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Shooting pain down leg and long car ride in 2 days...Help

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Rheumatoid Arthritis
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Posted 10/3/2012 1:07 PM (GMT 0)
Hi,

Any advice is greatly appreciated.  A couple days ago I did lots of laundry, vacuuming, etc and now i"m paying for it with shooting pain down my left leg when I put weight on it, or even move it at all.  I take 1 celebrex a day for my sacroiliitis / joint inflammation, but have ot be careful as I had ulcerative colitis as a teenager (have since had my colon removed but I have a pouch in its place and still need to be careful). 

The problem is...in two days were are going on a family trip which will be a 3hr car ride and sitting for long periods of time is the worst and will aggrevate it even more.  Any suggestions of getting rid of it?  I don't want us to have to cancel our trip as we're all really looking forward to it.

Posted 10/3/2012 1:58 PM (GMT 0)
Lu, the strategies for long car rides (for me) are to stay stretched, make sure you take lots of breaks, have good lumbar support in the car. In the next couple of days focus on your physical therapy exercises and use ice on your lower back to hopefully relieve the spasm you're having.
Posted 10/3/2012 3:09 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks kazbern. We will stop in the car, but probably only once or twice. Otherwise we'll turn our 3hr ride into a 6hr ride. Will use ice and PT exercises that I can do without aggrevating more.

I don't want this to ruin our trip.
Posted 10/3/2012 7:27 PM (GMT 0)
I've had many long car rides, 6 hours one way, 12 hours total in the same day, it can be horrid when you have RA, joint pain etc! I have taken pred in the past, but when I didn't have that I would take my pain medication along and take it as needed since I wasn't driving. Also, stopping at rest stops if possible, but as you said it only makes the trip longer, I know! But it is better than paying for it later in the trip, trust me! The last time I went on a car trip, my son drove and he is young and can drive endlessly without stopping and we did...we stopped twice in 12 hours and the next day at the hotel, I could hardly get out of bed. So, whoever you are traveling with may need to understand you have RA and must take breaks:) Be careful if you are already in a flare starting out!
Posted 10/4/2012 12:17 AM (GMT 0)
momto3, ugh....6 hours one way? Even if I started out as a great day, I'd be totally flared up if I didn't stand up in that time (40 min max).

Mayflower, oh...I should say that I have sacroilitiis, but I post here as it's a type of arthiris and there's no generic arthritis board. So basically my SI joints get inflammed which I guess pushes on nevers and/or piriformis muscle. And yeah, I have back pain everyday when I sit (which I do as a job as I'm a software developer so I have desk job). As for the trigger...I did lots of vaccuuming and laundry yesterday (we had a case of lice in our house...yuk), plus I take a dance class with my preschooler and that has seemed to irritate it. My issue now though is gettign rid of it by Friday.
Posted 10/5/2012 5:12 PM (GMT 0)
Lu, have you had any scans recently? Your back and leg pain sounds exactly like what I was suffering for years before I was diagnosed with sacroiliitis in 2007. That diagnosis was changed to Ankylosing Spondylitis in February this year. The shooting sciatica like pain is common in AS. It can take 10 years or more for the damaged joints to show on an xray. It's important to know if you have it or not, as it's very debilitating if not treated. Celebrex never helped my pain at all.
Posted 10/5/2012 5:51 PM (GMT 0)
Lu, from your description of the pain, I agree with Mayflower that it's more probably a nerve. If some muscles become tight/inflammed they may press on nerves and this causes shooting pain. This is common especially with the sciatic nerve causing shooting pains in the butt and down the legs. Whatever you can do to ease the muscle will help it stop pressing on the nerve. Sometimes just walking a bit, using a cushion on the seat while you're sitting, sitting in a different chair, not sitting but standing and walking will help along with anti-inflammatories. This same thing happens to me and I don't have RA, just problems with muscle strain that presses my sciatic nerve. For your car trip, bring a small pillow for the back OR to sit on; change from the front seat to the back seat when you take a rest stop if you can - anything to help stop squeezing the muscle. Talk to your doctor. I hope you get better.
Posted 10/6/2012 2:12 AM (GMT 0)
My doc lets me do a medrol dose pack for family trips-don't know if that is an option for you. I also take tramadol for pain.

Maybe get a massage to help alieviate the pain before the trip and another to recover after.
Posted 10/8/2012 12:39 AM (GMT 0)
Hi all,

Thanks so much for the responses.  It's nice to know that others understand (not that I"m glad that you all suffer from similar pain).

So we are back from our trip.  We stopped after 1hr, then another 1hr+ drive and then got there.  We then were supposed to drive for 30 min to museeum and dinner, but we got lost and ended up driving for another 1.5 hrs (and just went to dinenr...which was more sitting).  I was in lots of pain by the end.

On the good side, I am doing relatively better (a few days later from my original post).  The shooting pain has turned into back pain (althoguh I felt like my back was broken earlier...sooo stiff and sore).  I ended up calling my rheumatologist to ask if I could double the celebrex for a few days.  Now taht we're back, I'm going back to 1 a day.

virtualterror, to anwer your question, I had an MRI a year agot January (which showed nothing...and my doc was checking for AS) and then again a few months ago.  The recent one showed a herniated disc ontop of my sacroiliitis.  Knowing my history though, he's keeping an eye out for AS.  Am so sorry you're suffering with it.  Is it under control for you?

For the shooting pain...I'm pretty sure something is hitting a nerve, as it's that sudden sharp deliberating pain and I feel if my leg bends/moves in any which way.   Sounds like you're all familair with it.

Posted 10/10/2012 3:34 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Lu,

Glad to hear you survived the trip! To answer your question, my AS was relatively controlled with Humira until I had a severe immune response to it, pretty much like an allergic reaction but it build up over the course of about 6 injections until the last one which resulted in me being covered in hives. During this time I also gradually lost response to it. I've just started on Golimumab (Simponi), which apparently has shown great success with AS so I'm just waiting for it to kick in. It's also used for ulcerative colitis, but I have Crohn's so my GI is using me as his guinea pig to see if it helps the Crohn's too. If it does, it will be great as there are many people out there with AS that also have Crohn's.

Best of luck with getting your pain under control.
Posted 10/10/2012 6:54 PM (GMT 0)
Hi virtualterror,

Thanks.  Was still in pain but managed to enjoy.  I still get some shooting pain at night when I lie down (or I guess I should say...when I get up after lying down).  Don't get why???

I'm sorry you're suffering.  It's so tough too when the benefits of meds don't always out weight the side affects.  My doc was also looking at something like Humira , but is cautious and avoiding it unless he sees I really need it due to my ulcerative colitis history.  I totally sympathize with you have chron's.  First...it's an awful disease...always worried about what kind of pain you'll have after you eat.  And, it makes treating other issues like the AS harder as it limits meds.  Will cross my fingers for you that Golimumab is a good one for you.

 

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