About Ellen
I'm Ellen Marsh. I'm 53, I live outside Denver, and for twenty years I ran payroll for a mid-sized company. That meant a desk, a chair and, in the busy months, ten-hour days without getting up much.
In the spring of 2024 I bent down to lift a box of files and felt something give in my lower back. Two days later a deep ache started in my left buttock and ran all the way to my ankle. An MRI showed a herniated disc at L5-S1 pressing on the nerve root.
What it's been like
The first flare lasted ten weeks. The second came the following winter. The third hit on a long drive to see my sister in Kansas. In between I tried what most people try: ibuprofen until my stomach complained, physical therapy (which helped), gabapentin (which made me foggy, so my doctor and I tapered it), and one epidural injection that bought me about six weeks.
What changed things wasn't one treatment. It was writing everything down: one line a night, pain from 0 to 10, what I did, what I took. After a few months I could see my own patterns, and I started reading the studies behind every bottle and every piece of advice.
Why this site exists
When I searched at 2 a.m., I found two kinds of pages. Big medical sites that told me sciatica "usually goes away in a few weeks," and sales pages that promised it would vanish overnight. Nobody was talking to the person whose sciatica didn't read the brochure.
This site is my notebook, cleaned up for that person.
What I am, and what I'm not
I'm not a doctor, a physical therapist or a pharmacist. I'm someone who lives with sciatica and checks sources for a living. Nothing here is medical advice.
Every study I mention is linked so you can read it. I grade what I find plainly, and I tell you when the evidence is thin.
How the site pays for itself
A few pages link to a supplement I've reviewed. If you buy through those links, the site may earn a commission and your price doesn't change. It never changes the grades. The full disclosure is here.
You can write to me through the contact page.