Sunmountain's Log

[sunmountain]

I meant I will take 2 of the Aleve tonight instead of 3 of the ibuprofen.

 

[charlie]

Second, I looked up Aleve, and it seems it would replace the ibuprofen, whereas Charlie is referring to Aleve replacing the tylenol. My doc told me to take BOTH ibuprofen and acetaminophen.

sunmountain, I was not referring to Aleve replacing anything. I was simply bringing forward the information that Blossom brought up that haidut found.

 

[moss]

Hi sunmountain..
I recently suffered a bout of costochondritis which was very painful and resorted to anti-inflammatories which I don't like taking but they certainly did knocked the pain and now am completely recovered. Aleve sounds like a good option and if you cannot actually get in the bath, a footbath with a ton of epsom salts is still worthwhile.
As for plumbing and unclogging the bath..... I had the plumber in for a blocked toilet yesterday... so I get your woes and it will get better! I hope you can find the cause of your muscle spasm.

 

[Blossom]

Sorry sunmountain I've been at work all day and just read your update. I think Aleve would be a good substitute for ibuprofen and dosing is typically every 12 hours so that makes it convenient as well. I love the suggestion on the Epsom salt foot soak by moss until your tub is unclogged! It sounds like Jennifer has quite a bit of experience with muscle spasms so hopefully the combination of everyone's input will get you to feeling better soon.

 

[tara]

Hi Sunmountain,
I think you can take either aspirin or ibuprofen or naproxen because they have some similarities in how they behave, but not take high doses of them together because that's when you can increase risk of overdose/side effects.
I think you take acetaminophen to any of the above for more pain relief if you need it, but that's the one that seems to be hard on the liver and mitochondria. I was told that using ibuprofen and acetaminophen (paracetamol where I am) together can increase the pain relieving effects.

If you haven't got a bath tub yet, I wonder whether a flannel soaked with dilute epsom salts slapped over the area and kept warm with a hot water bottle would help? Magnesium is often implicated in cramps, so if you're not already getting plenty, Mg in whatever form you can handle may be a good addition.

Jennifer's suggestions for tackling knots in your back sound good to me.

 

[sunmountain]

Thanks to all of you SO MUCH!

My handyman came and unclogged the bathtub. I took a long epsom bath.

Then I cooked and ate (shrimp and rice) and took 2 Aleve and now sitting under lamp.

Feeling good.

The morning ibuprofen pretty much got me through the day. Movement is good; no pain. There was a bit of muscle stiffness at work, but not now.

So WHY did this happen? Does it mean Mg deficiency? I have 200mg Mag gly at home; I could cut in half and take.

Also, coming back home from work, around 5pm I felt a few mild spasms in stomach. I then remembered that all this started Saturday night with ABDOMEN pain, which then spread to the back until that's all I felt.

Right now no pain anywhere, but I'm curious about the abdominal spasms.

 

[sunmountain]

I still don't feel any knots anywhere...but will schedule a massage.

 

[tara]

So WHY did this happen? Does it mean Mg deficiency? I have 200mg Mag gly at home; I could cut in half and take.

Also, coming back home from work, around 5pm I felt a few mild spasms in stomach. I then remembered that all this started Saturday night with ABDOMEN pain, which then spread to the back until that's all I felt.

Right now no pain anywhere, but I'm curious about the abdominal spasms.

Could be some unnoticed physical trauma from a bad lift or something has set it off. I have one or two yoga postures I either avoid or take it very easy with that risk aggravating an old lower back injury of mine - strong forward bends are risky for me. I am also fussy about which chairs i sit in - a saggy couch can get me too - good posture helps. Weak core support muscles can make it more vulnerable.
You could take 100mg Mg glycinate 3-4 times a day if it doesn't mess with your stomach.

Yes to massage.

 

[sunmountain]

I want to add something to the 2 Aleve's for extra pain relief. I took the Aleve's at 9pm, and feeling some mild spasm. What can i combine with it?

thanks

 

[sunmountain]

Now I understand why I can't feel any knots at my back. It's because the spasms are in my lower abdomen around belly button, but the pain goes into my back when I lie down.

So the 2 Aleve didn't work, and I woke up around 3am with churning guts. Ate some watermelon and drank AJ and took 500mg Tylenol, which reduced the spasms, but didn't take away the pain completely. Back to heating pad and trying to sleep.

This morning, ate breakfast and took 3 ibuprofen.

The weird thing is that the pain becomes much less just by standing and walking. Why are the spasms more when lying down, I don't understand. But it means I need the most meds at night.

So the plan is that I will take an aceteminophen late afternoon/early evening today, and then 3 ibuprofen again for bed. If I sleep through the night, then the next morning I'll take 2 or 3 Aleve for the day since the pain is anyway less when I'm moving about.

Anyone here take 3 Aleve at a time?

Also, I think I may know what caused the spasms. The last couple of acupuncture sessions had focused on "local points" on the abdomen, inlcuding the area where I'm having spasms. We did that because it gave me relief from the inflated stomach and fatigue. But it may have overstimulated things in there. That's my guess, anyhow.

 

[Blossom]

http://www.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_ma ... e_of_Aleve
You could also ask a pharmacist. Sorry about your troubles sunmountain.

 

[sunmountain]

Thanks, Blossom. Looks like I can take up to 3.

So this evening I had a sudden drop in something probably blood sugar even though I have been eating all day. Ate some chicken soup but still felt that empty and tired feeling.

Probably also not sleeping through several days has caught up. I need to take the 3 ibuprofen for the night but am afraid they will cause further drop. Am eating chocolate, jacksons potato chips, drinking AJ and still not much better.

So far so good in the pain dept, though feeling slight occasional twinges in abdomen which is a sign of things to come.

The ibuprofen has lasted me over 12 hours since the morning dose. I didn't take the Tylenol.

I guess I'll take the ibuprofen and then sleep and hope I don't wake up due to low sugar.

It's a comfort to log all this in here. I mean who else but us are interested in each other's health minutiae...

 

[sunmountain]

Well...here I am up again around 3:30am just like last night, so the 3 ibuprofen I took around 10pm lasted about as long as the 2 Aleve, though the pain right now is less than it was when the Aleve wore off at 3am last night.

Drinking milk, and then will take a tylenol to get me to the morning. Will take Aleve in the morning.

So...what is this? Some kind of IBS due to the churning guts?

And why does it only really come on at night??

 

[Blossom]

It might be the night time rise in stress hormones coupled with the fact that your not moving around that results in increased discomfort.

 

[Jennifer]

Hmm...this is interesting because I was getting the churning gut at night till I dropped the Minocycline and switched to goat's milk. My scientific explanation was my gut was trying to curdle the cow's milk. Yep! I'd make a lousy scientist. LOL

I was up with you this morning, sunmountain. I woke at 3:00am due to hunger pangs. Like Blossom mentioned, the early morning rising is most likely due to stress hormones. Whenever I wake at 3:00am, I know it's because my liver has run out of fuel. For me, stressful dreams usually accompany it.

 

[Blossom]

I woke up a couple times during the night while taking doxycycline recently. I suspected I was running low on fuel too. Having some juice and salt helped me get back to sleep when that happened.

 

[Jennifer]

Yeah, I think you're right, Blossom. When I was taking the Minocycline before bed, I was waking in the morning with headaches so I switched to taking it at 5:00am to avoid the sugar crash and sure enough, the headaches stopped. I have to remember to keep some juice at my bedside because I find when I'm all cozy and warm in bed, I would rather suffer with not sleeping than get up. I'm pathetic! LOL

 

[sunmountain]

So I ended up not needing the tylenol at 3am. Here's what happened. I went down and made myself a nice cafe con leche, came back up and sat in bed, slowly slipping it. I finished it and lay down and realized there was no more pain, so skipped the tylenol and went to sleep.

Woke up around 7 with a bit of pain, so got up and moved around, and the pain went away. Took NO meds today and felt no pain. Will take 3 Aleve tonight and see what happens. I know now that if I get up and move around and then sit a bit and then lay down, the pain seems to go away.

So I haven't been completely sedentary prior to this. I think I logged a little bit of walking some days ago, though after that the fatigue set in.

The nature of this pain is very strange. It behaves a bit like a histamine reaction and has a weird "logic" or pattern. Maybe that's how spasms are.

It seems to be slowly getting better. I still think the local point acupuncture overstimulated the guts. There is literally nothing else to account for it that I can think of. I came back with a better gut from Mexico.

 

[sunmountain]

Yea, the waking up was definitely the sugar running out. The meds took a toll yesterday, and though I ate all day, it wasn't enough.

Jennifer, when I did my low-dose mino, I also figured out quickly to take it in the morning. Or wake up at night.

I keep AJ at bedside, but these nights no amount of sugar helped. I didn't try salt, though I also didn't feel the need for it.

Blossom, why did you take doxy? Isn't it for tick-borne illnesses? My daughter was on it for a month last year.

 

[Blossom]

I ended up with a sinus infection that went into bronchitis and doxycycline was the fastest and easiest antibiotic I could get at the time. It worked well. I took 100 mg twice a day for 10 days. I would take the second dose with dinner, have a bedtime snack but still seemed to run out of fuel. A lot of people at work had the same thing so I'm pretty certain I caught it there. I was happy to make it through the winter without getting sick at least.