Sciaticaaaahhh!

I'm 21 weeks this week. And this was the second week that I think I felt pain on my sciatic nerve.

This is also known as Sciatica.

"What is Sciatica?"

"Pregnancy-related sciatica, says Corrie Horshinski, D.C., a chiropractor who has been practicing in New York City for 23 years, occurs when a baby’s head presses against the mother’s sciatica nerves, which run down the spine and into the pelvis and upper leg area. It can occur at any point during a normal pregnancy, but it is most common during the second and third trimester, when the baby is larger and in a lower position in the abdomen." - From the Baby Zone website.

The pain reminds me of when I was 6 and used to roller skate (not roller blade) and when I used to fall hard on my butt. It's kind of a stinging lingering pain, which you think you can just walk off, except it doesn't go away so fast. In this case, it is crippling. I could barely walk. It all started with my new Tommy Hilfiger sandals... I was looking for a nice pair of sandals I could wear to work to replace my grungy and very worn (alas, VERY comfortable) black strappy sandals. I really liked this Tommy Hilfiger (pullmyfinger) pair, very low and supportive, looked like a good pregnancy sandal to last me a few months. And being the anxious gotta-have-it-now person that I am, I walked out the store with them on, proud to be round and at the height of fashion. An hour later I was almost dragging myself along the floor in pain. I couldn't understand it! They were supposed to be SUPPORTIVE!! So Adal got the car, I threw myself in it, kicked off the sandals, and almost cried like a little kid who just fell on her arse roller skating. The ride home must've lasted about 5 hours, it MUST'VE, it sure felt that way. I was worried. There's no way this pain can be normal, NO WAY. So I checked and Adal cross-referenced all three of our authoritative "How to be pregnant" manuals and the "What you didn't know to expect". I recalled a term I had heard and had crossed my fingers would not affect me: Sciatic pain. Sure enough, the description seemed to fit. So then I desperately looked for cures, like hopping on one foot while touching your right hand to your left ear, or tea of grasshopper droppings, or acupuncture in the little toe. Their fabulous suggestions were to go float in a pool to take the weight off the nerve, and regular chiropractor visits. ??? What? Oh, and pelvic thrusts while on all fours. Okay, at least I can do pelvic thrusts. And it did help. The trick to get rid or lessen the pain was to take the weight off the back. But I felt like I had gone to war. I was even achy with the "after-pain", sore like I had run a mile.

I know you want to know what I did with the Tommy Pullmyfinger sandals. I cleaned them very well and returned them for a refund. Yes. I found some Aerosoles that were really comfy and had a design like a Reef sandal (I can climb Mt. Everest in those!). And I also found out it WASN'T the shoes that brought on the pain.

This last weekend I went walking the stores again in the most comfortable shoes I could find. I thought, oh, no way I'm going through THAT again. I'm SMART this time. No Sciatica for me THIS weekend, oh no, I took all the preventive steps. I LAUGH in the face of the pain...

Hah. I barely got to Old Navy and I almost just dropped into a ball on the floor and DIED. Thing is, I could recognize it, I KNEW what was coming. Granted, we had been walking the stores for two hours, but I had comfy shoes! I was PREPARED! And it still got me. Goes to show you I'm not that smart. So I made Adal go get the car, and I was doing pelvic thrusts in the passenger seat. Luckily, I knew what it was when I started getting the pain, so I quit pushing myself before I made it worse. Now I'm worried. Do I have to go through 5 more months of this???

Please, oh, please tell me the joys of parenthood make all this look like piddly stuff...