Pain relief for muscle spasams

[blairf83]

Well, I'm 2.5 years post op, and still having issues with muscle spasams. It's something that has given me issues for thirteen years, well before my scoliosis was even noticeable. Since my surgery, my spasams have only increased.

If I do physical therapy every six months, I stay in decent shape. But at this point in my life, working full time and in college full time, I just don't have an hour and a half or two hours three days a week to spare, so i need to look for other options.

The medications my GP have given me aren't very effective and I won't take narcotic pain meds long term. The pain relievers help some, but the muscle relaxers which formerly seemed to help no longer seem to do anything but make me sleepy.

Over the past few weeks the spasams have become steadily worse. I'm not sleeping well because I can't get comfortable and I'm finding that between being busy, tired, and sore, I'm starting to get depressed. So obviously I need to do something.

When I was first diagnosed with scoliosis at the age of 19, it was by a chiropractor. After seeing him for some time with no results either in pain reduction or curve reduction, I saw a sports medecine doctor who put me in physical therapy. During that time (6 or 7 months), I went from a pretty minimal curve to 52 degrees. Sports medecine doc suggested doing trigger point injections but the rapid increase in my curve (especially for somebody my age) was really unusual and worrisome So I ended up finding a scoliosis surgeon.

I've done physical therapy a few times since my surgery, and the results have been good. But last about six months and it's so time consuming, so I really want to look into other options.

Anybody have any experience with trigger point injections? At this point I'm really considering them. But... I only know one person who's had them done, and that was only a short while ago. How effective are they in the long run?

Any other suggestions?

[LindaRacine]

Hi Blair...

Since PT helped in the past, I'd encourage you to work with them to find a few exercises that you can do each day on your own. I do some exercises every day, and they really only take a few minutes. Once it became habit, it was no longer a big deal. Injections are definitely another good idea. These things may not work for you, but I'd definitely recommend trying them before trying medication or additional surgery.

Regards,
Linda

[Karen Ocker]

muscle spasms

Have you ever consulted a neurologist to see if the cause was something other than scoliosis? --especially since you had the problem even when the curve was very slight.

[sweetness514]

Other ideas...

How about swimming and walking? Just walking half an hour a day can help your back as a whole, and it's good as a general exercise and it's great to take some air, also for the depression. With swimming, I found that I could only go once a week or even every two weeks(combined with everyday walking), and again only half an hour helped my muscles relax so much and get stronger at the same. It helps with sleeping and calms you down. This could be an alternative from PT, wich in your case is of help and I agree that you could do some as well, but it's not a general exercise and if you work so much and go to school as well, it would be good to relax and do exercise that doesn't seem like you're really exercising if you know what I mean. Acupuncture can help too, for relaxing as well.

[blairf83]

I have a set of exercises that my PT gave me and I stick with them pretty regularly, especially lately. Plus I'm relatively active and fit between riding and long lining my show horse and running (hopefully will do my first 5K by the end of june). I find I'm more limber following running, which seems odd to me. I don't swim anymore- I swam competitively in middle and high school and tried it in the first few months following my op, but something about how I swim seems to intensify my spasams rather than help them. By the end of a swim, my neck gets so bad that I go back to the locker room with my towel wrapped around my neck to hold my head up....
Have had some basic neuro stuff done. A few years ago they did an EMG (trying to figure out if I had some sort of dystrophy causing my curve to increas), and a full spinal MRI (nothing out of the ordinary except a couple mildly degenerative discs in my lumbar spine), and then last fall I had a head CT scan and EEG to rule out seizures. Nothing irregular was found. My physical therapist is always appauled with how severe and stubborn the spasams are.
I've decided to call the sports medecine dr on monday (the one who wanted to do the injections a few years back). I'm taking the summer off from school since the classes I need are cancelled for spring and summer. In the meanwhile, I'm looking for an additional part time job and could probably fit PT into my schedule until I find one. So... calling monday. Will do injections if they are offered, and will try doing PT again.

[SpineWhine]

Hey Blair! Sorry to hear you are having spasms. I know they are no fun. One thing that I found worked for me in both treating and preventing was acupuncture. (DOn't know if it was placebo effect or reuly works, but it worked for me, so I kept doing it.) Also, I keep a golf ball in my purse so when I get a spasm, I just stand against the wall with the ball used to apply pressure to the spasm area. Heating pads work too, if you can stand to sit still long enough for it to work.

Good luck doing the 5k! I just walked a 5k race this past week. I hope to get running again next summer!

[blairf83]

Hm... I'd never thought of the golf ball thing. I usually have my mom rub them with this thing called a nukkles (amazingly good but so simple a massage tool) or massage the areas as best I can. I'll have to try that idea! SOme of the spasams are really hard to get to- the feel like they're up underneath my shoulder blades, so I'm not sure if I'm just stuck with them being how the are, or if there's anything that can be done about them.
Not sure if I could do acupuncture.... I guess the needles they use aren't any bigger than the ones used in the EMG I had, but it really creeps me out that they'd be left in for longer than that. It would probably make me kind of queasy.

Right now I'm really debating.... There is a chiro I've used in the past who does a lot of work with trigger points, etc.... And he does help, although the results are fairly short lived (a couple weeks tops before they come back). The problem? His practice moved an hour and a half from me. I know I could get in to see him on short notice, probably before I can see the other dr. but at the same time, the last thing I need is to be mostly asymptomatic when I go in to see the dr. The wait to see the dr won't be that long (a couple years ago it wasn't even two weeks), but you know when you;re hurting the last thing you want to do is sit around and be miserable.

[CarolB]

Muscle Spasm Relief

I have degenerative scoliosis (vertebrae collapsed above and below thoracic fusion of 1964) with kyphosis + lordosis, osteoarthritis and recenlty tore my rotator cuff. I experienced excrutiating pain with the rotator cuff -pain right down my arm to fingers and limited function/rom. Electrical Muscle Stimulation to the adjacent muscle group under my arm released spasms which were the source of the pain. I've just been prescribed Norflex (orphenadrine citrate) -a skeletal muscle relaxant and am amazed at instant relief. My traps are no longer so tight & pained. The hope is that I'll be able to reduce narcotics (percocet =oxycocet/oxycodone).