Cortisone Injection while taking Prednisone

I ended up increasing my prednisone dose when severe spinal stenosis was discovered. A spine surgeon said the exiting nerve roots from my spine were being crushed. The spine surgeon also said I wasn’t a good surgical candidate because of my long term prednisone use. I increased my prednisone dose to 60 mg and the pain was relieved.

When my rheumatologist found out about me taking 60 mg of prednisone she wasn’t very happy. She would have recommended a localized ssteroid injection instead of systemic oral prednisone. She was happy that the increased prednisone dose relieved my pain though.

I had a cortisone injection in my spine a couple of months ago. The pain management doctor told me that the 5.5 mg prednisone I take daily would not be a problem. The injection was very successful with no side effects. I went to see him because I had an increase in some spine symptoms when I dropped to 5 mg prednisone. Ever since I got PMR in 2021 I have had a painful spot in the upper part of my low back which made it very uncomfortable to sit in a chair because of pressure against that area. This was not like any back pain I had before. I also developed pain in the fronts of my thighs which would wake me up at night. The pain doctor identified my sore spot as being at the L2-3 level and nerve roots from that level can cause anterior thigh pain. The shot almost completely cleared the pain at the sore spot and the thigh pain was reduced at least 50%. I had read that PMR can cause interspinous bursitis in the back but I did not realize where that bursa was located. Turns out it is right in the center of the back. This bursitis supposedly does not usually cause pain in PMR sufferers but I am quite sure that was my problem! If I need to I will get another shot if it helps me to reduce the prednisone.

My orthopedic Dr. gave me a cortisone shot in my right shoulder due to the pain. At that point I had not been diagnosed with PMR. I had almost immediate relief that lasted about 3 days then back to the pain. The orthopedic Dr recommended further investigation because he said that he can only give 2 of those shots or risk damaging the joint. I then diagnosed the PMR and started prednisone.

I was diagnosed with Lyme disease in my knee and had a cortisone injection while on the prednisone. Worked like a charm.

There is reason to believe that Lyme can trigger PMR but it is only a hypothesis. I had tons of stress in my life that could also have done the triggering. Or maybe Im just a sinner and my higher power was giving me a nudge.

lol. Thats probably as good a diagnosis as the medical field can give right now on what causes it.