Wednesday, July 8, 2009

A Little Relief

I am now taking two pills to help control my muscle cramps. Not two different medicines, but a double dose. My transplant coordinator asked me the other day if the extra dose was helping me at all. I told her that I was still having problems and that sometimes I still woke up in the night with muscle spasms. We have already boosted my potassium intake and my calcium to help make sure I don't have an electrolyte imbalance. But even that hasn't helped. I have also read that most people going through liver failure have trouble with cramps until after transplant and then they go away.
The other day I got a terrible cramp and my wife had a suggestion. "Maybe you should run one of those body massagers over your muscles and see if that helps." We found a massager and the next time it happened I ran it across my calf and in less than 15 seconds the cramp had started to dissipate until it stopped all together. Later that night after I went to bed I was awakened by one of my awful night time spasms and I used the massager. It took only seconds for it to go away. I am not sure if this is really working yet, but it does seem to be doing the trick.
I am really psyched about this new discovery that Lois has come up with and I am hoping that it is a solution to my problem. Before this, it usually took several minutes for my cramps to go away. Sometimes I would have to wake up and walk around and I'd lose quite a bit of sleep because of them. But now they are gone within seconds and I can easily fall back to sleep.
If there is anyone else out there who is reading my blog and have cramping issues, then I strongly urge you to give it a shot. It sure can't hurt.

3 comments:

  1. I'm glad you found some relief from it. Cramping muscles are horrible to endure. I've had somethjing going on for a week that is making my legs so achey and sore, so I can sympathize.

    ReplyDelete
  2. So glad you are finding a little relief from the pain. You're in my thoughts and prayers always.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm going to pass this helpful tip on to my husband as he too suffers from cramps daily from his liver failure.

    Thanks for visiting my blog, and it's nice to meet you.

    I wish you all the best and pray you too get a liver transplant one day soon, and all these issues go away.

    ReplyDelete