As those who are in my close social circle (well, maybe not so close – I’m generally fine with telling people) know, since mid-2015, I have a Spinal Cord Injury (SCI). It wasn’t due to an accident or anything like that – just something congenital that I was born with and didn’t show up until I was in my late 40s. [For those who might be wondering, yes, I am still able to stand and walk, but I have some other issues and on-going effects that I won’t get into.
One of those effects, though, is semi-constant spasms in my feet and lower legs (along my shins much more than my calves). [Note, unlike what you might think from “popular” terminology, a “spasm” isn’t twitching – it’s continuous muscle activation.] As you might speculate, most muscles aren’t really great at being continually tight for, well … seven years.
Needless to say, this leaves my feet and lower legs hurting … a LOT. I’ve also had my feet twitch (the “other” kind of spasms) some of the time while laying in bed trying to go to sleep. The combination of these things has left me not really able to walk a lot (as the “knots” in my feet tighten up dramatically and then become incredibly painful) and also made it more difficult to sleep.
The only suggestions I’ve ever received from my doctors (including when I was in rehab, recovering from the initial surgeries) were, of course, for medications.
And they were pretty much all medications that I’d already been on at some time or another and none had done anything useful. So, as you can imagine, I didn’t bother with any of them.
I’ve been continuously trying to figure out what I might be able to try or do to help with the issue. I purchased a foot massage machine which does help – some … but it doesn’t actually solve the problem.
Then, I had what seems to have been a brilliant idea!
If “Western” approaches aren’t helping at all, why not try something Eastern? And the first thing that came to mind for that was acupuncture. It’s been a couple of weeks now (and I’ve been going twice a week), and my feet and legs are definitely showing signs of improvement. Having talked with the doctor (acupuncturist), we are planning that, once the muscles in my feet and legs are a bit more stabilized, we’ll shift focus to attack the source of the problem – the nerves in my spinal cord that haven’t quite “rewired” themselves to get around the damaged areas …
I’ve got my fingers crossed for this, since, honestly, so far this seems to be the best thing that’s even touched this problem at all.
