Muscle Spasms In Front Part Of Thigh

Anyone get muscle spasms in the front part of their thigh?  Feels like someone taking a pair of pliers and squeezing the daylights out of your leg?  I've been getting these for a few months now and muscle relaxers didn't really do much for them.  Just wondering if you do, what helps to relieve the pain?  They bug me because they come on out of nowhere, and I sometimes let out a small "ooooowwww" in inappropriate places. LOL.

[Heather3418]

Hi Patti,

This has been one of my symptoms for over 10 years.  There are alot of medications that the doctor's will try to help relieve these kinds of spasms...and yeah...they HURT.  Alot of doctor's use the anti-seizure medicines on the market, because they feel that these are like "muscle seizures."

I have a large lesion in my spinal cord and my doctor's feel that this is the cause of my daily leg pain and spasms.  I have gotten little relief from the spasms, but for some, the anti-seizure medications have been a god-send.

I personally suggest talking to your doctor about this and getting his opinion.  If you can take one of these medications without having to resort to narcotic pain medication, I feel this is the best way to go.

I feel your pain, Patti.  I really, really DO feel it with you.

Heather

[shoshin]

Hi Heather,

Just wondering and thought maybe you would know... What is considered a large lesion on the spine? I have one that's described as 25 mm superior-inferior, 5 mm anterior-posterior. An inch sounds large to me, but I really have no context for this.

[Heather3418]

You know sweetie, I really don't know what they mean by large lesion.  My lesion is about two vertebrae long.  How ever long that is.  A inch or so?

The lesion I have looks almost like a long finger on MRI.  It is on the right hand side of my spinal cord and is at or near my bra line.  When I am in a flair-up and it highlights, it looks like a Christmas tree in my spine, since all of my vetebrae show all the bone spurs I have on every one.  It really does look like a Christmas tree.  The bone spurs are not unusual since I am 54 and was a very active ballerina in my past and very, very active in all kinds of sports.  

I hope that Quix can tell us both, how big a lesion is really of any consesquence.  I think it is, when it comes to the spine.

It's good to talk to you.  Haven't talked to you in quite a while.  Don't we have a great forum Sho?  I am SO proud to be a member here.  I have so many friends here...including you...I don't know what i would do without all of you.

Be well hon, Heather

[shoshin]

Yes, this forum is great. Especially all the dedicated members like you who share their information and experiences!

This thing on my spine is apparently from approximately C3-C4 to C5-C6 so I guess that's about two vertebrae. That's what those numbers are, right? I don't know if the distance between vertebrae varies in different areas of the spine, though.

[Wobbly]

Hi all, Heather...is a Cervical Spine MRI only of the neck, or does it go down the back as well.  My Dr gave me the impression it's only the neck?

[shoshin]

I'm not Heather :-), but there's a nice picture of the cervical spine on Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cervical_vertebrae, which shows it as just the neck. The first time I had MRI's, they also did the thoracic spine, which is below the neck. I think I read somewhere that you can't get MS lesions below the thoracic spine, but I can't find it now. Heather or someone else will probably know more...

[Quixotic1]

Hi, I'll try to weigh in here, being that you are all so confident that I'll know something.  The spinal lesions you are talking about - being greater than 2cm in length are considered large.  Long spinal lesions are often very symptomatic and often associated with severe pain syndromes.  But, in the spine, where all of the nerve fibers have "purpose," even small lesions can have big consequences.

The spinal cord extends from the brainstem (the pons and medulla) to just about the bottom of the thoracic vertebrae.  Below the T-spine there are just the nerves that have originated in the cord flowing freely (in what is known as the "cauda equina" or the horse's tail - 'cause that's what it looks like) heading for their exits between the vetebrae of the lumbar and sacral spine.  The reason there are no MS lesions below the thoracic spine is that there is no central nervous system white matter below there.  Beyond that point begins the Peripheral Nervous System.

An MRI of the Cervical spine will catch the brainstem and the cervical spine to C-7.  The image will often catch a bit of the top of the thoracic spine in order to be sure to get everything.

Shoshin - I don't think we have met.  Welcome.  I was gone most of the month of November, but I am an old member of this forum.  I bumped up the thread that is supposed to contain the stories of those of us with a diagnosis.  From the description of your lesion, I suspect you have a diagnosis.  If so, would you add your story of what you went through from symptoms to diagnosis?  It is a good way for new people to meet one another and to see how varied the process can be.

Quix

[shoshin]

Thanks for the welcome. We haven't met, but I feel like I sort of know you since when I found this forum I went back and read quite a few months of old posts. I poked around a lot of MS forums, but this one really resonated with me--it seems to be a very supportive and caring community. Plus there's lots of great info.

I read a lot on the web and in books about the basics of MS once it became a serious possibility, but after a while those things start to get repetitive and I also felt like I couldn't identify with a lot of the things they talked about. One thing on this forum that's really helped me is just to see the variety of people's experiences and the way MS manifests itself. So I'd be happy to post my experiences on the diagnosis thread in case it might help someone else. Some of it will be repetitive for those who read my earlier posts, but I imagine no one can keep track of all the details of the multitude of people who post here.

[shoshin]

Bump for Suzanne. The post I was thinking of is two up, but I'm not sure now if it really answers your question. It does talk about the break between the CNS and PNS, though.

sho