Undiagnosed Muscle Cramps, twitches, and spasms. Need relief...

[queenlian]

Hello,

I am a 22 year old female. My illness started just under a year ago. I woke up in the middle of the night with a severe "charlie horse" cramp in my right calf. It lasted 15 mins, and returned again for a second time half an hour later. The next morning i had sever bruising where the cramp was from what appeared to be torn muscles. I was fine for a few days, but then began experiencing a shooting pain whenever i stepped on the outer pad of my right foot. This lasted a week, and from then on my symptoms began to expand.

I started feeling a constant twitching in my right calf muscle, like when you're tired and your eye twitches. It was not visible to the naked eye as it was far enough under the skin to not be seen. I began to notice that any strain on the muscle at all would cause it to seize into a charlie horse cramp. I slowly over the next month began to notice this up my entire right side. A yawn would cause my neck to seize up. Bending over would cause my side to seize up. Writing too long would seize my hand up. And even the slightest movement of my foot would send my leg into the most severe of cramps. When my calves cramp up it looks as though there is water boiling under my skin. It bubbles, pops, ripples, and spasms in an utterly painful and disturbing display.

I had bloodwork done which revealed everything was normal and I was sent to a neurologist. My neurologist preformed an EMG and NCS, which came back normal. I was then sent to have a c-spine MRI done. It revealed that my spine was begining to curve in the wrong direction which i'm told is common for people presenting with muscle cramps. I had an MRI done, with and without contrast, revealing nothing. I had an angiogram done which also revealed nothing.

I was sent to physical therapy which only proved to make my condition worse. By this time the sypmtoms had progressed through my entire body, not just my right side. they tried several medications, none of which helped. I also began to notice rapidly decreasing vision, incontinence, abnormal hair growth, difficulty swallowing, inability to concentrate, ringing in my ears, exhaustion, inability to fall asleep, and stiffness in my joints.

I saw a neuro-muscular specialist at a large presitigous medical college who suggested i inject botox into my legs to stop them from cramping. I have seen so many neurologists now that i'm beginning to feel its hopeless. This illness has comepletely taken over my life and I am so tired from fighting it 24/7. It affects every decision i make and follows me everywhere relentlessly. I am currently on a trial of baclophen which seems to be making things worse, as did most the muscle relaxants i was put on. My new neurologist told me that my best bet is to simply try medications untill i find one that treats the symptoms well enough to make it from one day to the next. This was the most devistating blow yet. I cannot accept that i may suffer from this for the next 60 years of my life with no answers. It cant be normal for a 22 year old to pray to god every night that they find something in her blood work or MRIs... so that the mystery can be solved.

Please, if you have any notion as to what may be causing these ailments, or if there is another doctor i should be seeing, please let me know. I am so despirate for answers.

-Adriane

[sergio956]

Hello queenlian , just wondering how things are going for you ? Did the diet do anything for you ? I also wanted to add , that we've basically settled on Icy-Hot gel for when she does get a cramp , it stops them almost instantly. Though , the cramps (1 or 2) she's had since the incident , seem like normal cramps anyone can get at night , not the strong one she got that time. I dont really know what was happening , but it looks like controlling the cramps , diet change , resting , and good sleep really have helped my wife a lot. I would suggest the diet , as well as trying to control the cramps with Icy-Hot by applying it when you feel you are going to get a cramp , and resting , not over doing your legs. Maybe something like a muscle relaxant pill as well , not nothing powerful like baclofen or anything , my wife was given Flexeril by the general doctor which saw her the first time , and thats what we used while she was having the cramps and twitching. She has since stopped taking it completely , but during that time it was helpful , I would advice to go to your general doctor and ask him about it , since it's not as strong a medicine yet it seemed to help her with the twitching. I would advice trying all this things , and very importantly , resting , and good sleep , letting your brain , body , and muscles relax , recuperate , and heal. I'm not exactly sure what my wife or you could have , but I know what we have been doing has been working , and I'm hoping it can work for you as well.

Even though I don't know what caused this problem with my wife , let me tell you the change she had in her life before it happened , see if maybe you were going through a similar situation or if something seems similar. About one or two months before my wife had that massive cramp , which led to more cramps and constant twitching , my wife had started medical school. And she was VERY VERY stressed out all the time. She would wake up early , go to school , come home , eat something quick , and go to study till around 11 or 12 at night , and go to bed. Wake up and do the same thing again. She also told me she had been taking to stairs in school every day , while carring all her books which weighed about 50 lbs. She also would skip breakfast most of the time , to make it to school in time. I am not sure which of this if not all could have contributed , but after around 2 months into school , she woke up at night to that horrible cramp , which basically crippled her for the rest of her semester. When she started getting much better was after summer vacation , when we focused on her resting ,forgetting about school or anything stressful , eating well , and getting good sleep at night. And in this couple of months , she has changed dramatically , she hasnt had any more twitching or cramps , she is very active , doing house work , playing with our little girl , taking walks , and even exercising , and she has stopped taking any medications. I'm very happy to see my wife moving around again , feeling good again and being happy.

I'm really hoping that my posts can help you out queenlian , the description of what happened to you , and how it started , is identical to what happened to my wife , she is doing much better with what we have been trying , and I'm sharing in hopes that this information can help you get better yourself. Let me know how your doing (hopefully better) , if I find out anything else I will post here. And be careful with the doctors , I'm glad you stopped the neuro , after 1 visit we decided not to go back , he gave my wife medicine which made her feel sedated , and made her arm start twitching (which it had never before) .  Oh yeah , and a daily multivitamin like one a day , I would also recomend , specially one with 100% of Thiamin (vitamin B1).

Well , good luck queenlian , I hope to hear from you soon , take care.

[ragonhild]

LYMEDISEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I HAD ALL OF YOUR SYMPTOMS YOU NEED ANTIBIOTICS!!!!!! FOR SEVERAL MONTHS.
www.lymenet.org

[mdhatton]

Hi I told about Mycoplasma. Since then they are also looking at Lyme's disease.
Hop these ideas can maybe help.

[sergio956]

Here is another one that could be ,

http://www.fibromyalgia-symptoms.org/

There are so many diseases out there that have this exact same symptoms it's hard to tell which is the one. And from what I've read , doctors have a hard time finding which problem it is as well , because of the nature of the disease.

[mdhatton]

Ask you Dr. for a test called Mycoplasma. My son is going through alot of what you are. This is a bacteria infection that is onle caught by a test for this. Everything else comes up normal. Onle certain antibiotics help.
Worth a look.

Good Luck

[sergio956]

Another thing I would sujest queenlian is , when your legs are really tired or hurting , is to rub either some theragesic ,or some icy hot gel on your legs , this really makes my wife feel much better. Usually , her legs start to feel bad at night , specially if she has been moving too much during the day , when this happens I usually rub some icy hot gel or theragesic on her legs , and she goes to bed , the next day she wakes up feeling much better. You can try one or the other , see which you like best , they are different but both seem to help a lot , though the icy hot gel is much less messier to apply. I hope we figure out what this is , and that this does not turn out to be a progressive dissorder, since thats what scares me the most , but for now we are just trying to live with it and hope for the best. Good luck queelian.