In May 2021 I started to get neck pain shortly followed by pains in my left leg. I thought nothing of it, other than im getting old. I’ve been making those involuntarily noises an old man makes when he stands up for years now, the pains were just a matter of time.

I am a big ‘Googler’ so I started my online research and it turned out it could be anything from a tight muscle in my ass to full blown testicular cancer. Despite this news, like all men, going to the doctors was definitely a last resort so instead I decided to join my family on a short holiday around the North Island (of New Zealand). Day one and the pain was so bad that I booked myself into a physiotherapist in Taupo town centre who, for a mere $130, would squeeze her thumb into my butt cheek so hard that blood came out my eyes (ok they were actually tears but it felt like blood at the time.) She wrote on a piece of paper the name of an obscure muscle in the top of the leg that was most likely the cause of all the pain. I thanked her and left to go and scream at my two kids, having lost all self control due to debilitating pain.

Months later I was back at work and the pain was going nowhere. The weird thing now was that it hurt when I was sitting down, as well and standing up. Bending over was impossible and most of the time I felt like I needed to urinate. My short lived mid life crisis, as a skateboarder, had come to an end as it seems going sideways with your head permanently turned made the pain ten times worse. It was also now clear that anything over 15kg sent an electric pain bolt straight down my left leg and culminated into a fizzing bomb in my foot.

Having ruled our massage and physiotherapy I thought I would give an osteopath an opportunity to make me whole again. The first osteopath seemed quite normal and was quite adept at making my bones crack, he seemed desperate to get a free Christmas ham from me but fundamentally made no difference to my pain.

By September I had resorted to taking a pain killer that had been given to me for a short bout of rheumatoid arthritis in my right big toe (no it wasn’t gout) about a year ago. These Diclofenac tablets worked well to lessen the pain but were also very good at making my blood pressure go through the roof (oh didn’t I mention my high blood pressure.) I was getting desperate and willing to try anything, after a bit more google research I was on my way to perhaps the most odd experience of my life, Bowen Therapy. As I lay there in a dark room the ‘therapist’ past her hands over my back and head, every 5 mins or so she would actually touch me, the rest of the time she relied on, what I can only imagine was, magic to fix me. It didn’t work and I didn’t go again.

It had been six months of pain, experimental treatment and incorrect medication. I had come to the end of the road, the pain was getting worse and the only comfortable position was on my back. There was only one thing for it….I went to the doctors.

The doctor recognised the issue straight away and for the first time the term sciatica was used. She suggested although the pain was in my leg the issue was in my back. Anti inflammatory drugs, Naproxen, were prescribed and she suggested I went to see a physio to work on core strength.