I have extremely tight muscles. Nothing seems to help. Advice?

Posted by daphne47 @daphne47, Dec 13, 2020

I have a lot of pain, ranging from head to toe. One thing that I've always had trouble with is extremely tight muscles. So, i easily get pulls and cramps. When I saw a physical therapist, they couldn't believe how tight I am all over. No matter what I do, relax, stretch, exercise, they go back to being tight. I have tried the suction cup therapy and it works for a day. Does anyone else have this experience? Muscles that just want to clench up? Im used to it now, but im still young. Would like to improve my mobility, any advice would be great.

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@sunnyflower

Hello Daphne77, I am Sunnyflower. My heart is heavy reading about your muscle tightness and cramping. I know how this feels.

Often these excruciating muscle tetanies can be caused by an electrolyte imbalance such as low Potassium and abnormal sodium which can be an easy fix. Have you had your electrolytes and a blood chemistry panel drawn at the lab when symptoms are present? Calcium, sodium and potassium govern muscle contraction s.
Does your heart beat differently such as irregular and faster during these Sxs other than from the pain?
May I ask if you take diuretics which can also be responsible for your Sxs.

Exactly how much water do you drink per day? Coffee? Tea? Both diuretics.

What does your doctor say about your Sxs?

I suffer from what you're going through for years and lose many, many hours of sleep bc of it.

Stretching before bed hasn't worked for me but does for a lot of people.

I would ask your doctor to put in an order at the lab for electrolytes, chemistry panel and anything else he/she can think of that would be causing this, with the understanding you will go have your blood drawn as close to your Sxs as possible.

I will be upholding you in prayer for you to get relief and the answers you need.

Many blessings, Sunnyflower. 😊🙏

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Excellent reply. I pray it helps him & many others !!

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@daphne47

Ive had recent problems with low potassium. Seeing a specialist soon to figure things out. I have on and off high blood pressure, which i recently got on medication again. My resting heart rate is kinda high. I drink enough water, probably too much. Potentially something like diabetes insipidus, on lithium over 10 years. So, we will see in a few weeks! Thank you so much for your reply.

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Once other issues are ruled out, PT is often helpful for chronically tight and/or spastic muscles. A good PT who is trained in pain management can find gentle stretches that can improve things over time - but ruling out other causes and getting all electrolytes, calcium, etc to proper levels first is important.
Sue

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Hello Daphne47
My name is Kim and I have been reading your posts, I have muscles that don’t relax and are in constant contraction. I have had this my entire life and just a few years ago my doctor referred me to the Mayo. I have Myotonia Congenita Thomsen disease. I am in pain constantly, my blood work is all good so I had genetic tests done (3 of them) I am going back to the Mayo for more testing to make sure my pain is related to the MC. I just want you and your son know your not alone. There isn’t a lot of people with this it is rare. Stay strong and if I can give any suggestions I would love to try to help. I know this isn’t what you are going through except the muscle not relaxing.

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@ess77

Oh, my goodness, Sunnyflower!!! I've taken prescription potassium for many years. My potassium blood level has never in my alult life been within the normal range. It always runs low, below normal. At one time, I had to be taken to the hospital by rescue from a party at a friends home. My potassium was 2! Low normal is 3.4 or 3.5. Now, before I left the Mayo hospital a few weeks ago, potassium was up to 4!!!!! I do not remember it ever being that high! Perfect. Thyroid med level is good now, since hospital as well. Prednisone has caused me longtime problems, as well. I was diagnosed at Mayo in the 80's with sarcoid, on an extremely heavy dosage of prednisone for 8 months, then tapered down after having serious brain/thinking/suicidal thoughts. I have a love/hate relationship with that drug. It did save my life. Put the sarcoid in remission. I have flare-ups occasionally, my lungs are the weak spot for inflamation. Steroids are usually involved with treatment, with z-pack, inhaler, prayer. Lots of prayer. I don't know what prednisone has done to my organs. No definitive answers to that. Just know my body has a lot going on......osteoporosis, CHF-better EF in hospital, from 50% a year ago to 70% few weeks ago in hospital. Doctor attibuted most of the increase to a difference in technician measuring techniques during the echo. I attribute it to the water therapy pool 2X weekly. BTW: I haven't been to the pool since a couple weeks before I was in the hospital.....I'm stronger now, so will be in the pool this coming week! My word....you were on prednisone for 20+ years? and IV treatments? I've been on it throughout the last 40 years, off and on, but never had IV treatment. I so thrilled to have the right regulation of my thyroid. HAd no idea what a booger it can be! Heart rthym, skin!!!, nails!!!, hair!!!!, brain, cognitive abilities, and more. Hospital docs reduced my levothyroxin, now even my nails are improving. Dry skin has been a problem for a hundred years, but it really got ridiculous the last couple years. My dermatologist recommended Veniderm??? from CVS or Walmart. Any suggestions? Well, sunnyflower, what a hoot! You, ashby1947 and I have much the same kinds of issues and lives. It's wonderful chatting with you both, sharing with folks who truly understand and I don't feel like I'm whining or having a pity-party. I allow myself 1 pity-party a month. That's fine, but no more. But, to be able to discuss with folks who know and know first hand what I'm feeling is amazing. I have a very alone life, for many years, due to health issues, and caring for others and just life. Aloneness is my normal. Loneliness comes and goes, but you are a gift. Thank you for being here. Elizabeth

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Hello Elizabeth, again, after reading every detail of your message, I think we are twins separated at birth!

I have also been hospitalized for low potassium and am very familiar with the range of normal numbers. I have to take so much of it and when they test me for it the next day after severe muscle tetany, the number is usually only one or sometimes two points above abnormally low. So that tells me that had I not taken the potassium, I would have been back in the hospital. I just hate the changes that happened to our hearts when our potassium is not normal!

I understand that relationship with prednisone. I am still on it daily and now that my adrenal glands are insufficient, guess what the treatment is? Prednisone! I also have injectable steroid in case I get into adrenal crisis and am I unable to take my oral prednisone. I feel my body is extremely toxic and wish I could get off all these meds.

I am sorry to hear about your sarcoidosis. So it is in remission now? I hope so!

I too am also a swimmer but each time I am in the pool, I get injured by another swimmer or the very hard plastic lane dividers. People swim on their back and they use strokes where they reach outward with their arms and legs and I just don't think the lifeguard should allow that when another person is in the lane right next to them because the lanes are very narrow. And I am not wide. The last time I was in a pool was a year ago in the summer I think, and someone who was trying to swim so fast around me kicked me in my foot I was paralyzed by the pain! I never knew that underwater, you could be so injured but it turned out to make my entire foot grossly swollen and bruised and I ended up with a blood clot by X-ray and had to keep my foot up for a few weeks. I have not been back to the pool but think about it constantly and want to go.

Yes to everything you said about skin and nails Etc. I battle it all day everyday. I have to use Kiehl's lip butter as over the years it is the only thing I have found that really works on my lips. I use it all day long and it comes in a berry color so is pretty. I don't keep the top on it however as you probably know, bacteria like dark moist places. And it is recessed down enough into the tube that it won't get dirty in the places I keep it.

It breaks my heart to hear that you are alone. Do you not have any family or friends in your life? I feel extremely badly if that is your situation. I am so sorry.

My memory is very affected by the gabapentin and the toxic drugs so please forgive me if I am repeating myself but I can't remember if I told you what it is and really, the only thing that gets me through my unrelenting all-consuming pain from head to toe from several of my diseases / conditions.

I am in a good marriage for almost 29 years but an abusive painful marriage for 17 years before that. But even though I am in a good marriage now, I can still feel quite alone and I believe I know why.

I am a bible-believing Christian and walk very closely with our God. It is that intimate relationship and a deep study of the Bible for approximately 47 years, that has led me to know and understand God that is, His mind, character, heart, how He feels about me, his plan and purpose for my life and my suffering, and what I have promised for my eternal life in Christ.

God is a jealous God and He will not allow any person or thing to satisfy the needs of our souls except for Himself.

When I forget to stand on these truths, the spiritual warfare takes over and it takes place in the thoughts of the mind. The Bible calls Satan the father of lies, false accuser, who is looking to devour and destroy us in our most vulnerable areas. Unless I spend time in God's word I don't have much victory in my thought life.

God is so present in my daily life and it is His comfort and peace through Christ that gets me through and knowing what I have to look forward to when I passed from this temporary life which is only a blink of an eye compared to all eternity.

I have come to know the sacrificial, deep, boundless, vast, unmerited, love of Christ which is so unfathomable I cannot really wrap my human mind around it! But I know it to be true.

I am the biggest skeptic on the planet and pretty cerebral / scientific so I have done a lot of research and the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ which is really non-negotiable historical fact. It takes more faith to be an atheist than it does to be a bible-believing Christian due to all the evidence. Biblical Christianity is really an evidence-based faith.

But even though these things can be proven in a court of law, one still must reach out in faith and ask Him into our lives to be our Lord and savior meaning, acknowledging, that the blood He shed on the cross was for our sins to. The original word for sin, ra, just means missing the mark in light of 100% holy God who cannot accept sin into heaven. It doesn't have to be murder. Just a bad attitude or selfishness separates us from God until we repent and are truly sorry for it and then we have wonderful forgiveness! God does not expect us to be perfect in our human bodies but we do have the flesh and spirit natures once we receive Jesus and become children of God. Then it is constant spiritual warfare AKA a battle for the mind so when I get rid of the stinkin' thinkin', I replace it with truth like a really great scripture that has changed my life.

A verse I hold on dearly 2 when my pain is so severe that it causes me to fight for my sanity, is Romans 8:18 "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us." And then of course when I study what they did to Jesus before they even nailed Him to the cross, which He willingly did and ultimately for the purpose of us being able to relate to Him and knowing that He can relate to us and who never asks anything of us that He has not done or been through Himself, it makes me have a much better understanding and perspective of our suffering here on Earth.

It just blows my mind that in the Old Testament when they describe all the details of what they did to Jesus before and His crucifixion, death by crucifixion had not even been invented yet! The Bible says that what they did to Him before the cross was so bad that He was not recognizable as a human form: Isaiah 52:14:
" As many were astonished at you— his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind" and this was before it even happened!

Anyway, you probably know all of this but I have such a passion for God and just can't help but share it!

I guess you talking about being so alone made me want to tell you that I too experience that even though I'm married, it's not because of my husband being here, it is because of my relationship with our living God. You may already have that but just in case I thought I would share my story and in some way it could help you not feel so alone.

I hope you have a blessed day and thank you for reaching out. Let me know if there is any specific way I could pray for you or be here for you Elizabeth.

Warmest wishes and hugs, Sunny flower. 🤗🙏❤️

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I have had this issue for many years and although I am older now (65), I have a PT now that suggested using a firm roller and some home exercises. Some of the exercises are relaxing and some are not, but they are helping to relax the muscles in my back, shoulders, and neck.....I also use heat on my calves nightly which has been helpful. No more nightly spasms making me jump out of bed in the night. Good luck on your journey finding relief. Some people use baths, but I don’t like them much, take care😊

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@migizii

I have had this issue for many years and although I am older now (65), I have a PT now that suggested using a firm roller and some home exercises. Some of the exercises are relaxing and some are not, but they are helping to relax the muscles in my back, shoulders, and neck.....I also use heat on my calves nightly which has been helpful. No more nightly spasms making me jump out of bed in the night. Good luck on your journey finding relief. Some people use baths, but I don’t like them much, take care😊

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I deal with muscles all over my body that hurt. I don't know if it's due to my CRPS - the stress of constant pain and the nerves being flooded by the windup from my brain. But my thighs, calves, arches, lower back, neck, and shoulders constantly feel like my body is in the aftermath of a grand mal seizure. The muscles are seizued up, tight, locked up, sore,
My body stays in this constant state of tension. It never loosens up, ever. My right arch and foot are in a state of constant and horrendous pain. It is constantly cramping and requires someone to rub it to loosen the cramp or I can breathe much less be able to walk. I use foot baths to relax my feet two to three times a week because I can't walk very far and exercising my foot is close to impossible. I love to soak in the bathtub, but getting out of it comfortably is almost impossible. It takes a lot of effort to climb out of it, too much almost to even try now.

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