Jill
Dear Kathy, I am sorry to hear you have this terrible pain. Hopefully you'll get other responses too, but I'll tell you what I found thru trial and error. Acupuncture didn't work, and she IS a good acupunturist. Chiropractic didn't help (and he is good too). Meds are definitely ineffective. The only relief I have found is through massage. Please bear with me as I attempt to describe this in text. Sciatica is not a diagnosis, but is a commonly used term applied to a number of disorders affecting this nerve. If your sciatica is not caused by a disease pathology or direct injury, but is caused by overuse or irritation (such as sitting for long periods) massage should be very effective for you. It requires very deep massage and should, of course, be done by an excellent and licensed therapist. Hopefully she/he will deeply massage the mid outer portion of the gluteus maximus (butt muscle) of the affected leg (R). Even therapist's hands are usually too weak to get deep enough into this large muscle. They use their elbows or special massage tools instead. This particular "therapeutic" massage will be mildly painful, this is what is needed to be effective. If it is just a "relaxing" massage it may feel good, but won't be therapeutic. If you'd like to check this out and have someone close enough to you to do it, have them press into this area, once they the correct spot you should immediately feel the point of origin of your pain. Just have them press hard enough until you feel it, not to the point of pain. Massage was totally effective for me after 2 treatments. I did it for my elderly mother who couldn't even walk from the pain and relieved her pain after just 3 treatments. I hope I haven't given you too much information, just trying to help. Best wishes in getting this under control quickly! Jill (by the way, my background is medical, not massage)