HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

Screaming night spasms

Support Forums
>
Chronic Pain
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 10/18/2016 12:58 AM (GMT 0)
Maybe it's the way I have to sleep more on my back with the healing ankle, or maybe it's the pain meds wearing off (never happened before), or maybe just the muscle and bone and tendon surgery on my ankle and leg. I'm having severe, screaming level spasms all down my left side from top of my neck to my left toes and down whole left arm and hand and just right hand at night about 4 AM every night.

I have to keep my leg up on a pillow even in bed. It swells still a month after surgery, turns red, and I still have a blue lump above one of the surgeries and the bottom of the foot has an expanding blue spot. But I think the problem is my spine. (broke neck 3 years ago)

The story: www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=16&m=3711845

I've tried all sorts of muscle relaxants with mostly bad side effects. Valium works but takes at least a half hour to get metabolized, and I can't even grab it with my extensor muscle spasms paralyzing me for several minutes. My spine and hands arch backwards. Valium at bedtime keeps the spasms to a lower level, but is no cure. Longer lasting benzos last way too long and keep me sleepy all the next day. I wake up exhausted and in pain.

I have an appointment with my neurologist, but I can't get there until I get out of this boot and am weight bearing on foot again. Another week, hopefully. I can't lift the knee scooter into the car with only one foot to hop on. Everyone around here works, and I can't ask for a half of someone's day again for the long drive.

I called the surgeon but only get really ignorant phone girls.

I'm dreading going to bed.
Posted 10/18/2016 4:22 AM (GMT 0)
Alcie I'm really sorry your having so many problems since your surgery! Muscle spasms can really be painful, and I know what it is like to have them just about every where! I get them in my hands, and feet and arms and legs and even in my neck and jaw. Never really found out what causes them, and had tried many different muscle relaxants, the only one that really works for me is Baclofen, I take a relatively high dose, 30mg every 8 hours, every day, and I have been on it for many years. It does work! At least for me and has really been a Godsend! Every now and then out of the blue I will have a few problems with spasms, (even though I'm on the antispasmodic all the time) but it is only every few months and they don't last very long. Not like before when I was getting them all the time, many times a day! I can really empathize with you, spasms can really hurt bad!!!

Alcie do you have any family or close friends that could take you to the doctor? You really need to get those muscle spasms checked out! Also what your describing about your surgery site, does not sound good at all!! Is it possible for you to take a picture of it and send it to your surgeon in an Email? I did that right after I had my pump implanted, as I was having red streaks coming off the pump implanted site going around from my abdomen following the implanted catheter to my spine. Anyway I took pictures of it sent the pictures to the surgeon and he immediately wanted to see me and put me on antibiotics. ( this surgeon was a 150 miles away from where I live) So I ended up driving all the way back up to Indianapolis where I got my implant put in, and it was only a couple of days after my surgery! Anyway you might want to call your surgeons office and see if this might be an option, especially the expanding blue spot and blue lump that you mentioned. A picture is worth a thousand words, and if your surgeon could see it I'm sure it would help him more than you just telling him about it! Might be worth trying anyway???

I know it is hard when you don't have anyone close that can help you,(especially with travel) but you really shouldn't let this go to long! Just reading about it, is a bit concerning, and I think you really need to see your surgeon about it, and also a neurologist, there are allot of things that can cause these spasms, and there are a host of things that can help control them!

Alcie Please keep us posted on how you are doing! I do wish you well! Good luck to you!

White Beard
Posted 10/18/2016 7:12 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks for the suggestions, WB. Maybe I should try Baclofen again. I did try it a couple of years ago for spasms that weren't as bad as now, but I couldn't get up to an effective dose because of more than moderate sleepiness. It's supposed to last 8 hours, but I had trouble until late afternoon the next day. These spasms are so awful it's worth a retry, taking it early evening. I took Valium again last night, which moderated the severity of the spasms, but they recurred 2, 4, and 6 AM.

I see the surgeon next week. I can tolerate this until then unless it gets worse. I had to postpone my neurologist visit until after then because of lack of transportation. You have to be independent when you live out in the country. If I am allowed to use my foot even a little I can load my knee walker. I just need partial weight bearing for balance. I've called the surgeon's office a couple of times and only talk to really ignorant phone girls.

I'm sure there is no infection. No heat, fever, particular pain in the bruise spot. I do question whether there is continued minor bleeding since the foot spot is blue, not purple and green like bruise healing, and it's not getting the least bit smaller. It's where the tendon was taken from the little toes to replace the ruptured posterior tibial tendon. I talked to my PCP about the lump on my leg above the one incision and was assured it is not likely to be a clot. It seems to be getting a little smaller today, so that's good. I'll talk to him again about the spasms because he gives me time and knows all my comorbidities.

From my reading, I'm generally happy with this surgeon. He used more recent procedures than other posters have endured. But having repair of collapsed arch from flat foot, or in my case injury to tendons, is not pleasant.
Posted 10/21/2016 2:46 PM (GMT 0)
Alcie, I am another one on Baclofen, 20mg 3 times a day. It has worked really well for me. Mine is taken every 6 hours, not 8. I am thinking some muscle relaxers made you drowsy? If so try cutting the pill in half & see if this helps.
Posted 10/21/2016 6:30 PM (GMT 0)
I tried Baclofen for 2 months, couldn't work up to an effective dose. A quarter of the smallest pill at night put me to sleep for the whole next day. That was pretty much the effect of most muscle relaxers.

Flexeril put me into serotonin syndrome, possibly because I also take tramadol. So now I always look up possible side effects before taking anything new. I keep a list of my reactions with me also.
Posted 10/22/2016 4:06 PM (GMT 0)
Alcie I don't like Flexeril either, it makes me feel spacy and out of it! I hate that feeling! Like I'm drunk or something, and out of control, (maybe that is why I don't drink! "except a small glass of wine every few months or longer! Ha) It is funny how the same medication can affect other people so differently, but they do! Everyone is so different on how they react to medications, like Baclofen it doesn't seem to have any affect on me except controlling the spasms, but I have heard allot of people say that this medication makes them very very sleepy! I guess that is why they make so many different types of medications that treat the same thing, hopefully a person can find one of them that will work for them!

Anyway good luck to you and I hope you find something that will give you relief from those nasty painful spasms!

White Beard

P.S. First time in many months, the other day I was rudely awaken in the wee hours, with a terrible spasm in the right calf of my leg. The muscle balled up like a baseball, and would not release! Hurt so darn bad and took over twenty minutes to walk it out! The calf hurt the rest of the day! I do hate those things!!! After it released I rubbed some Ben Gay into the area! It might not really help that much but it does feel good! Ha
Posted 10/24/2016 7:48 PM (GMT 0)
Alcie, not sure if you have ever tried the old muscle relaxer Robaxin, if not it may be something to consider. I was on it many, many years ago & did pretty good with it.
Posted 10/24/2016 7:59 PM (GMT 0)
One thing you can try for that calf muscle spasm is what I used to have kids do when they were swimming - push hard on the pressure point under your nose and hold it for 45 seconds.

Push very hard with the edge of the bone of a finger or a knuckle into onto the area just below the nose. Part of the trick with pressure points is to hold them for 45 seconds. Any less and the trick doesn't work.

You may have to do it a couple of times, and it may not work for everyone, but it sure did help my swimmers. Then they had to rest a couple of minutes until they could feel the muscle relax, or the spasm would sometimes come back.

Hmmm .... Come to think of it, I haven't tried it for myself. Anything's worth a try for agony this bad. I hope I can get a hand up to my face tonight when a spasm hits. My arms usually spasm straight down with fingers bent backward. There might be another pressure point somewhere worth trying too.
Posted 10/26/2016 4:32 PM (GMT 0)
It worked!

I tried what I recommended to W.B. for a few nights and it worked! Pushing on the nerve plexus stopped the night spasms. The pain and tightness didn't go back to absolute nothing until the muscles relaxed, which took a few minutes, but the spasms stopped getting worse and never got to the screaming level.

The pressure point thing doesn't stop spasms from happening, but medicines didn't either.

I'm kicking myself for not thinking of my own "cure" earlier. I probably wouldn't have thought of it without W.B's post. Thanks!
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply