Muscle Spasms in Lower Back

[Guest guest]

That's where my spasms are and gets so I can hardly walk around---feels

like my whole back is just twisted in a huge knot.. my husband can feel it

lumped up back in there. Sometimes massage helps.. sometimes not..and

sometimes this happens like at the store or volunteers where he can't rub

my back.

Liz

~~~

" I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget

what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. "

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EMAIL: juliette@... **ICQ 49746198** MSN & AIM LizKP1952**

PERSONAL HOMEPAGE PAGE http://members.tripod.com/~LizK

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[Guest guest]

Ugh, muscle spasms. I get tiny, little spasms that hurt

like h..l in the small muscles of my feet and hands. One

or more of my toes will twist around, or my foot will warp

like the foot of an old Chinese lady with bound feet.

One of my fingers will twist, on my left hand,its

my little finger and the palm of my hand bows so that my little

finger warps into my thumb. On my right hand, my dominant

hand, it's my index finger, it bends so that it seems the

middle joint is trying to touch my wrist. These

are painful and the only help is to grab the affected

joint and straighten it out and hold it until it stops.

When all are going, I make a pretty sight, foot smashed

into the floor to flatten/straighten it, both hands

smashed into a wall or table to hold them straight.

Then my hamstrings will decide to play up, or my calves,

or sometimes all at once.

And of course, the good old back, spasms in the sacral

area, in my hips, at the waist line, between the shoulder

blades, the back of my neck. I also get spasms in

my throat muscles including my tongue. Now that's

a really good one. I'll be talking, eating, drinking

when all of a sudden my tongue curls up sideways and sticks

out, my chin drops and pulls to the right side and I

am really stuck. It's no use asking me what's wrong

or what to do because I can't talk with my tongue

spasmed up like that. Real cute when feet, hands

and tongue all go at the same time - I look, or

at least feel like a circus contortionist.

This is a real event when it happens in public -

down on the floor I go, tongue sticking out,

squealing and uh,uh, uh-ing as that is the only

sound I can make. Sure stops traffic though.

I've given up being embarrassed by this. People

at the places I shop are used to me so that they

just walk around me anymore.

But.... the absolute worst are the side muscles

between the ribs. I get them in about the 4 ribs just

below the shoulder blades, both sides and the

spasms wrap clear around, it's like a 4 or 5

inch belt being cinched tightly around your

ribs. Then, I can't breathe, I can't sit,

I can't move at all, there seems to be no way

to stretch for relief. Bending forwards helps

the back part but the front gets worse, visa-versa

for bending back, and side to side - like being

in a vice of knives. That's when I cry and really

loose it and think that it is just not worth it at all.

So far, no meds help. I'm overly sensitive in

the first place, secondly, when I don't have

a sensitivity reaction to the meds, or even

when I do, the meds do nothing for the cramps.

I drink lots of milk - so get plenty of calcium.

I take potassium, I take magnesium, and nothing

seems to make much difference - well, an overdose

of potassium does help sometimes. LIke, I sometimes

take 4 prescription strenght potassium tablets

at a time, that's 4 times the prescribed dose and

my doctor tells me that's enough to give me

cardiac arrhythmias and she threatened to stop

my script if I didn't promise to not do it

again. I did promise, but my fingers were crossed. :-)

But, it does stop the cramps for a while - like

an hour or so.

These cramps seem to come in spells. I can

go for a while with nothing, then will be

totally incapacitated for days with them.

Over-exertion, too much physical activity

and cold seem to be the main triggers.

Well, this has gone on long enough, but,...

I really know about spasms. Sometimes I

really feel like cutting off my foot with

a pen-knife, it couldn't possibly hurt as

much as the spasms do - just kidding of

course, my hand spasms wouldn't allow

me to follow through on this threat anyway.

Liz Kilpatrick wrote:

> That's where my spasms are and gets so I can hardly walk around---feels

> like my whole back is just twisted in a huge knot.. my husband can feel it

> lumped up back in there. Sometimes massage helps.. sometimes not..and

> sometimes this happens like at the store or volunteers where he can't rub

> my back.

>

> Liz

> ~~~

--

kjg@...

Canberra, ACT Australia

[Guest guest]

Thanks for my laugh of the day. It sounds painful, but funny how you

describe it. Anyway, I get that lower back pain and foot and had spasms too.

I always talk large doses of potassium too, and it helps a lot. I have

always had low potassium levels anyway, so I think it's been just getting

enough to replace what is missing. I've been doing this for about 15 years

now, and take the potassium weekly, and it seems to have regulated that,

except if I stand a long tome like shopping or something like that. But I do

use the TENS unit, and tell me if I didn't have it I couldn't make it. I

wear it to the store, at church and everything. Try one of those and see how

great they work. Good Luck, and stay away from the Big Top! EFD

[Guest guest]

it is really important that you take magnesium for muscle spasms generally in

a powdered form which has calcium with it. there is one brand called mag-cal

which is really good and you can mix it with juice, tea, water lemonade etc..

mixing it with an citric type juice like orange juice or lemonade is

important for its absorption. there is another product called cal-mag just

the reverse of the above. it is in liquid for and you can swallow it straight

up, with tea or juice etc... again juice is the best option

....................................of course a good massage isn't so bad

either

rand rs, as, fms

[Guest guest]

Rand,

I appreciate your suggestion and I'm going to try it. Those things are

driving me nuts. I have no trouble when sitting down but walking much at

all just starts them into fits. I end up walking like a pregnant lady

trying to balance my hips or something.. It helps some but looks silly and

I know it is not good posture. Mine tends to be on the right side but

sometimes the left. My Left SI joint was always out of whack when I was

seeing the chiropractor. He'd treat it and it would be back whacky the

next time I went.

On Sun, 19 Jan 2003 randelleff@... wrote:

> it is really important that you take magnesium for muscle spasms generally in

> a powdered form which has calcium with it. there is one brand called mag-cal

> which is really good and you can mix it with juice, tea, water lemonade etc..

> mixing it with an citric type juice like orange juice or lemonade is

> important for its absorption. there is another product called cal-mag just

> the reverse of the above. it is in liquid for and you can swallow it straight

> up, with tea or juice etc... again juice is the best option

> ...................................of course a good massage isn't so bad

> either

> rand rs, as, fms

Liz

~~~

" I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget

what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. "

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EMAIL: juliette@... **ICQ 49746198** MSN & AIM LizKP1952**

PERSONAL HOMEPAGE PAGE http://members.tripod.com/~LizK

ADDult HOME PAGE: http://members.tripod.com/~LizK/addult.htm

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