What They Came In For: Sciatica

Susan came in with a limp and a grimace.

She’d been dealing with sharp, radiating pain down her right leg for weeks. It started as a dull ache in her low back — nothing she hadn’t dealt with before — but quickly evolved into something else entirely. A stabbing, electrical pain that shot down through her hip and into the back of her thigh. Sometimes it reached her calf. Sometimes it felt like her foot would go numb.

“I can’t sit for more than ten minutes without it lighting up,” she said. “And walking’s just… a negotiation with my body. Every step is a maybe.”

Susan was in her early 50s, worked part-time from home, and loved to garden. But lately, everything felt like a challenge. Standing at the kitchen counter to cook dinner made her leg throb. Sitting at her desk was impossible without a stack of cushions and a heating pad. She hadn’t touched her garden in over a month.

She’d seen her primary care doctor, who diagnosed it as sciatica — likely inflammation pressing on the sciatic nerve. They offered pain meds and referred her to physical therapy, but she wanted something more hands-on. Something that could address the pain now while also supporting her body’s healing over time.

She came to us out of desperation — but also hope.

Mapping the Pain

Susan’s pain was textbook in its presentation — but everyone’s version of sciatica is a little different. In her case, it followed the classic pathway from her low back into her glute and down the back of her thigh. But it was also unpredictable. Sometimes the pain was dull and dragging. Other times it was sharp and hot, especially when she moved from sitting to standing. At night, it ached deep in her hip and made it hard to sleep.

We used acupuncture to target the full length of the affected channel. Not just at the site of pain in the glutes, but upstream at the low back and downstream in the calf and foot — selecting points to release tight muscles, reduce inflammation, and encourage the body’s natural healing response around the affected tissues.

When we worked on her lower back directly, we needled not just where it hurt, but where we thought the problem originated. Sciatica often comes from compression or stagnation in the lower spine or gluteal area, and releasing those stuck layers makes a huge difference. Susan felt it right away.

“That spot — whatever you did there — that’s the one,” she said after the first treatment.

The Power of Consistency and Herbs

Sciatica doesn’t usually vanish overnight. The nerve needs time to calm down, inflammation needs to be addressed, and the muscular imbalances that contributed to the problem often need unwinding. But with regular treatment — and that’s the key — most people get real relief.

For Susan, we started with acupuncture twice a week for the first couple of weeks to get traction on the pain. It wasn’t just about reducing discomfort — it was about keeping momentum, helping the tissues recalibrate, and making sure every step forward stuck.

We also added in a custom herbal formula tailored to her specific presentation. Herbs to move blood, reduce inflammation, and support her constitution — especially her Liver and Kidney systems, which in Chinese medicine govern the sinews, bones, and the lower body. The herbs helped keep the pain from flaring between sessions and supported healing in the background, even on days she wasn’t in the clinic.

By the third week, Susan reported that she’d made it through a full afternoon in the garden — not pain-free, but mobile, present, and not paying for it afterward. By week five, she was back to walking her neighborhood loop in the morning. She still had some stiffness when she overdid it, but the electric shocks were gone.

Getting Her Life Back

Chronic pain has a way of shrinking your world. It steals simple pleasures. It makes your body feel like a trap.

When Susan first came in, she wasn’t just in pain — she was discouraged. She felt like her life had become a list of things she couldn’t do: walk, bend, sit, rest.

But after a few weeks of steady treatment, she started to recognize her body again. Not as a source of distress, but as something trustworthy. Capable. Responsive.

“I didn’t realize how much I was adjusting to the pain until it started to ease,” she told us. “Now I’m not adjusting — I’m just living.”

Acupuncture works best when it’s targeted, consistent, and supported with the right herbs and pacing. It doesn’t mask the pain — it helps the body untangle it. And in Susan’s case, it gave her back the rhythm of her days — and her garden, too.