tight/pulling lower leg muscle

[Sunnytoday]

my walking is still bad, and now my muscle in my lower leg seems to be tightening up. for example, if I lift my leg my foot wants to point down as though it's being pulled there by the muscles in the back of my leg.

When I stand up, I can feel the pull and the awful odd tightness in my muscles from me just trying to keep my feet flat.

If i sit and try to put my knees forward and my feet under them my feet rest on my toes because my legs are drawing my feet tight. Am I explaining this right?

My mom is talking to a PT from our church, and will try to work some excerises on the muscles, she rubbed my feet last night and it seemed to relax my leg muscles so they wouldn't pull them downwards so much... and this morning they were a bit better, but now they are back to the same place they were last night, all tight and contracted feeling.

What is happening and why? Please, anyone with medical knowlege, I'm just wondering the "why" of it. I am very mobile, even though I have a shuffle... drag... windmill type gait from my last two flare in May and June. I walk around all day long, and even though I have an "office" job for clinicals I do a lot of walking, so it's not from being lazy, trust me.

I hope that this in itself doesn't make my walking become worse, it's already becoming harder to stand, squat, or just sit very comfortably... and it's only been about a week that this started.

Any specific suggestions to stop this from getting worse?

~Sunnytoday~

[Sunnytoday]

Laughs.... you won't believe it, mom suggested the same thing, so tonight I sleep "upside down" and with my feet at my headboard. Hey, if it helps I'm all for it.

As far as what makes it worse, umm.... i can't tell ya, as it's just worse now all the time all day for the last week. If i knew what was making it worse I'd probably try to change it.

ok, gotta run along. I'm exhausted. I was pushed around Wallyword for the last 2 hours and that always makes me "lose it". I usually can't think there very well, and on top of the fact that I was cold and stressed, it just didn't go too terrible smoothly. I know what it's like to feel helpless.... being shoved along by a 10 year old too fast and you can't do anything but pitch yourself out if you feel like it's just getting to bad, yelling at her doesn't stop the ride. And when you are in a wheelchair and someone is saying something in your ear that is hurtful, you can't just walk away... and you can't scream at them to stop. (ok, so i did and had all of wallyworld looking at me) but still..... I requested a different pusher after those 2 incidents and was quite happy to have mom back "at the wheel".

Any rate.... I don't like shopping anymore. I know this has nothing to do with spatiscity (sp?) but it was my evening.

~Sunnytoday~

[jensequitur]

That's tough, if you don't have a footboard.  Hmm... The only thing I can think of is to sleep upside down and use the headboard.

As to what causes it, hey, I'm pretty sure that Quix has written something on spasticity.  I think it's the nerves sending bad signals to the muscles, so they're constantly flexed.  The muscles are just doing what they're told to do.  In this case it's just bad info from the nerves.  This problem is worse with me when I've done something strenuous, like exercise or working in the yard.

[Sunnytoday]

ooohhhh.. so that's what that word is. Grins. I should really know it, I'm sure I studied it somewhere along the line the last two years.

I will try that... but the stetching is only temporary- but I guess a little good is better than none!

what causes it?

I don't have a footboard, But I can tell that my feet are really pulling down at night too, hmmmm... sleep in tennis shoes? (smile) ok, practically, what should I do?

~Sunnytoday~

[jensequitur]

Sounds like you've got some calf spasticity.  You can stretch out your calf with a simple stretching exercise...  While standing, place your foot a little behind you.  Bend the other leg until you feel your calf stretching.  Don't bounce!  It helps if you hold onto something in front of you too, like a chair or door frame.  Start out gently, and get that muscle to pull out a little bit.  It's going to take repeated stretches just to get the muscle to loosen up.

I had this problem while sleeping, and I found that I could scoot until my feet were touching the foot of the bed, and the rail on my waterbed would prop up the feet until they were pointing up, and not curling.

[tonyad]

Sorry you are feeling so bad. I can not tell you why your leg muscles are doing that, but I can share with you that the tightness and pain you are feeling in your legs, are the same thing I am feeling in mine.
I will be looking at other peoples replies along with you to see what they think.
Take Care,

~T