Le Tired

[trickykitty]

Another torso spasm started up around midnight last night, two hours after going to sleep. By 6am this morning I was "borrowing" a couple prescription pills from roommates, one in particular that I think is denting this more than anything. The pain completely dissipated about an hour after taking the pills.

At 11:45 I went home for a longer lunch to take a nap, since I essentially only got about 2 hours of sleep last night. While I was asleep, I woke up to my sternum area starting to hurt again at about 1:45. I got dressed, took 3 Ibuprofen and a Valium, and headed back to work, and by the time I arrived back at the office it was full on pain again. It's now 2:45 and while sitting here in my chair it feels like the pain may be subsiding again, so I'm guessing the Valium might be helping with the muscle spasms somewhat (it doesn't always - sometimes when these hit the Valium doesn't even seem to make a dent).

Unfortunately, the doctor's office is closed for the weekend. My message therapist that I see only rarely is also off until Monday, and the chiropractor is closed on Friday. At least he's open tomorrow, so I'll be paying him a visit then.

I'm ruling out a heart attack, even without having someone hook me up to any sort of heart machine. There's too many posts from people online with very similar symptoms that go through many doctor visits without ever getting a good answer. I also feel perfectly fine and healthy as soon as the muscles stop spasming, albeit extremely worn out and tired, and the pain doesn't seem to radiate from the heart. The closest thing I see online is what's known as a MS Hug. I might try some of the tips that they give for that and see if it helps. I do wonder if given my history of various types of migraines if there might exist some sort of diaphragm migraine, or something. That seems to be from where the bulk of the pain does radiate. And...when I do a search for diaphragm migraine it seems to co-exists in the MS forums with the MS Hug. Go figure.

Interestingly, a common treatment for the MS Hug is actually cold, versus hot. One person talks about drinking some ice water quickly and another uses cold compresses. I've been using heat, so I may try the opposite approach and see how that pans out. I know cold is also used when someone has a stroke, as heat makes the damage worse. I keep thinking heat would help because it feels like muscles spasms, and heat tends to help with muscles, but if it actually is something more nervous system related, like strokes are, it can't hurt to try cold compresses over hot.

Either way, this is the 2nd attack in 24 hours, 3rd attack in a week, 4th attack in less than a month, and 5th attack in two months (hence why I'm recording these attacks here). They are becoming more frequent and longer lasting, so yeah, I'm worried.