Hey all, sorry if this has been posted before- my last one got deleted cause i forgot the flair lol

I'm a GP over in NZ (basically a family doc for you Americans). Like everywhere else right now, we're totally swamped. The wait times to see a specialist or get an injection done are honestly insane... like weeks if your lucky but usually months of waiting. By that point the patient is miserable.

I usually stick to the standard stuff: Ibuprofen, paracetamol, physio, heat/ice, telling them to stay active etc. We're super strict with opioids here and they dont do much for nerve pain anyway so I might use a bit of codeine or tramadol but thats about it. Maybe some gabapentin if it's really bad.

But what do you guys think about using a short burst of oral steroids when someone is just in absolute agony? I'm talking as a last resort when nothing else is working and they can't even move. Obviously I'd be careful about side effects and everything but yeah... just wondering if anyone else does this when things get desperate. If you do use them, do you prefer pred or dexa?

Would love to hear how you guys handle this in your clinics.