2ND DAY IN A ROW

[Waydwnsouth1]

Ever since yesterday I have been suffering with an unusual pain in my neck and lower back. The neck feels like alot of pressure is being applied to my vertebrae. It is painful to bend my neck and when I hold my head upright my neck seems to tighten up. It is a constant pain and nothing I do seems to relieve it. Well they are back today.

The lower back feels like feels like severe spasms. The pain comes on whether I am standing or bending. The only thing I found to help is to sit down. But when I get up it starts all over. When I Got up this morning my lower back was sore just from yesterday.

Is this associated with MS or TM or both? I was told last Weds. I had TM with MS as the primary disease.

Has anyone experienced this? I am not sure wether I should call my neuro or not. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[hunterd]

I've experienced a stiff neck and sore back, but then never attributed it to MS. I always just figured that i slept wrong. Many times it did happen a couple days in a row. You mentioned it does not bother you when you're sending, what about when you're laying flat like in bed?

[Redwings]

Hi:
Sorry to hear you're having so much trouble. If the pain and the spasms are new, they're worth a call to your neuro.

I have a couple of other thoughts. The first is that your neuro isn't adequately addressing your spasticity/spasms. The cliffhanger at the end of the last episode was that you're on a relatively low dose of baclofen and that, instead of increasing your dose, your neuro has been adding small amounts of other meds. That approach doesn't seem to be working well for you.

One of the guidelines of prescribing is to start with one med and use it adequately before changing meds or adding another one. Based only on what you've told us, it doesn't appear as if you ever got into the "adequate" zone with a primary spasticity med. Unless something has changed with your spasticity meds that you didn't tell us about, it may be past time for you to have another discussion with your neuro about that.

My second thought is that you're still not clear about the meaning of your TM.

Is this associated with MS or TM or both? I was told last Weds. I had TM with MS as the primary disease.

Your question is phrased as if your TM and MS are two separate conditions. They're not.

Calling MS the "primary disease" implies that TM is a "secondary disease." But your TM isn't a disease -- it's just a kind of MS lesion you have (did you read through your last thread about TM?). Whether you have a spinal cord lesion (unilateral or transverse), a brainstem lesion or a cerebral lesion, they're all MS. There's no either/or. It's all the same thing, with the effects determined by where the lesions are.

If what you're really wondering is whether the new symptoms are from your transverse cord lesion or from some other MS lesion(s), the answer is that it's impossible to know without knowing more about where your cord lesions are. That's all worth a call to your neuro, and maybe even a new MRI.

I hope you get some relief soon.

[Waydwnsouth1]

Hello Redwings,

Perhaps I did not expain myself properly. I did read your very insightful reply to my TM question and I gained a much better understanding. I should have simply put "Spinal Cord Lesion". Sorry about that the mind is not woking clearly today.

Thank you for replying to my posts. I always walk away with a far better understanding of the topic.