Questioning BFS After Surgery

[robinUK]

I’m not a frequent ‘poster’ on the forum, but I do read a lot of the posts, and like to compare my experiences with others.PROLOGUE:In autumn 2009 I had the EMG and was diagnosed as having BFS with cramp. It started to get a concern around the spring / summer of 2008, one year after having an operation for a prolapsed L5 S1 disk. Three months before the op I was getting more intense sciatic pain (and ignoring it like a man does), but one evening it got too much so with many pain killers I went to bed. The next morning I lost a lot of function in my leg where the nerve was being compressed. I particularly remember I could not push my heel of the ground and when I squatted down my calf felt ‘dead’ or ‘cut off’ and much different then before, but physically it looked and felt the same.BFS:My recovery from the op was slow I believe. I read stories of instant relief after the op but my rehabilitation took over 2 years to really improve my movement and fitness. Then it started. Localised in the left calf, the fasciculation’s started and intensified to such a level, I could not relax my ankle as the calf muscle would contract into cramp almost immediately.INTENSITY:As we all know, exercise excites the fasciculation’s, but I needed exercise for my back rehab, in fact if I had exercised before maybe I would never had been in this situation? But I knew it was important to me so I would have to put up with the BFS.CRAMP:Let me be clear, the cramp was so severe that whenever I relaxed horizontally (not a euphemism for anything) the calf would cramp up. After a gym session, laid down in the sauna, my calf would twitch so much it was like a mobile phone vibrating on a table. It felt like my leg was moving about on its own!I under estimated the cramp naively sometimes. In 2008 I went on a diving course. In the pool with a flipper on, my calf cramped and due to the water resistance I could not lift my toe up in time, and the cramp stuck. I had to be rescued, and lost my confidence after that. (By the way, well done if you are still with me).MORE EXERCISE:In May 2009 the BFS was at its peak, but I was still exercising and enjoying it, but after a discussion with a personal trainer, I decided to sign up for some 1 to 1 sessions. Though sceptical at first, my range of movement in my legs and back greatly improved as well as my general fitness, and I really enjoy my exercise, though the BFS in calf’s remain.‘MIRRORING’ BFSJust before I get onto the interesting bit, does anyone have mirroring symptoms? I do have a few twitches in the right calf, no cramp thankfully, but the weighting is about Left side 98%, Right side 2%. This is the only thing that does not link this whole episode with my initial L5 S1 disk prolapse.WHAT IF I TOLD YOU MY BFS INTENSITY + CRAMP HAS REDUCED BY 50% IN THE LAST MONTH?It’s true. But something has happened to me and I wonder if there is a link?I got shingles 3 weeks ago. I got a big fat wet rash on my shoulder, chest and neck, and I’ve been off work since. During week 1 I was house bound, feverish, and miserable. Half way through week 2, the blisters dried up, and pain area reduced in size, and it was then I noticed that my calfs were not contracting into cramp when relaxed, and the BFS reduced considerably. I went to the gym 2 times last week, 3 times so far this week, increasing intensity, and the amazingly ( so far) the BFS has reduced.Now we all know that BFS is linked with the nervous system, and Shingles is an off shoot of chicken pox that also attacks the nervous system. I’m just wondering if the body’s natural defences in fighting Shingles is also improving the BFS?OK – I’m not back at work, so I’m not in a normal routine, but I also believe my personal training sessions that challenge my movement in the legs & back have helped in a big way, and has this attacks of Shingles contributed in any way, in terms of my body fighting this illness somehow having a positive effect on my BFS?Who knows, but I’ll keep you posted.Rob.

 

[AllGoodHere]

That's quite a story, Rob, so yes do keep us posted. I also had one ruptured disc and one partial - no operation - but it was after bcfs symptoms first appeared. I also feel better when I exercise although lately the spasms and cramps have kept me from it. Did you have chickenpox when you were a kid? I did and have never had shingles - however I wouldn't want to catch them to see if they affect a bcfs cure. I hear they can be quite painful. I know of one other that did get shingles while having bcfs/pnhe and it didn't affect him afterward one way or the other; funny he told me he never got sick other than that time and thought it had to do with his pnhe and immune system. Interesting concept about the immune kick start though. I used to feel better when I had a cold but my neuro said it was just because I was tired from the cold and my body was forcibly relaxed from it. I doubt we'll ever know as that doesn't happen anymore - symptoms continue cold virus or not although I don't get sick often. Maybe there are others here that had shingles and will chime in. You've only had this since 2008 - not long by some standards so it could be a pnhe phase or you could just be getting better as some of us do. We'll hope its the second one.....

 

[ootcruiser]

Rob, our stories are remarkably similar. I’ve had back problems with L4/L5 & L5/S1 for almost 10 years. I have not had surgery, but have had nerve root blocks done several times. The last time I had severe pain, in March of 2006, the sciatic pain was down my left leg and I could not raise my heel off the ground. I also lost feeling gin the outside of my foot. After the injections, I was able to exercise (mostly on the elliptical) and get most of my mobility back, but still have pain to this day. I exercise and stretch religiously, and I attribute that to having my mobility and limited pain. If I miss a couple of days of exercise I can literally feel my back tighten up and the pain begins to creep back in. In July of 2008, I got a small localized twitch in my left calf. Since then the twitching and cramping have consumed my left calf, and moved into my right calf, but not nearly as bad. My left calf goes 24/7 and is strong enough to constantly move my foot when my feet are crossed. I have literally hundreds of movements a minute in my left calf. I got extremely worried when this all started, and after my first EMG, started to develop twitching all throughout my body. Nothing as intense as my calves, but a few twitches here and there every few minutes. In my experience the exercise makes my twitching worse at first, then it seems to make it calm down on my rest day. If I don’t exercise for a couple of days, the twitching seems to intensify also. I’ve been to two neurologists and after an EMG and clinical they both seem to think the twitching is linked to my back problems. In addition to the herniated disks, I also have mild spinal stenoisis. So far I have not been successful in reducing the amount of twitching, but the cramping seems to be letting up. I’m growing frustrated with this twitching. Now, the twitching is so bad I’m embarrassed to wear shorts in fear that someone will notice my calves twitching like mad.What types of exercise do you find works the best for your back? Can you do anything to reduce/eliminate the twitching?Keep me posted on your story. I think your theory is interesting.