma of
stretching.

Your back has worked for you 49 years.  You owe it to your
back to build solid support muscles so that your spine  can carry you
painlessly to social Security retirement.

David H  ({*filter*} are irrelevant to the need for regular personal
exercise)
~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have been a member of a gym for the last 25 years and exercise
regularly, including my back muscles.  I have had minor aches but never
such intense pain as I am feeling now.

I finally went to an orthopedic doctor last night and had x-rays taken.
 He looked at the x-rays and found everything to be normal.  He then
had me lie down and moved my bad leg around in different positions
asking me to let him know when I felt pain.  When all was said and
done, he felt that the pain was coming from my hips and the pain in my
thigh and knees was referred pain.  He said it was probably
inflammation in the hip area from the fall.  He said he could prescribe
physical therapy or a pain killer. He felt that the injury just needed
more time to heal.  For now, I turned both down and will try stretching
and exercise.