Muscle Twitching or Fasciculation
 

I've started getting some random muscle twitching on the affected, right side of my body lately. Specifically in the right forearm and tricep area. Not painful at all, but it has me a tad disturbed.

It's not like this is a new thing for me. Early on when my TOS symptoms first emerged, I had WILD twitches all over my body. It started slow, then as I became more anxious I experienced them all over my body. These twitches eventually disappeared.

But now they're back...and it's bummin' me out.

Questions to the group:

* Does muscle twitching accompany your other symptoms?
* Or more importantly, does the presence of twitching usually correlate with an increase in your other symptoms?

I'm basically concerned that for whatever reason, my compression has increased. Not sure why this would be either. It started around the Thanksgiving holiday week when I was travelling. Coincidently, my activity in the gym DECREASED at this time. On the flip side, my work related stress has INCREASED.

Best case, I'm hoping this is stress related.

Worst case, I've triggered the start of some "bad" cycle that means an increase of pain...after I pretty much felt TOS was heading out the door.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks.

KY

I started getting muscle twitches when TOS began 9 years ago. I've had it the entire time. For me, it doesn't seem related to an increase in pain or symptoms. I have them all over my body now.

I get twitches as well, but they are not generally the harbinger of any flare up. Most of them are stress related, because if I chill out, most of them go away. They bothered me too when I first got them years ago, but nothing particularly bad has come out of them.

So bring your stress down and check your posture too. No forward head.

I think you'll be fine.

Spot on with that reply..... mine increase, especially when stressed!
RELAX, meditate, hot baths etc, etc. Mental unease can trigger off so much physically.
I'm sure they will settle as soon as you do.
Best wishes.

I just want to clarify that not all my twitches go away with stress relief. But the ones that are left don't seem to cause any problems other than being slightly distracting. Since I've had this for years, I'm now comfortable with it.

So true.

I've been bunched up over work for a couple weeks now and it's all finally coming to a head next week. I've been in constant negotiations / political maneuvering to take over a large team within my organization. Lot more responsibility...a lot more exposure...a lot more risk for me and my family. Finally had a meeting late this week to settle on the game plan for all this, and wouldn't you know it, all twitching is pretty much gone.

Damn Stress!

I keep thinking it's what I'm doing in the gym, but it's more about what's rolling around in my head.

Outside of meditation and diaphramic breathing, what else can one do here to relax? I wish there was an "off" button I could press that just shut down my brain and body for two days.

KY

I have some thoughts on this subject.

-- A variation on meditation is to use a guided audio. With the right speaker and right background music, the meditation for relaxation purposes can be really powerful. Right now I'm loving the iPhone/iPad app "Infinite Relaxation". The "Infinite" refers to the fact that they recombine script parts so that no two sequences are the same. You can use a slider to control the time and there is an option to end with awakening or sleeping. Throw in some noise cancellation headphones and you're close to having an off button, although it may take 20 mins to press. I even used it at a poker game once. :)

-- Mini-meditations have been very useful for me. Typically I go for 8 - 10 breaths. I can squeeze this into bits of my day and keep my stress down to begin with.

-- Changing how I deal with the world has been helpful. When I was younger, I stressed about outcomes too much. Now I go with the flow while still doing my job. If that's hard to do, as it was for me, there are books on the subjects with exercises, tips, etc. but obviously an investment will be required.

-- Through various career choices I have managed to keep my responsibilities reasonable while still making good money. I've sometimes turned down jobs that I thought were stress makers and time suckers without a matching increase in remuneration.

-- Like TOS, there is no silver bullet or button. But probably more than with TOS, there are things that are known to work and work well.

HTH