This is why corticosteroidal injections like cortisone shots in the back to relieve back pain shouldn't be done more than 3 times in a human life span. Yet, how many athletes have had that procedure done just so they can keep playing?
One of the best Drs I ever met told me after my L5-S1 fusion didn't fully pan out the way it is as expected to (was still experiencing a fair amount of pain) that 3 corticosteroid shots is the max a human can have, due to the level of toxicity and nerve damage that can be caused. That was in 2003. Since then, I've had other Drs offer those injections to relieve the sciatic pain without ever asking "why" or "how" that pain is being caused and without ever discussing the risks of continued steroidal injection treatments. Took years for a proper orthopedic spine Dr to finally find the cause: an overgrowth of bone and scar tissue that grew around the left sciatic nerve causing an impingement. The only remedy is a oiding foods that cause joiny swelling, proper stretching, and weight training to help keep that area loose and somewhat limber.
Yeah, relying on those injections for pain relief is..not good if you're not also taking the steps to avoid the pain and fix the issue to begin with.
If the pain is so bad that you can't move, for example, it needs to be paired with treatment (possibly therapy as treatment too) so that during the effectiveness of the injection you can both minimize the problem and possibly fix it entirely by addressing the core issues.
There are a lot of people who will cower at any pain, and so avoid it -- without understanding that "no pain, no gain" isn't just some meaningless meme. You have to damage your muscles to build stronger ones, you have to endure pain and discomfort when you have tight hamstrings (another cause of sciatic pain, as it turns out and very common due to the sedentary lifestyles many of us live). It's about learning what pain is normal and acceptable and what pain means something is wrong, and if you shy away from the normal and acceptable pains then you'll never fully grasp when something is seriously wrong and/or cause that problem yourself.
It's one reason why I hate drugs. I hate even small scale pain killers like ibuprofen/tylenol. Ignoring the more recently talked about problems especially with the former, I have a high pain tolerance to begin with and it is already hard enough to decide when something is seriously wrong.
I almost didn't see a professional when I broke this bone that I'm recovering from, because I was able to clamp down on the pain for hours after it occurred -- but only when I felt the weird sensation of my once-single bone start moving separately did I decide "well fuck" and get the help I needed. If I had just taken OTC pain medications and dealt with it, I may have ended up in a far worse state and seriously disrupted my healing process.
Pain is important, because it helps you figure out if something needs to be addressed.
This is why corticosteroidal injections like cortisone shots in the back to relieve back pain shouldn't be done more than 3 times in a human life span. Yet, how many athletes have had that procedure done just so they can keep playing?
One of the best Drs I ever met told me after my L5-S1 fusion didn't fully pan out the way it is as expected to (was still experiencing a fair amount of pain) that 3 corticosteroid shots is the max a human can have, due to the level of toxicity and nerve damage that can be caused. That was in 2003. Since then, I've had other Drs offer those injections to relieve the sciatic pain without ever asking "why" or "how" that pain is being caused and without ever discussing the risks of continued steroidal injection treatments. Took years for a proper orthopedic spine Dr to finally find the cause: an overgrowth of bone and scar tissue that grew around the left sciatic nerve causing an impingement. The only remedy is a oiding foods that cause joiny swelling, proper stretching, and weight training to help keep that area loose and somewhat limber.
Yeah, relying on those injections for pain relief is..not good if you're not also taking the steps to avoid the pain and fix the issue to begin with.
If the pain is so bad that you can't move, for example, it needs to be paired with treatment (possibly therapy as treatment too) so that during the effectiveness of the injection you can both minimize the problem and possibly fix it entirely by addressing the core issues.
There are a lot of people who will cower at any pain, and so avoid it -- without understanding that "no pain, no gain" isn't just some meaningless meme. You have to damage your muscles to build stronger ones, you have to endure pain and discomfort when you have tight hamstrings (another cause of sciatic pain, as it turns out and very common due to the sedentary lifestyles many of us live). It's about learning what pain is normal and acceptable and what pain means something is wrong, and if you shy away from the normal and acceptable pains then you'll never fully grasp when something is seriously wrong and/or cause that problem yourself.
It's one reason why I hate drugs. I hate even small scale pain killers like ibuprofen/tylenol. Ignoring the more recently talked about problems especially with the former, I have a high pain tolerance to begin with and it is already hard enough to decide when something is seriously wrong.
I almost didn't see a professional when I broke this bone that I'm recovering from, because I was able to clamp down on the pain for hours after it occurred -- but only when I felt the weird sensation of my once-single bone start moving separately did I decide "well fuck" and get the help I needed. If I had just taken OTC pain medications and dealt with it, I may have ended up in a far worse state and seriously disrupted my healing process.
Pain is important, because it helps you figure out if something needs to be addressed.