Dealing With Sciatic Leg Pain During Long Days.

This new bout of truck driving I’ve been having a few issues. Overall doing so much better with trip planning, motivation, and making smarter moves. Physically I am in better shape than when I used to drive. However with my herniated disc’s and sciatic pain, I feel almost in agony if I do a full 11 hour driving shift. The worst pain will be my right thigh, especially if I have to keep getting off cruise control.

I have a compression sleeve that makes it bearable; but I just wonder if something else can be done to help besides taking breaks more often. I don’t keep my wallet in back pocket. I adjust my seat height throughout the day. Next in the list to try is one of those purple seat cushions.

I don’t want to be held back from my potential in this industry by not being able to drive as long. If this is an issue anyone else has had experience with, please share.

When I do take breaks, I make sure to walk around allot. Stretch my legs. My left leg does pretty well, I think because I am able to stretch it all the way out. Can’t do that with my right leg, it always has to stay somewhat bent.

Harvest, I too deal with leg issues. Sometimes my right hip aches during a long shift. I don’t know if what I do would help you, but it’s cheap to try.

I took a medium sized bath towel and folded it to be approximately 8” long, 6” wide and 5” high. Then I wrapped it all with duct tape. I keep it next to my seat and use it when I feel pain to elevate my leg. I made two of these and use them mainly when I’m on cruise control. They have also helped me greatly with swelling in my lower legs.

CAUTION! Make these tall enough that they can’t slide under the brake pedal.

Sometimes Chiropractors can help you with that sciatic nerve pain. Have you tried that?

A friend of mine is a pain management doctor at Stanford and suggested I look into these exercises for a pain I've been dealing with. Not sure it will help with yours if yours is originating in the spine, so take it for what it's worth.

Piriformis Syndrome

I had a 4 inch memory foam pad, I cut it to fit our seat bases, and the rest to fit on top of our lower bunk mattress, with my last co driver at CRST. The foam pads helped out good, both for the seats, and the beds comfort.

I too had sometimes swelling in my right lower leg from my prior knee surgery in 2012, then my shin break in 2014, same leg. Funny 11 years later kinda still suffer some weird pains from back then, I just live with it.

Here in Pina's, it's better now than at home. My first 2 weeks back here in Asia, my foot was swollen some, to where I couldn't get my Skechers on. I think those purple silicone seat cushions are a $40-50 rip off actually, who knows, I wasn't coughing up the dough for 1 lol

I’d suggest consulting with a chiropractor who specializes in neuropathy and appropriate treatment. A 30 minute consult can determine appropriate regimen and give you the best chance at actually fixing what’s wrong. I recently had to deal with this due to military injuries to my back from 30 years ago that decided to flare back up. Now I’m back exercising and able to walk or jog a couple miles with no pain whatsoever. My pain was so bad at one point that I could hardly walk across a parking lot to take a shower.

My chiropractor is the only thing I consistently miss by being on the road.

I never knew how bad I felt, until I no longer felt bad. A concussion sent me to his office, and I'm super thankful that I didn't just blow the appointments off.

There was a time in my life where I was always popping Tylenol and Advil like it was going out of style. The joke was, that my office was the first aid station, because I was so "well prepared" with OTC pain relief.

I make it a habit to stretch every time I get out of the truck, even if it's only 60 seconds. It's better than nothing. While fueling, after cleaning windshield and walk around, I spend the rest of the wait time making sure my lower back is mobile. I can rotate one hip, and the L-spine does a gentle slide pop, do the snake roll and pop the T-spine all the way up, and bring my elbows around to my back, like I'm trying to touch them together, roll my head while standing like that, and my c-spine slides and pops as well. Before chiro, everything was "stuck" and nothing ever moved appropriatly, which resulted in serious muscle tension that I just never thought much of. It doesn't help that my gait is screwy if I don't actively pay attention, from ankle reconstruction.

Let this be a lesson everyone! Get it checked out! Don't tough it out!

This new bout of truck driving I’ve been having a few issues. Overall doing so much better with trip planning, motivation, and making smarter moves. Physically I am in better shape than when I used to drive. However with my herniated disc’s and sciatic pain, I feel almost in agony if I do a full 11 hour driving shift. The worst pain will be my right thigh, especially if I have to keep getting off cruise control.

I have a compression sleeve that makes it bearable; but I just wonder if something else can be done to help besides taking breaks more often. I don’t keep my wallet in back pocket. I adjust my seat height throughout the day. Next in the list to try is one of those purple seat cushions.

I don’t want to be held back from my potential in this industry by not being able to drive as long. If this is an issue anyone else has had experience with, please share.

When I do take breaks, I make sure to walk around allot. Stretch my legs. My left leg does pretty well, I think because I am able to stretch it all the way out. Can’t do that with my right leg, it always has to stay somewhat bent.

I use a purple seat cushion and it works great. Back in 2017 I had a back injury that led to a pinched nerve. Once in a while I have that sciatic nerve flare up. Stretching helps quite a bit, and it's most effective to do it before you start having an issue. Think of it like preventive maintenance. A trim waist line is helpful. More inches on the midsection puts more strain on the lower back. A heating pad on the area while sleeping can help keep it loose, which helps stretching to be more effective. The best stretch is bending over to touch your toes. Walking can be helpful, but you want to make sure it's on level ground because any little misstep can cause acute trauma to that joint where the sciatic nerve is located. The last thing I will mention is to be extra diligent in using the three points of contact in and out of the truck. I wasn't thinking about it one day and came down to quickly. I jarred my back in the process. Thankfully it was just sore for a couple of days versus my back fully blown out.

Google stretches for sciatica.

It helps. It also hurts like hell. But they do help.