Here’s an interesting Sciatica picture I found today while looking at nerve pictures.
I was looking at the stats on this St. George Chiropractor website, and I saw that someone was searching for nerves coming out of the spine. I thought that was a curious thing to search for, so I did the same search, and I found this cool picture.
This picture shows the referred pain patterns that you feel when you have in irritated, inflamed nerve root. This is the part of the nerve that leaves the spine in between the holes between the vertebrae. Even though the S1 nerve root doesn’t exit the spine at any disc level, a disc herniation in the middle part of L5 can affect the nerve traveling down to the next level. If a nerve is pinched, it will cause numbness and tingling where the nerve ends up. But, if a nerve is irritated, it will cause referred pain along the course of the nerve in patterns along the leg.
These are problems that can be managed conservatively, with chiropractic care, but they are disabling and severe, so more care than usual is needed. If you have this problem, you should not delay treatment any longer, and you should find a chiropractor who can demonstrate ongoing progress with treatment. Usually, with effective care, the pain will centralize. The pain starts out at the distant parts of the leg, and gradually concentrates in the middle of the back. Even though the pain is still there, it’s getting better, and you are probably gaining more function.
Does this pain pattern describe what you are feeling? Give our office a call to set up a free consultation. We would be happy to discuss your treatment options with you.
Todd Lloyd, DC
St. George Chiropractor