Help - Is this Spasticity? Very concerned!

[roseRH]

I am in my early 30's and was diagnosed 3 yrs ago. I think I am experiencing spasticity. My legs are really stiff, like they don't want to bend when I walk - even in flats. I feel like I'm walking like Frankenstien. Is this Spasticity? If so, is there treatment? Will a Steriod Infusion help?

Thanks!

[SNOOPY]

Hello roseRH,

Yes, it sounds like spasticity. Steroids would not be the first choice to treat spasticity. There are medications that can help as well as exercise and gentle stretching.

For more information about spasticity:
http://www.nationalmssociety.org/abo...ity/index.aspx

[newme]

It sure sounds like spasticity. Snoopy is right about the steroids.

Does you neuro say anything about spasticity? A little bit of spasticity helps those of us with weak muscles. I take a med for mine but only when I need it. (My neuro knows how much I hate taking medication.) But for me stretching is paramount. Two days without a good stretch and I can barely walk.

Going to a PT can teach you some tricks to deal with it, if that is the way you decide to go. The MS Society had an article with stretching techniques not to long ago.

[cvbeach]

Frankenstein legs is what I called them also. Stretching helps but it doesn't last. I have tried baclofen and it didn't help. Now I take zanaflex at night so I can sleep.

[ThymeHBF]

I call it walking through cement LOL! I am on Baclofen 4x per day and Tizanidine before bed for that same thing. Snoopy is right, if this is the only symptom it is too early for steroids, but contact your Neuro because there are medications for you to try

[0485c10]

I started walking like a robot a few years ago. I went to my PCP for a normal check up not related to any symptoms & she bent my legs passively, there was no resistance to bending my leg when she bent it, so she told me i was walking much more spactically than was indicated by my leg movement.

the neuro switched my med from betaseron to tysabri & it cleared up right away..my neuro thinks i had developed a side affect to betaseron after 3 trouble free years of using it. it can happen to develop a side affect suddenly like that. she does not think tysabri helped alleviate my spactic walking she thinks stopping betaseron did.

we will never know what actually did it, medicine is like that

she made her decision because at the same time the spactic walking started, i would wake up in the middle of the night because my legs hurt and i needed to take somen tylenol so my legs would hurt less and allow me to get back to sleep. then i needed to take some more tylenol before i tried to get up in the morning.

she said MS doesn't do that, ms symptoms worsen with movement so she did not think my "spacisity" was ms related but a side affect of the med, i had developed.

from my pcp, i learned that spacisity should be apparent on passive movement not just when i moved. some resistance to movement when it is moved without me trying.

the definition of spastic is when a muscle receives commands to both extend and contract at the same time, making it difficult to do either.

Actually now that i think about it the pcp & neuro sound contradictory to each other?

mayby not?...the neuro said "hurt" on active movement, the PCP said "spacisity" on resistance to passive movement

this disease is so much like a puzzle to figure out what every thing means?
learning to spell was easier than learning to live with this disease and learning to spell was hard!