Radiculopathy

[Speedy_hanna]

As a complication to PMR I have now lumbar radiculopathy with pain and numbness in my legs. Still on cortisone after 6 years now 6.25 mg. But my slow tapering doesn’t seem to affect my lumbar pain and stiffness. Does anyone else here suffer from this condition??

[PMRpro Ambassador]

I understand that to be the symptom - also called sciatica. But there are a few potential causes of the symptoms due to the irritation of the sciatic nerve - do you happen to know what yours is due to?

[Foodie24]

I was diagnosed with PMR back in March and have tapered down to 8mg of prednisolone since then. However, since then I have also been diagnosed with a significant amount of lumbar spine degeneration and severe spinal canal stenosis, Therfore some days when I am experiencing stiffness and/or pain in my back and hips it is hard to work out whether it is the PMR or my spinal condition causing the problem.

[Speedy_hanna in reply to Foodie24]

Does it get better if you increase your pred dose? My problem in the lumbar region does not improve with a higher dose of pred.

[Foodie24 in reply to Speedy_hanna]

The level of Prednisolone did not make any difference to the level of lumbar pain in my experience. I am due to see a spinal consultant is a couple of weeks. I think my options will be injection into the spine or a lumbar decompression.