Hi I was wondering if any of you have experienced muscle spasms. I have been having severe spasms from Saturday night and still continuing to get stronger. Very painful and making me tired. Dr gave me diazepam but only get very short term relief. My muscles also feel stiff in my neck. I’m hoping this is just a short term thing and not related to ms. Louise
Hi Louise
Yes, many of us have spasms. There are drugs that can help. But it’s often a case of trial and error to see what suits you.
I take Baclofen throughout the day, weighting it more as the day wears on. A side effect can be muscle weakness, so it could calm your spasms but have the effect of making your legs feel weak. Some people have a very small tolerance for Baclofen because of this. I’ve built up tolerance gradually over years.
My spasms were waking me up at night so I asked for something to help and was prescribed Cloneazepam. It’s a benzodiazepine, as is Diazepam, but not quite the same as you can be on it for longer. You still have to be careful not to take too much. I take more in the evening than the daytime. It’s made a wonderful difference to my sleep.
You could ask your neurologist what s/he might advise? If you spoke to his/her secretary, an email could be sent to the secretary to forward on to the neuro.
Or you could just ask your GP to prescribe a low dose of Baclofen to see how much it helps. Or perhaps do both:get some Baclofen from your GP for the short term and ask the neurologist for advise in the longer term. I hope it’s part of a relapse and will go soon.
Sue
I take magnesium 700MGS everyday which is great for muscle spasms also you can buy the spray which works straight away
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Thank you. I have an ms nurse app today to see how my plegridy is doing so hope to find out if I can get meds for this as well. Thank you for making me realise I wasn’t going daft. This illness just springs things on us. I was lying in bed jumping about like a fish out of water lol.
I often describe my legs as ‘Riverdancing’.
Hope your MS nurse is/was able to help.
Just remember, whatever symptom you suddenly develop, there’s bound to be someone on here who’s experienced it before. So keep asking questions. There isn’t an MS for Dummies book that would possibly cover everything anyone needed to know and if there was, it would be out of date by the time of publication. And it takes a long time to get used to what your body now thinks are perfectly reasonable new symptoms to throw at you.
Just keep somewhere tucked away in the back recesses of your brain, that not everything is MS, so it’s a good thing to run new symptoms past someone, MS nurse, GP, us, whoever. There are things that can go wrong that aren’t MS related.
Sue
Thanks sue. Yes been referred to a occ health lady and a physio. Also getting a drug to help starts with a c can’t remember what tho lol. I’m feeling a little more positive today something has just clicked in my head that I can fight this silly disease Louise
Glad to hear you’re feeling a bit more positive today - don’t overdo the positivity though, you’ll end up forgetting how crap MS is!!
is the drug Cloneazepam? Or Carbamazepine? Or something else? I take Cloneazepam along with Baclofen for my spasms and spasticity. Cloneazepam is a great drug. It changed my sleep pattern completely. From waking up with spasming legs, I’m sleeping reasonably well, and when I do wake up it’s not because of spasms.
Hopefully whatever you’ve been given will work just as well and you’ll be skipping about like a new born lamb by the end of the week!!!
Sue
I’m newly diagnosed with PMS as a working diagnosis. I’m guessing that they’ll add an extra P after further tests.
Anyway, I’m getting increasingly worse muscle spasms in my calves and hamstrings, but, coming from a background of jogging, I already have a few bits of sports equipment, one thing in particular is very helpful for me. It’s an ‘Elite Massage Muscle Roller Stick for Runners - Fast Muscle Relief from Sore and Tight Leg Muscles and Cramping’ from Amazon. It is a mini muscle roller, so it is small enough to be easy to handle and reach around the muscles.
I am waiting for a neuro physiotherapist, MS nurse, lumbar spine investigation, Occupational Therapist, bowel and bladder tests, and a few others I’m sure I’ve forgotten. So, in the mean time, I’m trying to devise my own methods, which may or may not be advisable, but work for me.
When I get up from lying down on a bed or a sofa, I make a point of keeping my knees bent. If they are straight and my muscles cramp, then it feels as if the cramping is working its way up my body, which is worrying. I also do some exercises from the MS Society website, Get Active, or whatever. I can’t do all of them though with my right leg, but I can do little rocking movements, forwards/backwards toe to heel, and sideways left to right, that seem to help.
I hope that these ideas may be helpful for you.
Anne 
Yes clonazepam that’s the one! My memory is shocking lol. Good to hear it helps. Fingers crossed Louise
Thank you. These are things that I will definatley try. I hope all goes well with all your tests. Louise