Sciatica

[Stifffingers]

Hi,

Long time not writing.Maybe a stupid question , but here goes anyway. Was a terrible sufferer many years back with Sciatica.

Got PMR Sept 2018... currently moving between 3& 2 milligrams daily as part of my tapering plan .

All been going well .Walk 3to 4 miles daily , prior to lockdown swimming daily., so overall was doing good. Had a telephone consultation with a Rheumatologist, ... carry on . April stay on 2 a day all month etc ..... hopefully then down to 1 and goodbye.????

Had a twinge of Sciatica Sunday, did a 1-1 Yoga with my teacher Monday. Said I had Sciatica ... a few stretches and it appeared to go away. KAPOW...Tuesday in agony .. saw an Osteopath , made it worse... Had cupping yesterday with Aqupuncture... slight improvement.. but still suffering badly.

So after all of this diatribe .... Question ? Would upping to a higher dose of Pred be the answer.

Currently taking Diclofenic& Paracetomols.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Only one way to find out - but my suspicion is that the stretches poked at some myofascial pain syndrome point and the muscle went into spasm and is pinching the sciatic nerve even more - it happened to me. My physio had just been working on a painful back muscle and when I tried to stand up = as you say, KAPOW!

My remedy is an 800mg flooding dose of ibuprofen (you'd imagine diclofenac would serve but I don't know, it does nothing for me) and sitting upright with a hot water bottle over the sacroiliac/piriformis area to relax the muscle. It can take a few days - only that single 800mg dose is usually needed, sometimes a top up after 24 hours with 400mg.

[Stifffingers in reply to PMRpro]

I thank you kindly for that info.

Yes I took 400 Express liquid form Ibuprofen earlier , ( 1 hour ago)I’ll top that up now with another tablet. Normally diclofenic are successful . Not this time.

I’ve been icing nor heating??

I’ll stick the kettle on now .. lol.... although I wish I could laugh 😩

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Stifffingers]

Is breathing OK? And can you lift a cup of tea while you are at putting the kettle on?

[Stifffingers in reply to PMRpro]

I can , but anything heavier isn’t pleasant . I can see you’ve been here before!!!

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Stifffingers]

The kettle posed a problem at one time - once the tea was made it was OK! PMR made it difficult to lift a wine glass - that was worrying ...

[Stifffingers in reply to PMRpro]

The cup was fine.... the kettle however was a tad too heavy . Now going to lie down with my tea and hot water bottles .

[piglette]

I have had horrendous sciatica while on pred. I have found the only thing that helped slightly was physio. A friend showed me some exercises which she did in a coffee bar where we had met for coffee, which seemed to entail throwing your legs behind your head, possibly a slight exageration, but it entertained everyone else in the room! Each time they have lasted several weeks if not months. I found pain killers did not help at all.

[Stifffingers in reply to piglette]

Been there ( not the coffee shop) but the rest!