Living with Spasticity

True story.  I woke up one morning and found myself stiff as a board.  It's not like it happened all at once, but this fine morning was the worst yet.  To go from a prone to seated position I have to reach over to one side of the bed and pull myself up, this involves quite a bit of twisting of the abdomen and legs, all of which feel hard as a rock.  Now I want to bring my knees to my chest and get a good stretch.  I grab behind my thighs just above the knees and pull up, pull up, so stiff.  I flop back and hope I didn't forget to properly place the pillows, bringing my legs to my chest.  Hold.  This is one of the best times of my day, having my knees in my chest with my hips tilted up - all the pressure is relieved from my lower back.

Now I let one leg down and bring the other all the way up, giving my leg an elongated stretch.  With my leg straight, I hold my foot above my head and try to give it a stretch.  Oh, have I mentioned the spasms?  Bringing my legs up from the bed causes these stiff limbs to quiver and shake.  I bring them up slowly trying not to push past the obvious resistance, but still knowing that if I don't this will only get worse!  With my foot in one hand, as I hold my leg aloft, I slowly push my toes down towards the top of the foot.  Bump, bump, jump, and jiggle.  Keeping my thigh up, I bend my knee back up and down, continuing to keep my foot flexed.  Each rotation causes a spasm.

None of this hurts.  There is no pain involved in doing these stretches.  The abdominal tone is another story, but we'll get to that later.  For now, I'm fighting off the stiffness and spasms in my legs by trying to give my legs a full range of motion.

So, here's the cool part.  After stretching both legs for several minutes I sat up and reached for a pipe.  This isn't my usual go to first thing in the morning, but this was a particularly difficult morning and I needed some relief!!!  Guess what happened next?  In mere minutes, the muscles in my legs let go their stranglehold and allowed me the freedom of movement I so eagerly craved. Mere minutes, I tell you!  Oh, and Hillary Clinton, they've been doing research on this for many years and it's pretty clear it flippin' works!

About the abdominal tone, this is what's really kicking my ass.  I went to a physiatrist earlier this year for the tone and after a battery of tests, nothing conclusive was diagnosed as problematic and there was no clear solution.  I had an MRI, x-ray, gyno exam, and colonoscopy done, with nothing to show.  (I guess that's good, but by god, I want an answer!)

Muscle tone in a person with an spinal cord injury (sci) can usually be a sign that something else is going on, like an ingrown toenail, pressure sore, or something else happening below the level of injury, the area where I have no feeling.  (Just a quick note on that, some people with sci have some feeling below their level of injury, with varying degrees of sensation.)  Having these tests done were supposed to help me narrow down a problem, but there's nothing obvious here...

So what to do now?  I have options.  Drugs, surgery, stepping up my exercise program, give up - these are all choices.  I do not want surgery, nor do I want opiates!  I've been doing research and there are a lot of great articles out there, but there is no wonder cure.  I'll link to a few articles that I came across in my research that you might find interesting too.  I can't let this stop me, there's too much to do!

http://newmobility.com/2011/09/spasticity-relief/

https://www.christopherreeve.org/living-with-paralysis/health/secondary-conditions/spasticity

http://s3.amazonaws.com/reeve-assets-production/Spasticity-9-14.pdf