Neuropathy versus sciatica

[Trudy]

I am so behind reading on here! I've been literally down lately. I was having trouble with my left leg and started using a cane about a month ago. I have neuropathy in both legs and assumed this was the cause. I had weaned from 20 mg Pred down to 15 mg (plus 100 mg Imuran), and continued to have increasing leg problems. Then Thursday it hurt to put any pressure on my left leg and I resorted to crutches and eventually the wheelchair.

In reading I found Prednisone aggravates neuropathy, yet the only relief I could get was not from pain meds, but bumping the pred back up. I was reminded that 30 years ago I had a bout with Sciatica and looked it up. Sure enough this described my pain generating from lower back, to hip, down to ankle perfectly. I also found that there is a current study just concluding that is experimenting with a Prednisone taper starting at 50 mg. My doc gave me codeine and said to take 30 mg pred and repeat later in day if needed, then taper in a few days. I can say the codeine doesn't seem to help and the pred is the only thing helping with the pain (or the healing). The inflamation is slowly getting better.

For those of you that also have neuopathy, have you had anything like this happen?

[Al]

It is possible to have either or both, Trudy. Though they are slightly different (sciatica is caused by neural compression or pinching; PN comes from actual erosion of the nerves--from a virus, like shingles, or an autoimmune disease that attacks nerves or the myelin that surrounds them, for instance), they are both associated with other factors. Prednisone, for example, weakens muscles and bones, leaving nerves (including the sciatic nerve) vulnerable to compression. Likewise, immunosuppressive drugs allow the latent shingles virus to become active, increasing the risk of PN. (For me, it was shingles, more than the disease, that was the direct reason for my neuopathy. There was no real fix for the extreme pain; I could get temporary relief from a bath infused with aloe vera, but that did not last. Even now, nearly a year and a half later, I still have the occasional shooting pain.)

Al

[Thakator]

Sorry, Trudy, that I can't be of direct help because I haven't experienced your pattern. I do have PN, but not sciatica and don't have the type pain you describe. My PN (which is on the severe side) has been specifically diagnosed as being caused by the Wegs and its destructive effect upon both the motor and sensory peripheral nerves.

Don't know about the other PN folks on here, but now you know about both Al's and my dealings with it. Ron

[Sangye]

Trudy, unfortunately you can take all the pred in the world and it still would do nothing to correct the underlying cause of sciatica. All it does is take down inflammation while the cause of the inflammation continues. I suggest you see a chiropractor, who can diagnose the cause and correct it. Sciatica comes from either a muscle imbalance in the pelvis or a spinal misalignment.

[drz]

I have had neuropathy in feet for years from diabetes and know the Wegs made it worse but didn't know that prednisone could also exacerbate it. Diabetes raises your blood glucose levels and kills off the nerves by starving the nerves from blood flow needed to maintain them and it damages our kidneys when blood cells get too big from high blood glucose levels which ruin their ability to filter our blood as effectively. I thought Wegs causes damage through its attacks on our smallest blood vessels which causes bleeding and scar tissues like in our lungs and kidneys. I haven't had any sciatica for years but know many elderly have it as bones deteriorate from osteoporosis and start compressing the spinal column. Very painful just like neuropathy. Sorry you are having pain.