Is what they told me it was - wasn’t given any advice it the pain when trying to sleep is pretty bad - wakes me every hour through the night without fail so I’m now completely knackered. Anybody got any tips for easing the pain??
Golfnut, if you don’t have any prescription muscle relaxants around, give Robaxacet a try. That sometimes does the trick for me when tylenol alone doesn’t help. (If you think about it, a muscle relaxant makes sense: enthesitis is an inflammation of the tendon where it attaches to the bone. Pain there would make your muscles tense. Relaxing the muscles will reduce the stress on the tendon.) The other OTC product that is good is something called Orphenadrine. It’s an older product, but it works well for me too, and it’s not combined with any other pain reliever so that you can decide how much tylenol or ibuprofen (or whatever) to take.
When I was undiagnosed, I had terrible hip and leg pain when I got into bed at night. Everything from the waist down hurt, throbbed, ached. I discovered that Robaxacet helped. I told the doctor and got an eye roll: she said it was the tylenol in the tablet that helped. But tylenol alone did nothing for the pain. After I was diagnosed, it made sense to me.
Readers: Golfnut is in Canada, where we can get non-prescription muscle relaxants.
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Thanks seenie - will look into these! I can’t take nsaid’s as I’m allergic but will look at the other things you suggested! Hope you’re well and had a relaxing holiday… I had loads of visitors but am now finding the house just sooooo quiet and feeling incredibly bored😞
You can’t take tylenol either? In that case speak to the pharmacist: robaxacet is also available w/o the tylenol under the name Robax. Sometimes it is special order. Ask the pharmacist about orphenadrine: sometimes they have it, sometimes they have to order it. Either way, ask what they suggest.
I like Seenie’s thoughts re. muscle relaxants. I’m pretty sure I get extensive enthesitis but fight shy of any remedy with the word ‘relax’ in it because of my old long-term pre-diagnosis way of thinking which basically consisted of telling myself ‘stupid woman, your posture’s poor / you’re too uptight / so neurotic / menopausal - no wonder your body hurts all over, Just Relax!!’
I’m getting fairly bad back pain on either side of spine where I guess there are a mass of tendons. Tensing-up activities bring it on e.g. extreme cooking (anything longer than half an hour imo), removing wallpaper, queuing etc. It is not there when I wake up and lolling on sofa interspersed with stretching, a good walk or swim etc. sort it out pronto i.e., now I come to think of it, relaxing the muscles. I can see you may need a muscle-relaxant, but have you tried some gentle exercise before bed-time?
Thanks Sybil - made me laugh thinking of you doing extreme cooking… Sorry you’re enduring the same sort of pain too… I have been doing quite a bit of exercise but I guess the key is that I’m not doing gentle exercise - it’s all go go go all the time which is just my personality type. I might try some stretching and massaging some traumeel cream in before bed as am getting desperate for some unbroken sleep.
Seenie - I can have Tylenol just none of the anti inflammatory stuff - tbh I’ve given up on Tylenol as it really doesn’t seem to help anything at all. Will visit the chemist today to see what they might have.
Thanks to both of you for your suggestions xxx
Ah the hip pain. This was my first symptom and it’s stubborn one. Kept me up last night as well. It started raining today and I swear the day before the rain is the worst for me. At one time a heating pad helped but not lately. To help with sleep I have a ridiculous number of pillows in my bed including a full body pillow to prop me up wherever I need to be propped to change my position and try to feel pain free. I’ve found that rolling out (using a foam roller) my quads, glutes, IT band, and lower to upper back gives me some relief. I do this when I wake up in the middle of the night. It’s best to do it before I go to sleep but I often forget. It’s like a massage in that it softens the muscles around the area. Rolling out can be painful because everything is so tight. Sometimes I have to avoid my IT band because it hurts too much. And I bought the softer white 6-inch foam roller which is better when I’m hurting. I save the harder black roller for when I’m not in pain. Tylenol doesn’t work for me either so I understand. Hang in there.
I wonder if this is like trochanteric bursitis. I have this. It seems to have a waiting time to rear its head after injury. I used to take stairs and found that even 4-6 steps could throw me into major pain often a day or 2 after. Sometimes right away if already acting up. I absolutely avoid stairs or steps. If there is no other way, I take one step at a time using arms to raise my weight very slowly to avoid injury. This pain is a the seam of your Jeans, side of hip. Rheumatologist has put cortisone shots there and helps a lot. Carefully consider what actions from recent days might make this worse. Those tendons are killer.
Mine seems better with heat, but yours may do better with ice.
My preferred muscle relaxant is single malt scotch, 12 year is fine 18 year is divine. However far more practical is roll (towel or pillow) under your knees and making sure you do NOT sleep on your side. EVER. The one must have accessory for every PsA patient is a heated mattress pad and yes they can be used year round.
For OTC meds (in the US) never underestimate Midol.
A TENS Unit is also helpful. Some of the store bought ones work pretty darn well.
IF your PT has a trainer on staff get with him. Movement and exercise helps a lot. Enthesitis is a pretty common athletic injury. Trainers deal with it better than the PTs.
Depending on how long a bout is some systemic steroids can help as well. A common practice in our area now is Colchicine (especially in the chest) Its pricey but can be had at a compounding pharmacy for about 50 cents on the dollar
BTW Dot, its NOTHING like any form of bursitis as painful as bursitis is, PsA related enthesitis makes it seem like nothing… When the hip Enthesitis gets rocking and rolling the Acute pain (there are no soft edges of pain) extend across the entire pelvis and down to the knee There is zero give to the sheaths…
However its rare that trochanteric bursitis is bursitis. Its now called greater trochanteric pain syndrome and is usually due to tears or damage to the nearby muscles, tendons or fascia and an inflamed bursa is an uncommon cause. Thats one of the reasons getting “shot up” is effective. The bad news is it lasts for months on end without significant rehab as you are constantly reinjuring the area…