Muscle spasms and swooshing sound

[Devin215]

Hey everyone.
I had to ask this cus I am starting to get scared. I have been ignoring the fact that my hands twitch and I keep dropping things, I get BAD leg pain and in lower back and I get muscle spasms in my legs and neck causing my head to jerk. ALso I hear a "swooshing " sound when I look side to side.....I am almost 6 months post op and have found I have mild facet joint degeneration and bulging discs in my lower back ( I saw a note on my physical medicine dr's screen saying possible early onset of DDD?). My physical therapy is done and my therapist could not get the nots out of my shoulders and back and the only thing remotely helpfull was traction. I need advice and want to know that I did the right thing by getting my surgery. They sent me for accupuncture and I have an appointment on friday. Anyone else have this?

[*Stormy*]

I still get the muscle spasms and twitches too. The ear swooshing for me is part of my overall hear problems along with the ringing ect. I find for me that when I feel more pressure in my head that the swooshing definitely gets louder so I am wondering that when you turn you head if it is causing a pressure buildup. Probably what you are hearing is your heartbeat.
I don't know what my post op MRI looks like yet (it's in June) but I consider that for me it is still healing and I have been told by a number of people that even the nerves healing can cause many weird symptoms...as they fire in spurts and starts. Someone told me it took her 2 years to have her nerves all working properly and she had many weird episodes up till that point.
The important thing is that you are getting all the scans and doing the follow ups to make sure that there is no re-blockage which it looks like you have done. I understand the fear, I think we all do b/c all these random scary things happen and you wonder how concerned you should be. For myself, I just try to calm myself down and let it go for awhile to see if it will disappear or become less bothersome.
I hope you figure it out...and the chronic pain clinic may be a good idea!
Carolyn

[selmaS]

I wish I had all the answers..but I don't unfortunately....all I can think is that if u r doing too much, that mayb the swooshing is ur BP......if it is higher than normal for u, mayb it rushes and u r hearing it????

Have u checked ur BP?

I still get the muscle spasms too....can be a vitamin deficiency....have u had labs done recently?...plus if u slow down on what u r doing it may help with the pain.....

"selma"

[Devin215]

HMMM maybe u r right selma but what about the swooshing sound I hear when I turn my head and the muscle spasms? I heard from my Dr and he gave me more percocet but said if the pain doesnt go away and calm down and if the accupuncture doesnt work he said I should enroll in the Chronic pain management program at kaiser...My physical medicine dr was talking about facet block injections too.... What is that all about? I dont know much about it....

[selmaS]

I would think ur body is saying u may be doing a tad too much...laundry?...it is the lifting u should try to avoid.....

Just slow it down a bit and add to what u r doing.....it just may be too much too soon....and as u heal u will find  when to add more  and ur body should rebel less......and less meds would be needed as well.

"selma"

[Devin215]

hi selma,
I work in a call center as a bill collector lol. So really what I do all day is sit in a chair and talk on the phone. I also do the typical house work of laundry, dishes, making the bed and cleaning. I also run a internet business on the side and about every 2 weeks i go to the warehouse to pick up orders. ALONG WITH THAT I have been doing stretching excercises and yoga along with what the physical therapist told me to do. I know I am still healing but worry that these symptoms r going to stay with me. Any advice? I am still on pain meds and muscle relaxers. I take prcocet and flexeril....

[selmaS]

Hi Devin.....many of us were dx with early onset of DDD...I actually had that dx b4 my chiari dx......this is normal and everyone will develop it as they age...we just get is earlier.

I would have to ask what is ur activity level?...what do u do on a reg basis?

Remember u r still healing : )

"selma"

[Devin215]

one other thing I forgot to mention I have been having balance issues too.... hves any of you zipperheads out there had this issue AFTER surgery?They have done post op cat scans which are (2) ok and showing evidence that the fluid build up is going away and they have done flexing views of my back and neck which the neck they said is ok and the back mild disc bulging and face joint degeneration. They also did MRI of the thoracic cervical and lumbar spine with and with out contrast and they didn't find anything seriously abnormal. What else is left to be done? I am getting very scared and upset.