Wondering if anyone has had something similar. About 10 days ago, I got extremely sore neck muscle pain, which gradually moved down to my shoulders and is now everywhere. It’s skeletal muscle pain, torso, arms just everywhere. My right arm is so bad now I almost can’t use it. It is very difficult to get out of bed or up off the ground. I’m tired but no fever, some pain with the glands in my neck. I’ve not been doing anything unusual, just never experienced this before.
I have been plagued with whole-body muscle spasms/cramping since I had chemo. It is walking misery. I can't even yawn without getting a knot about the size of a large marble under my jaw, or chest spasms that take my breath away. So while not the same as your muscle pains, it is equally debilitating. My sympathies to you.
Thank you. Crossing my fingers that I’ve avoided the big “C” for this long. Watched my wife go through it, that was quite enough.
I'll get a strange pain or two out of the blue and the next day it's gone. Give it some time and it may go away on it's own. Then there is the change of the season. The cold seems to magnify what ails.
I, too, have been getting strange pains, but nothing as severe as yours @Thomas Windom. The cramping @Beth Gallagher complained about is similar to some pains that I experience. Cramping in the trunk is something I have not had before, but stretching seems to relieve them some. Joint pains and tremors in my left arm are also a problem. When I was getting regular massages I had none of these, but my masseuse went out of business (retired) after her husband died. My wife still gets them from a different source, but our needs are different as well. Maybe a couple massages would help.
I wonder if it's a good idea to see your doctor, Thomas. I let colds & the flu try to work themselves out for weeks before seeking care (I let the "might be my thyroid" stuff go for a month), but something like this might best be snipped in the bud in case it might progress. I also wonder if taking Vitamin D3 in the meantime might not be a bad idea. Articles say that a deficiency can cause such symptoms, but I don't know if "somewhat low levels" might as well. The USRDA for adults 71 or older is 800 IU (20 mcg) with a tolerable upper limit (absent having certain issues) of 4000 IU (100 mcg.) Walmart stocks a broad range of dosage amounts, from well under the minimum to well over the maximum for those of our age. Here's an article on D3 so you can read the precautions for preexisting conditions.
@Thomas Windom It could be the non-descript syndrome called fibromyalgia. My first question is "Do you take statins?" If you are on statins, it could be the life-threatening rhabdomyolysis. Taking Co Q10 tends to lessen the occurrence of this, but if you already have the symptoms, it is considered an emergency and you should see a doctor or the ER right away.
I get a muscle spasm in my neck now and then. It's very painful and it has me worrying that it won't let up, but it always does. It seems to be related to yawning or stretching. I'll get cramps in my feet sometimes too, always related to stretching. Foot and leg cramps were a whole lot worse when I was taking statins. The neck cramps are fairly new, though. They won't fool me with that "might be my thyroid" stuff though, because I don't have a thyroid.
Sometimes magnesium or calcium deficiency can be the cause as well. Easy to check. Just take some soluble magnesium or calcium and see if it goes away or lessens. If it doesn't, then it wasn't the problem. Blood levels don't mean much unless you are really deficient.
The first things I thought of was either a Statin problem or a lack of electrolytes such as mag, zinc, calcium and sodium. If a person is getting enough electro’s then perhaps D3 needs to be increased in order for the minerals to metabolize properly. We had a doctor who specialized in geriatrics and he told my wife and I that all seniors should take at least 1000 units of D3 per day. Needless to say with all the supplements I take, I hammer down 4000 per day. Still, as @Don Alaska and @John Brunner suggested, a quick visit to the doctor would be a far better start to getting the right answer to your query Thomas. I too hate the idea of going to a doctor but sometimes the profession is a necessary evil that we all have employ for better answers.
Yeah, I have an appointment in Dec. but wife is pressuring me to go now so I’m going to make an appointment soon. Have a home inspection to get ready for today after getting contract on our home and a (different) doctor appointment for tomorrow so I’ll see when I can get to see my regular doc soon.
Don't forget that Emergency Rooms are there for a reason. A morning or mid-day visit is not an unpleasant experience.
The thyroid is involved with regulating calcium in the body too, so I take calcium. However, while I almost never forget to take my Levothyroxine since it's taken in the morning without food, I sometimes forget to take the calcium since it has to be taken with a meal.
Yup. When my nephrologist was trying to figure out why I was dumping so much calcium from my system, he ran tests on my thyroid and my parathyroid glands. I asked if I should get a Bone Density Scan, and he said that he did not think I had that issue since those tests came back fine.