Leggs, so sorry you're having so much trouble with pain...hope the docs can help you

I love it when they tell you they are going to call you in something to help you sleep and to help with the pain... and as I sit here at 12:30 in the morning because it hurts too bad to lay down.... because they forgot to call in my prescriptions....

But such is life. I will deal with it in a couple of hours when they open.

leggz: I'm so sorry to hear of the pain you're experiencing, but I know exactly where you're coming from. In my 20's I was thought to have RA also......I think it was a precurser to the MS. I have osteo-inflammatory-degenerative arthritis now which started in my 40's, so age doesn't really seem to play a part. Tried all the NSAIDS including the shots in my hips, but nothing seems to work and the narcotics just put me in a "stupor". Not wanting to go through life like a zombie, I just take two Aleve when I first get up to help take the edge off, and just deal with the pain.

As far as sleeping, this is why I sleep in my recliner. It's a lift chair which makes getting up a little easier, but the back and hip pain is alot less than lying in bed!!! I don't sleep soundly for long periods at a time anyway, so I put in some quiet movies for that constant background noise -- it seems to help my little yappy dog sleep better too as she doesn't hear every little noise. Her crate/bed is next to my recliner. Of course if she does bark -- WHOA -- a rude awakening! lol!!

From what I've read, some of us with MS cite pain as our worst symptom. Guess we're just a couple of the "lucky" ones. NOT!! I'm waiting for medical MJ to become legal in PA as it's supposed to work wonders for pain.

Good luck and here's wishing less pain for us all....

Go to the National MS Society's main page and 'search' their stretching exercises which should be printed out. They have them for you to do and you to do with a helper if need be.

They were designed by a therapist and they stretch all your muscles and bend all your joints. They do not take long to do and greatly help.

I too take Baclofen; 180mg daily. Down the road another solution is a Baclofen Pump. I'm fortunate because Baclofen does not make my tired or weak.

However, getting it from one manufacturer made me sleep 3 1/2 hours after taking one 20mg Baclofen pill. I asked the pharmacist to switch manufacturers and I was no longer sleepy when taking my Baclofen.

Swimming through your National MS Society is a great way to exercise and is free. Belonging to the NMSS is free as well. By going through your local NMSS's swimming classes, they are run by trained therapists who talk you through the easy, beneficial exercises.

Take care.

I take melatonin before I go to bed, and it helps me fall asleep. It does not keep me asleep, but when I wake (between my feet, my hands, and my Crohn's, that can be 6 or more times during 8 hours of sleep), the melatonin does help me fall back to sleep. Before I began using melatonin I could find myself awake for an hour or more several times a night.

Oh . . . and I also found I dream on melatonin, which I think is a good sign that you are getting deeper sleep. And I have been lucky that my dreaming has been actually pretty pleasant . . . not the kind you wake up from feeling tired!

I also use medical marijuana for my Crohn's (it relieves cramping and nausea) and it helps me relax to get sleepy. I find it also relaxes me enough to lessen the atrocious pain from spasticity.

For several years I have learned how to use deep breathing to help lure me back to sleep when I am awakened by pain or other physical "signals." I actually trained my breathing to follow the rhythms of songs so when I hear them my breathing follows almost automatically. I rarely hear the last few songs on my favorite CD doing this breathing exercise, and I have increased my lung capacity to boot! I choose music with gently rolling, oceanic wave-like rising and falling rhythms . . . and then imagine myself floating along in a buoyant bed of kelp, rising and falling with the swells.


Oops! Time to get into my wet suit . . .

I wonder if chrondrointin/gloucosimine would help for RA?

I thought about trying that for OA, but I'm taking so many supps now, lol... and they are HUGE.

I take calcium/Vit D and Advil for it so far, but I know it's nothing like RA.


All I can say is we had a dog with serious arthritis, he had the devil of a time getting up in the morning. Started giving him C/G supps and within a week or two, he was getting up without wincing, walking without whining. In a month, he was trotting all over the yard.

We started the supps when he was 10y/o - he lived to be 15.5! Rain or snow, he was up and moving. I was impressed.