Maybe it's me...

I hear that Bristol Palin is no longer going to be a spokesperson for abstinence at a college event.

If someone has reached college, and doesn't know that one has a choice not to engage in sexual activity, and doesn't know that babies and STDs can result from certain sex acts, then something has gone horribly wrong. And, the strategy of trying to fix that horrible wrongness by having an event featuring a person famous for failing to abstain strikes me as "not right... it's not even *wrong*".

Anyone know about sciatic pain?

So... it's been a month. Christmas eve, I went for a couple of relatively long walks, and later, my "hip" started hurting. Well, it's my sciatic. When I get up, or when my leg is in just the right position, it might cramp and make me unwilling to put weight on it (and if I do, it tends to cramp worse). It's become a constant factor in my life.

I chide myself for using dramatic language, but I've been in agony. Not all the time, but I realized any time one is in pain, and ready to hit things and cuss the air blue, and not really able to focus (except, possibly, in an emergency) on anything but the pain, it's accurate to say "in agony".

Sometimes I'm going without pain for hours - except there's always this background ache. And the fear has become a bit of a constant background. I don't know if getting up is going to be agony or not. I really want to get in my car and drive to a new See's candy that's open to get some dark-chocolate covered ginger, and an assortment of other candies, but part of me just doesn't want to, because I know getting out might be agonizing.

And I'm getting a bit scared.

Does anyone know what will help? I'm doing physical therapy, but I skipped this week because, honestly, I hurt so much, so often, that I just don't want to exercise. And while it's nicely relaxing to lay down and let them put their TENS unit and cold on, it doesn't help. (The TENS is distracting when it's buzzing but it doesn't help. Then again, for some reason, they put it in the small of my back. Maybe next time, if they put it where the pain is, it'll help. I dunno.)

Physical therapy might help, and it might be part of a long term solution, but mostly I want to know what will stop the pain, or put it in the background a bit.

Will NSAIDs help, or are they worthless when the sciatic is kicking up a storm?

Are there any muscle relaxants that won't make my brain swim through molasses? Or, will staying on muscle relaxants for a period of time *cure* the damn thing, so I should just take sick time and let my brain rot for a week?

Will narcotic pain killers help? I've started taking my Vicodin prescription, but I'm taking it because I know you can't take one pill, have it not help, and decide it doesn't help... but it's not helping yet. I don't like opiates (because their side effects are exceptionally bad for me), but *if* they help, I need help. The pain has gotten that bad. But, I know that some kinds of pain just aren't helped by opiates.

Is there something else that might help? Any other medication that might help, internal external, whatever? I'm okay with alternative therapies as well (except homeopathy - I can distill my own water, thanks), but I'd rather work with therapies I've heard work.

And... does anyone know if I'm getting to the point that I have to start accepting that maybe I'll have to live with this? It's been 5 weeks so far. Maybe that's perfectly normal, and lots of people have pain for five weeks, and then, a year later, are 100% pain free and healthy and active again. Does anyone know a bit about prognoses?