Note: Patient name changed to protect privacy.

Mack was 78 when he first came to see us, and he had a lot of life left he wanted to live. He and his wife wanted to travel. He wanted back on the pickleball court with his friends. He wanted to hike with his children and grandchildren  and get back to the home and garden projects that he’d handled until the pain got too bad.  Mack’s low back pain and sciatica, which presented as a searing pain that ran down the back of his left leg, had forced him to put his hobbies and chores on indefinite hold.

What Was Going On

Mack had already been diagnosed with spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the spinal canal that puts pressure on the nerves running through it. It’s most often caused by inflammation from osteoarthritis in the spine and surrounding tissues.

Mack is in good company, according to a 2022 study published by JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association), spinal stenosis affects about 11% of the US population and is responsible for approximately 600,000 spinal surgeries per year in the US. 

His pain followed a pattern we see often: a steady 8 out of 10 first thing in the morning and again at night, easing to a 5 out of 10 by midday. That midday window was his best chance to get chores and errands done before the pain caught up with him again. But those windows were often cut short by sciatica, an intense, sharp pain running down the back of his left leg to his foot. It could be triggered by driving, twisting, bending over, carrying anything heavier than about 5 pounds, or sitting in a hard chair. Bedtime offered little relief. The pain forced him to shift positions all night, constantly interrupting his sleep.

What He’d Already Tried

By the time Mack found us, he’d tried quite a bit. He’d had three cortisone injections, and they told a familiar story. The first brought him a few weeks of relief. The second, only a week. The third didn’t help at all. It’s a diminishing-returns pattern we see often with repeated corticosteroid injections. These injections also come with risks. Short-term, they can cause temporary worsening of pain, flushing, insomnia, and elevated blood sugar. Longer term, there’s evidence that repeated use can accelerate bone loss — part of why most physicians limit patients to three to six injections per year. Physical therapy, tried next, seemed to aggravate his pain more than ease it. He used Tylenol sparingly, wary of what regular use could do to his liver. He was starting to consider surgery when his orthopedist, wanting him to try something less invasive first, referred him to us.

Our Approach

At Mack’s consultation, we determined he was an excellent candidate for our two-pronged approach: electroacupuncture paired with ATP Resonance BioTherapy®. Together, they calm the inflamed tissue pressing on the sciatic nerve, relax the chronic muscle tightness restricting blood and lymph flow through the area, speed cellular healing, and trigger the body’s own production of endogenous opioids — the pain-relieving chemicals we make naturally.

We told Mack to expect roughly 20 treatments before lasting relief, and he came in twice a week accordingly. He had brief stretches of relief early on that didn’t hold, which we’d already prepared him for — healing from a condition this long-standing rarely moves in a straight line. We often compare it to getting into shape: nobody gets fit after a handful of workouts. The body needs consistent repetition to build lasting change.

A systematic research review pooling 12 clinical trials and 1,842 patients found that sciatica patients treated with acupuncture were significantly more likely to see meaningful improvement than those treated with conventional Western medicine alone, with a good safety profile (Qin et al., Pain Research
and Management).

Where Mack Is Now

By treatment 12, his sciatica had dropped from daily to once every few days and had stopped waking him at night. His early morning and late night  back pain was down to a 5–6 out of 10, and he was walking with his wife again — carefully, at our urging, so as not to overdo it. By treatment 20, the sciatica was gone entirely. His back pain still greets him most mornings, but now fades within about 15 minutes of getting up and having his coffee.

Today, Mack takes longer walks, spends an hour or two on home projects, and hikes gentle trails for 45 minutes, building steadily toward longer distances. We advised him to ease into pickleball given the bending and twisting it involves — advice his enthusiasm overruled. He was sore the next day, but it didn’t linger. He now maintains his results with a session every two weeks, which lets us catch any new flare-ups before they become a problem again.

If Mack’s Story Sounds Familiar

Sciatica is a nerve problem, not just a bad back — a sharp, shooting, or burning pain running from the low back into the leg, often with numbness, tingling, or weakness, and often worse with sitting. It shows up frequently alongside spinal stenosis and arthritis. If injections have stopped working, physical therapy hasn’t helped, and surgery feels like a big first step rather than a last resort, our sciatica treatment in Vienna, VA,  that targets the nerve itself may be the option you haven’t tried yet.

We offer a free in-person consultation at AcuPoint Wellness Clinic in Vienna, VA — serving patients throughout Northern Virginia including Fairfax, Oakton, Herndon, and Reston. No pressure, no obligation. Just an honest conversation about what’s possible. If sciatica is limiting your days, we’d like to help you get them back.

Call us at (703) 459-9544 or request a free consultation at acupointclinic.com.