Painful Shin

[Pentland]

My husband is suffering with a really painful right shin. The pain only starts when he goes to bed. Painkillers make no difference. The Dr and Physio have both had a look at it and can't figure it out. Any ideas?

[fothergilla]

My dad with psp had terrible pain in his legs at night. We could never quite solve it but even heavy pain meds like oxy didnt take the pain away. We did have some success with muscle relaxers. In his case I believe it was spastic muscles caused by the damage to the brain. Hope this helps.

[Pentland in reply to fothergilla]

Thanks for your reply Fothergilla. On reading.some of your previous posts on this subject I realised that my husband's legs move around a lot during the night. Is this restless legs and if it is, it may be the cause? I will try massage before bed and perhaps a heat pad. Thanks for your help.

[fothergilla in reply to Pentland]

I am not really sure. My dad was just plagued by this problem. I would say it was one of his first symptoms before he even had balance problems. At first it was like restless leg syndrome and he took the medication for that. I can't say it helped solve the problem. It just kept getting worse until he would want to stand up all the time. To him that was the only thing that helped but I know the muscle relaxers did help. We tried massage. He wasn't that keen on it and then heat and rubs and tonic water and magnesium in vitamin and skin oil. The neuro seemed sure it was the spastic muscles causing the problem. I couldn't figure out why massage didn't help more. It could have been my dad just didn't like it. He even tried Botox but the neuro said it might not work because of the size of the muscles and I don't think it helped much. The baclofen provided relief but he just kept needing more and more in larger doses and it caused confusion. It was just dreadful and something I don't see a lot of on this sight. Wish I had a better answer. Hope something will work for you. Everything is worth a try I figure. Until the end he was still taking ropinerole for restless legs. It was really the pain that he just couldn't tolerate. And the pain always came on at night. I don't know why. He could be relatively comfortable during the day with low doses of baclofen and then just in agony at night. Good luck and sorry for the rambling. Just something I dealt with for a long time.

[abirke]

Have they done an MRI? It may be shin splints or worse yet stress fracture that are not detected and may be more painful at night after theyve been used all day. Also he may be laying on a nerve.....two other people I would visit is a Chiropractor and or a acupuncturist.

[daddyt]

Definitely PSP related...I have similar pain from time to time and take a muscle relaxant for it. This is not the same as restless leg, which I have and is more of a legs "crawling" feeling than pain... very uncomfortable.

[Pentland]

I should probably have said that my husband is no longer mobile as his balance is almost gone due to CBD and an Acoustic Neuroma which is a non-malignant brain tumour that grows on the balance nerve. They are totally separate conditions. So it seems pretty unlikely that its shin splints which, I have to admit, was the first thing I thought of as I have had it myself but as he hardly walks, it seems unlikely. I very much appreciate the input.

[Kevin_1 in reply to Pentland]

Hi Pentland

Just Liz and I saying we are reading your posts and are sort of 'here for you' as in we care.

Not much to offer.

warmly

Liz and Kevin

[Pentland]

Thank you Liz and Kevin. This is what I love about this forum, everyone is so supportive. I think that's "offering" a lot!

[Marie_14]

Pentland

My husband is in hospital at present. Last night sleeping beside him I noticed his legs moving around. He then started to moan and had a look of real pain on his face. I wasn't sure if it was as a result of his legs or his chest. He was admitted in the early hours of Wednesday. He had aspirated so has a bad case of pneumonia. He has stopped eating apart from yogurt and jelly. However my daughter said today he didn't even want that.

Not a reply to your question really. It might be as a result of PSP though? They gave my husband morphine last night for the pain and again today. Think maybe it is his chest and he is also complaining of headache. Not looking good for him.

Give hubby some strong painkillers and see how he does?

Marie x

[Pentland]

Thanks for your reply Marie. I am so sorry to hear about your husband's condition. I hope things improve very soon. Our Dr gave my husband co-codamol but not strong enough. I tried massage and a heat pad tonight so I am waiting to see if this helps. Look after yourself.

[psplife]

My husband struggled with leg pain (right back hamstring) and regular massages helped so much. We tried every pain killer and finally he was able to tolerate gabapentin (sp?). We even did stem cell injections to that area.