Once I found a doctor that could correctly diagnose that pain in my butt and leg [...]]]> Vioxx – a COX-2 selective nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID).  Vioxx
is also related to the nonselective NSAIDs , such as ibuprofen and
naproxen. Vioxx is a prescription medicine
used to relieve signs and symptoms of arthritis, acute pain in adults, and
painful menstrual cycles.

Once I found a doctor that could correctly diagnose that pain in my butt and leg (i.e. “you have sciatica”), he promptly suggested two things I could do:

• Physical Therapy – I’ve already done that and it didn’t work. Plus, I was traveling a lot for work so I couldn’t stick with it. In retrospect I wish I would have tried the physical therapist he recommended.
• Painkillers, in this case Vioxx – ooooh, so you want to quickly relieve my pain without me having to work for it? Where do I sign up?

So yes, after trying doctors, 12 ibuprofen per day, and physical therapy to fix my sciatica pain, I was ready for something to finally work. So when he told me Vioxx, a new drug that had a knack for reducing pain in arthiritis patients, could help me too, I was an easy sell.

That’s how I got started on Vioxx. I started taking it in the summer of 2001. Like some of the other bandaids I had tried, this one worked when I first tried it. I was back to playing tennis, ultimate, and running.

“I love you Vioxx,” I probably screamed out on more than one occasion. After several refills and about 5 months of taking it, I noticed that it helped with the pain, but it wasn’t really doing much else for me. The sciatic nerve pain kept coming back.

I read the warnings on the side of the pill container – take with food, don’t lay down after taking, don’t forget your Mom’s birthday, don’t take this drug. Hmm, although I appreciated the suggestive birthday reminders, I decided that I would probably be much safer just taking ibuprofen. At least I’d get to keep my stomach lining, wohoo!

So I kicked the Vioxx habit and went back to the good ole’ trusted source for killing my sciatic nerve pain, Ibuprofen (aka IB, advil, motrin, etc.).

Boy, am I ever glad I decided to stop taking Vioxx, because 3 years later, in 2004, the FDA came out with the news that patients who took Vioxx long term had a higher risk of heart attacks and cardiovascular disease. It was one of those famous sayings, “Great, so I numbed my sciatica pain, but now I’m going to get a heart attack?” Soon after Merck voluntarily recalled Vioxx from all store shelves. Soon after there were multi-billion dollar lawsuits against Vioxx. And the rest is history.

I learned a couple valuable lessons from this experience:

Now yes, taking Ibuprofen from time to time won’t hurt you, and can help reduce sciatica irritation, but it’s a bandaid, it’s not a long-term solution.

I know we all want the “get rich quick scheme,” or in this case, the “get pain-free quick scheme,” but like all other “schemes,” they don’t last. Like the rest of life, the only way to hit the jackpot, is to work for it. In this case, that means breaking a sweat using our 10-Minute Sciatica Relief Program.

And that is the rest of the story…

- Bryan

Founder of the Back in Action Institute and 10-Minute Sciatica Relief Program