I have always been active. I have been playing ice hockey since I was 10 years old. I'm also on my feet most of the day at work. Like many of us, I started playing pickleball during the pandemic. I love the game. I try to play 2-3 times a week. Last August, I bent down to pick up a ball, and that’s when it happened. What felt like a jolt of electricity from my left buttocks down to my shin. I knew exactly what it was: sciatica. I have had it before, several times over the past 15 years. This time, it was the worst pain I have ever experienced. I struggled to stand back up and needed a friend to drive my car home. I spent the next four months on anti-inflammatory medications, attending weekly physical therapy, barely sleeping, experiencing weakness in my left leg and foot, and, of course, constant pain. It took an epidural spinal injection to finally get back to feeling myself again.
My long recovery went by without much activity. I especially missed playing pickleball; it was torture. I finally returned to the courts in January. But every time I bent down to grab the ball, I was living in fear that my sciatica would return. My wife saw an ad for Pickle Putty on her Instagram and ordered a pack for me. She surprised me with it for Valentine's Day. The next time I played, I was excited to try it out. Not gonna lie, my first time using it, I forgot it was on my paddle a bunch of times.
