Can you share advice on my painful legs?
 

My legs have become so irritating...

my quads (muscles in front of the thighs) stiffen when I stand up from bed or chair...which makes it difficult to get my bearings for the 5-10 seconds it occurs. This just began about 2 weeks ago.

My shins and top of the thighs start to ache after about 3-5 minutes of standing still. I think it's muscle spasms. It dissipates after about 3-4 min. when I sit down.
When it happened last night, DH said, "What exactly does it feel like?" It's hard to explain...just an ache...but it hurts so...
The aching usually increases as the day progresses...even some evenings they ache when I'm in the recliner with the chair reclined.
The shins also wake me up at night, aching...I occasionally will take a 2mg capsule of zanaflex if it's really bad.
I am extremely stiff when I first get out of the car...occasionally I have to use a cane. I loosen up after a minute or so of walking, but I don't walk as effortlessly as I used to...

This has been going on since September. If you recall in past posts, I had a flareup of severe leg spasms and pain from late September to the end of December. The stiffness has continued as explained above, but the pain and spasms aren't as strong as the flare up was.

So...is this an MS thing? Or is it peripheral artery disease?

I am reluctant to call the neuro as I'm going to see him in 2 weeks, and he and his nurse know that I'm having leg pain and stiffness. They've even okayed me taking darvocet for the pain if it becomes unbearable, but I don't want to get hooked on narcotics.

Any advice would be appreciated. I get so confused about these symptoms, not knowing what is going on...:confused:

As I live and breathe, D, I've been there and beyond. For my case, it is definitely spasticity and actually starts in my back. It's like an involuntary and unrelenting stretch like with a yawn. It hurts and it's irritating just as you said. I call it the Frankenstein walk.

The exact same conditions, such as major stiffness after being in the car, worse at night, and loosening up when I start to move some are present in my case.

If you want to see something freaky but kind of cool, when you first get out of the car, let the leg spaz have its way by hanging your leg loose just off the floor— if it's like mine, for a few seconds, it will move faster than any human should ever be able to move. It's just so weird but sort of funny. :o

Ask the neuro if you can up the Zanaflex, especially at bedtime and in the morning. Hope that helps. :) MMJ works very well for it, but strictly at bedtime for me.

This will sound weird, but there was a letter in my local paper about someone who kept getting muscle spasms in her legs. She took slivers of Ivory soap and taped it to the offending muscles. She said she got quick relief. It sure won't hurt to try it.

Thanks-my Neuro told me I can take 24 mgs max.

I've tried the soap routine; had one near my feet in bed. I forgot about it until we bought a new bed & I found it stuck under the mattress cover LOL.

This lady taped it to her skin. She said it worked.

When my legs hurt, I wrap them snugly in a towel and it helps considerable. But, my pain is neuropathic, not spasticity.

I'm having the same problems, it started in Oct and stopped the first week of Jan. now it's back, I wake up at night with it, last night I used a heating pad and it did nothing for the pain. I wonder if this is part of the progression and never goes away. I take 20 mg. of Baclefen at night, but it doesn't last all night.

Some time back we had a lot of discussion about the benefits of a cake a soap in the bed, and the prevention of leg spasms. There was even a poll : http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...highlight=soap

Maybe some-one else might recall more about it than I do.

i've had a lot of muscle pain over the yrs.
my pain dr started me on amrix. i think it's a long acting flexeril. it made me tired at first but your body gets used to it.

it may be you need a change in medications.

also, heat works well for my muscles but you'll need something more lasting since you can't use heat all the time.

Just read your question Debbie and it seems there are a lot of us with this problem. Mine seemed to get worse when the cold weather arrived. Even though I don't go outside, somehow it's made a difference.

Cindy -- Your description sounds like mine -- the involuntary feeling of stretching only to the point of pain and not being able to move anything for awhile. Don't you find it difficult getting dressed (only sweatpants) since your legs are so stiff it's hard to get them into the pant leg. Then each leg feels like it weighs 100 lbs., so they're difficult to lift. Even using my lift chair after lying down in it for awhile, will set off those spasms.

I never did the soap thing. My neuro gave me tizanidine which helped for awhile, but now it doesn't seem to do anything. I'd love to try MMJ, but so far it's not legal here in PA. It's supposed to help with nerve pain also. Sorry I don't have any solutions, Debbie, but maybe it will help some knowing you're not alone........and yes, I believe it's an MS thing. :(

I HATE THIS DISEASE AND DON'T WANT TO DO IT ANYMORE!!!!!!!

Take care......:)

Debbie, I get them when I get up from a recliner. I used to get that Frankenstein walk when I got up from bed, I don't get it anymore.

I shower before bed, then when the bathroom is warm (not hot) and my muscles are loose, I hold onto the sink and stand on one foot and swing the other foot back and forth slowly. I think It stretches out the muscles, the ones that tighten during the day.

Then warm blankets because it's cold here and we keep the heat low to sleep. But the muscles don't pull in bed, like in a recliner during the day. It's weird.

I wear leg warmers on my legs (like the dancers wear) to keep my legs warm during the day. It makes a big difference in the way my legs feel. When chilled the top of the thigh muscle pulls. I take no medication for this. Just do stretching exercises routinely increasing the reps every few days.

When I relapsed, I could not even do one leg stretch without losing my balance, even holding on. Now I am up to my original routine, since the relapse is gone a month now.

Warmth is important, but don't overheat or overdo. Maybe some of this might help. :hug: Start with two a night, swing the leg forward and in the same motion to the back, like a swing. Hold on to something firm, like a counter. You will feel the pull.

Lady!!! Leg Warmers!!! What a great suggestion for my cold legs. Now I just have to find some!

I take Baclofen but I do not think it helps very much.

My legs are getting stiffer all the time. I record an exercise program and find time in the morning to "work out" and try to stretch my stiffening legs.

I have to modify an already modified work-out. It is for women who are "Fabulous and Forty" or "Fifty and Foxy."

How I would love to have a personal massage therapist to help me with my woes! Well, I could but I would have to pay $!

Leg warmers are the trend again. I see them now in many of the younger generation stores. I got mine at a dance studio that has a store for kids/women to buy their stuff to dance.

Must keep the leg muscles warm or get Charlie horse cramps and sore muscles when dancing. They have some real soft ones now, and all colors and materials.

I had mine from eons ago, but needed to replace for years and could not find them. Now they are everywhere. I use them when home, or outdoors under my jeans.

If I don't wear them, my muscles wake me up with a bad screaming Charlie horse, if I walked outdoors that day on concrete, with our cold weather.

Oh how I miss dancing. :( I would look like a drunken dancer and fall over just from the solo movement, and with nothing to hold on to. (sigh)

Leg warmers are great! I wore them on New Year's eve as were were going to be outside and it was in the low 20s. They really helped.

Debbie - I get that way too. AMN gave a great description and I can totally relate to that. Being so sensitive to drugs and having to make the decision between being doped up and sleeping all day and just dealing with it, I chose just dealing with it. Taking medicines for "quality of life" actually took away my "quality of life."

It is a game of trial and error on what will work for you and what won't work for you. So far I do pretty good on the neurontin and by taking my Epsom Salt baths as well as daily walks (10 minutes or so at a time but no more than 30 minutes - just can't do 30 minutes) and yoga.

Hope you feel better soon.:hug:

Are your legs weak? I'm having so many new symptoms lately. Why? Am I having an attack of different symptoms, I keep wondering if this disease is progressing, it's been bad since Oct. My doctor even took me off the statin drug thinking that was the reason for the painful legs, I guess not. This seems to stay on my mind all the time, I need to stop thinking about it, I know I need to just let each day come as it will, but that's hard when you don't know what's going on, I just haven't had anything go on for this long before, I guess I'm just having a bad day, or several bad days. I'm not really feeling sorry for myself, just so confused, I don't want to take the steroids, I don't like the effect they give me, and what else can the doc do, but give me another pill, enough is enough.

Can anyone tell me if the cramping/achy/tingling/sore legs are a sign of relaspe or will this symptom stay with me even when in a remission?

I am so new to this.....and I read about some of you being in remission for years, so I am wondering what, if any, symptoms do you have during the years of remission??

Hi RelyonHim,
It is really different for all of us. Some only have leg problems when in a relapse, others have it from having the disease a long time and it is residual damage that doesn't leave when remission comes.

Then there are others that get it right away and are stuck with it.

Others come out of relapse with no lasting effects at all.

Also it depends on where your lesions are located. Brain or Spine and which type of MS you have. So I think that is a very hard question to answer without getting a lot of different opinions. We are all unique and no one gets the same exact symptoms, for the same length of time.

Medications we take and can give these same symptoms to us, or take them away.

We have to figure if we have a individual pattern and work with that, treat it that way, try some meds or go off some. Some DMD's can cause these symptoms too.

We do seem to all have spasticity, cramps, charley horse-like calves at some point. It also depends on our activity, normal daily, too much, or no activity at all.

Maybe yours is because of a relapse and will go away. Or not in a relapse and time will make it better, or worse. No crystal ball, only trial and error. Even our doctors can't always find the cause and treat it.

Sorry I can't give you a better answer to assure you that things will be fine. It may just come and go, that would be about the best to hope for.

Hey Deb! Ditto on what the others have said. This Winter my legs seem to ache alot and activity makes it worse. I am doing PT, but that hasn't helped long term. *PT is for hip pain* Hope you can get it figured out and the pain improves.. .

Hey maybe wer'e having growing pains. I remember my parent's telling me that when I was a kid. Gee, I never did grow that much, so guess that's not it. take care Deb.