Muscle Tightness

    • Anonymous
      May 29, 2012 at 10:27 pm

      I am post GBS x 7 months. I walk with 2 canes. Weakness on right side greater than left. Terrible right arm and skin pain. Legs are mostly numb with the electric shocks and toes on fire at night. When I exercise I loosen up and my movement improves. Can ride a bike for 30 minutes or stretch my legs and start to feel ok but then my muscles tighten up within 5 minutes making it difficult to move again. Same with using my hot tub. I always have “mild” muscle spasms of arms and legs when getting out of bed or when I start to stretch. It seems to me my gait would be much better if my muscles weren’t so tight all the time. Does anyone else have this issue? I see my next MD at the end of June and would like to have a game plan.
      Thank you,
      Mark

    • Anonymous
      May 30, 2012 at 12:27 pm

      Has anyone taken Baclofen to help with the spasms and mostly for the leg tightness?

    • GH
      May 30, 2012 at 10:13 pm

      I don’t think anything works better than time. I’m a year and a half out of the hospital and, although walking reasonable well now, I still have soreness in the legs, sharp sensations in the nerves in the lower legs, and a burning sensation in the feet. The last is there all the time, but only severe when I am on my feet for a long time.

      I’ve never taken anything for pain since getting off pain meds as soon as my recovery started. I have taken B12, which may help nerve healing, and also alpha-lipoic acid. I don’t claim these will help, but I take them anyway in case they do.

      The only thing I can suggest is regular moderate exercise and patience.

    • Anonymous
      May 31, 2012 at 12:21 am

      Thanks GH. I will post if my doctors have any ideas.

    • August 11, 2014 at 6:03 am

      Flexibility training is one of the best methods of preventing and managing muscle pain and tightness. You’ve possibly heard that you must extend before and after your workouts. If you’re weight training, it’s really only recommended that you stretch afterwards. Studies show that this is the mainly successful time to stretch.

    • September 23, 2014 at 3:43 am

      I agree that stretching helps a lot. You may notice that the following day when you try to stretch or if you skip a day or two, you will be back to square one and not so stretchy. BE cautious how much you push yourself. You are still pretty new to this and things are still trying to come back online and heal. Your daily limit of activity may change often or may not. Rule number 1…rest rest rest and listen closely to your body. Or it will force you into down time. Muscle twitching/spasms do ease with time. I remember when I didn’t have a night of my usual twitching. I thought something was terribly wrong with me! lol just my system trying to heal and recover. I still get spasms and twitches and must take a muscle relaxer at night.

    • September 23, 2014 at 12:18 pm

      I have been dealing with this for 23 years now and have not seen any improvement, quite the opposite actually. I feel for you! Have you been regularily checked for inflamation? The only thing that I have found to help me is steroids, but they are not a great solution as they can have very adverse effects. I am very weak on my left side and the pain is almost unbearable and I have been unable to find an effective pain medication. I hope you find some solutions that help you out!

    • September 23, 2014 at 9:54 pm

      Derek…*hug* I am so incredibly sorry you have no answers as to what is going on with your body. It sounds like CIDP since it is relieved with steroids. I am not a doctor, just someone who has done a whole lot of research for over 8 years. Have you seen a neuro?

    • November 28, 2014 at 8:32 pm

      Oh yes, had that. It almost drove me crazy trying to stretch out my legs, feet, back and torso. Good news is that in the past nine (or so) months, that has eased considerably. It is very much milder now and sometimes is so mild that it’s just enough to register in my brain that it’s happening. Rarely acts up to the point where I have to stretch anymore.

      Still get occasional muscle spasms, mostly in my hands, though.