spastic legs

[wheelboy]

how do you cope with it

I had a heart churgery 10 years ago .This left me with a brain damage .At least thats what they think .Since that time i have 2 spastic legs .Were you can see the muscles working overtime the whole day .Since i have sensation i feel cramps muscle hurting feeling the muscles working the whole day tired feeling legs.

I went to my general doc to ask if he had a solution for it that leaves my legs a little less active .So that i can sleep well and dont have the muscle hurting and tired feeling the whole day .He told me that he had a medicine (muscle relaxer) but that the side affects are feeling sleepy the whole day and that it also afects the good muscles in my body .Since i work fulltime i cant use those meds since i have to drive my car and cant lay sleeping on my desk .Since that day i aked him i never used any meds for my muscle spasms .

How do you handle it ?

Thanks Mario

[ex-Gooserider]

No spasticity myself, but I've heard that many folks have gotten at least some relief by use of medical Marijuana... Of course that has it's own risks in terms of getting caught, but...

ex-Gooserider

[Burgerman]

baclofen works a little, alcohol works best, weed works ok...

[Fulliautomatix]

Yeah, Baclofen.

[LROBBINS]

I suggest that for this you speak to a neurologist rather than GP. Baclofen (a.k.a. lioresal) is the most commonly used drug for this, but there are others as well -- it may be necessary to try more than one to find out which one works well enough at a dose that doesn't make you sleepy. Baclofen is NOT a muscle relaxant; it is a neurotransmitter agonist that works at the nerve level to activate those neurons that are responsible for "smoothing" responses. It can make you groggy, but is less likely to do so than a muscle relaxant. For more info, check out Wikipedia or google for the full prescribing information.

If oral meds don't work without making you dopey, an alternative is an intrathecal baclofen pump that puts the med directly in the spinal column. Doses needed are about 1000 fold less, but it does mean surgery and pump refills every 2-3 months. My daughter has in ITB pump, more for dystonia than spasticity so her catheter goes way up in her spine and her dose is much higher than used for spasticity. The oral dose needed for her would have just put her to sleep. It is effective, but as with any major surgery not without risks.

CIao, Lenny

[Anderida]

I've heard acupunture works well. No side effects either.

[nandol]

weed works ok...

side effect,munchies!!

[Step]

Botox was first used as a treatment for spasticity, before Hollywood discovered it.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/32812.php

[LROBBINS]

Yes, Botox can be very effective if the spasticity is localized to one or a few muscles. Some people (my daughter, for one unfortunate example) quickly develop resistance to it. She was having big trouble with one leg, the first botox injection worked beautifully for 2 months or more, and repeats did nothing at all. Ciao, Lenny

[Goibot]

Used baclofen but it didn't touch it. Cramps so bad I couldn't sleep at night for more than an hour or so at a time. Tried weed and slept like a baby.

[ex-Gooserider]

This is one of those things that has tremendous variation - each drug seems to work differently for different people depending on their individual biochemistry and the exact nature of their injury / disability, and so on...

Essentially you need to find a good doctor that is willing to help you experiment with the legal stuff, (and a good dealer for the not-so-legal stuff) to see what (if anything) works w/o unacceptable side effects...

ex-Gooserider

[2senile]

Bit late to this thread but everybody says I'm a day late & a dollar short. ...

They tried me on Gabapentin (think it is called Neurontin in USA). The GP "said" it was for my pain but reading the enclosed leaflet it is also used for spasms. Side effects can include increased spasms. *waves hand in air* Head started slamming backwards, left leg leapted upwards a foot. Not on it anymore. Think the "see a neurologist" advice would be your first & best course.

[Burgerman]

Smoke a pipe with some weed, have a few beers and a couple of vodkas and guess what. ZERO spasm. The only time this ever happens.

[2senile]

When I was still shuffling around at less than 1mph in the '80s, '90s & early '00s the amount of booze I imbibed did nothing for pain & spasms. Fortunately, the amount of booze I imbibed meant I didn't care about the pain & spasms.
Didn't have a problem with hangovers either; never bothered sobbering up for nine years.

Can't drink now due to the medication.

[ex-Gooserider]

Bit late to this thread but everybody says I'm a day late & a dollar short. ...

They tried me on Gabapentin (think it is called Neurontin in USA). The GP "said" it was for my pain but reading the enclosed leaflet it is also used for spasms. Side effects can include increased spasms. *waves hand in air* Head started slamming backwards, left leg leapted upwards a foot. Not on it anymore. Think the "see a neurologist" advice would be your first & best course.

I think Gabapentin is the "generic" name, and Neurontin is the patented trademark name that costs more for the same thing... It is one of the more annoying things that we seem to always have a bunch of different names for the same drug, and different docs use different names, so it can get really confusing both in trying to talk with them and in what to put down on your list of "drugs I'm currently taking"

ex-Gooserider

[wheelboy]

well as anybody would know the dutch are very liberal in drugs .I used some weed in a sigaret lol gave me anxiety attacs .lol and i needed a few hrs to get of the coutch .Never again lol .A friend of mine uses it for medical reasons (pain relive) i asked him if i could trie it out .

Here in the netherlands you can get it on a recepy and than its for free .Since i dont drink alcohol thats no option also .But i found a solution that helps sometimes .I recline my wheelchair backwards and lift up the footsupport some pillows underneath my legs and sleep in my powerchair .for some reason it helps a lot (not always).

Well i guess sleepless nights will stay here for a long time .sometimes i sleep during the daytime when i have no spasms in my legs .