By Gwen on Saturday, December 02, 2000 - 10:35 am:

Does anyone else find that the pain and hypermobility increase at night?
By and large I manage fairly well during the day. Once I've been up and moving for an hour or so things seem to settle but nightime is another matter.
I am woken by shoulders subluxing; pain down my ulnar nerves into my hands; deep, draining pain in my lumbar region and sciatic nerve dysfunction which is sometimes pain, sometimes cold tingles and at other times as if I've had a severe case of sunburn on the back of my legs or one of them will go totally numb. I also find when I have the lumbar pain that I feel as if I'm constantly needing to go to the toilet although I know that's not so.
My thoracic vertebrae seem to go out and my upper back muscles then spasm and hold them into the "out" position. My thumbs also go out but in a forward position across my palms and I have to yank them back to where they should be.
I have tried to overcome these things by using a buckwheat husk pillow (absolutely fantastic) to support my neck, by sandbagging myself into a neutral position with pillows and resting my hands palm down on the bed so they can't curl but nothing is entirely successful and some nights are described in terms a nicely brought up girl shouldn't know!
I find that during my first toilet trip as I am sitting I perform self-chiropractic and about five or six lumbar/sacral vertebrae will all realign. Once that happens everythings seems to settle down as far as sciatic symptoms go but I haven't yet worked out how to attack my thoracic problems. Any suggestions?

By Elle Elàn on Saturday, December 02, 2000 - 11:50 am:

The feeling you experience when you lie down sounds very much like what I feel when I 'overdid it'.When I know I shouldn't do something or go any further I sometimes finish the job anyway 'cause I know I won't be able to pick it up in the next few days and at the present time the pain doesn't stop me yet.THEN once I sit down, I experience about the same things you describe. I hate to say it but maybe you overdo things in the day time or before you lie down anyway.About the thorax;have you tried lying without a headpillow but with a pillow under your knees and lowerlegs? I find that's the only position that my body is realy comfortable with and keeps everything in the right place.It may be a bit hard to adjust to sleeping in that position but after 3 yrs even I am beginning to at least fall asleep that way.Hope it works for you!

By Sheena on Saturday, December 02, 2000 - 03:33 pm:

Gwen,
You have helped so many people on this board, I wish I could help you, but unfortunately I can't with this one.

My left side seems to be much more hypermobile than my right side, and I always lie on my left in a very stretched "recovery position" when I go to sleep. I have a Tempur mattress and pillow, which I had to get as my previous mattress was hurting me. An osteopath told me he recommended a very soft mattress on a firm or rigid base - it seems to be working.

I then discovered it helped to keep a medium sized teddy bear (I promise this is true !) under my top arm to keep my shoulder up.

In the morning when I wake I lie on my back with no pillow (it has to be with no pillow) and stretch for a minute, but I can't sleep on my back. Any longer than a minute and I get worse rather than better.

I hope you can find something that works.

Sheena

By Gwen on Saturday, December 02, 2000 - 05:19 pm:

Elle and Sheena, thank you so much for your suggestions. My left side is more hypermobile too Sheena. I wonder whether it is to do with being right-hand dominant and possibly having stronger muscles on that side of the body which keeps the joints in place better, altho' I think people have previously commented that it doesn't seem to be that which causes it.
If I lie on my side I have a pillow under upper arm and leg to try and keep everything in alignment, and also because my knees and ankles are too sore for one to rest on the other.
My preferred position is on my side but like you Elle I need a pillow under my lower legs if I'm on my back. Haven't thought about going without a head pillow before. I'll give that one a try.
I find I can usually gauge what sort of a night I've had (if I haven't been awake half the night trying to get comfortable!) by the amount I've travelled around the bed by morning. On good nights I'm a very tidy sleeper but on bad nights all the bedding is rucked up or on the floor and my nightie soaked in sweat as a result of the pain. I always used to attribute it to hot flushes but as I'm well past the age for those little joys I think it must be pain related.
I'm sure you are right about overdoing it and I do try to discipline myself but find I frequently don't realise I've done too much until I stop and then have a wave of pain sweep over me. The last few weeks have been very busy but my course has finished and I'll now have the opportunity to sneak back to bed for a couple of hours in the afternoon if I want to. Something deliciously decadent about siestas!

By Gwen on Monday, December 04, 2000 - 10:36 am:

Elle and Sheena, just reporting back to let you know the pillow under the legs has worked a treat. I've had two good nights' sleep from about 11pm to nearly 6am and no toilet trips!!
I'm still getting the ulnar nerve problem but my orthopaedic surgeon thinks he may be able to do something about that. He thinks the problem is due to the fact that the nerve slips out of its groove in my elbow and stretches over the bone which is what's causing the numbness and pins'n'needles. Says he can either deepen the groove or secure the nerve in place (staples?) Has anyone else had this type of surgery? If so, how successful?

By Beth on Monday, December 04, 2000 - 12:01 pm:

Gwen,

I have had the surgery and it has been successful for the most part. I still get some knumbness but they tested and it is really a returning of the carpel tunnel. I am waiting to have the other arm done so that I will at least be even.

Hugs Beth

By peter on Wednesday, December 06, 2000 - 03:23 pm:

Beth,

How long did it take for you to recover from the ulnar nerve surgery?

Peter

By Beth on Thursday, December 07, 2000 - 11:47 am:

Peter..

I had both the carple tunnel and the Ulnar surgery at the same time. It took longer to recover from the ulnar surgery. I believe it was a full 4-6 WEEKS in the cast/brace whatever they want to call that 1/2 plaster, wrapped in gauze then I went to a removable brace for another 2-4 weeks. Lots of therapy and of course they let me out of the therapy when I got to "normal" range of motion. I of course new I wasn't done so I followed threw at home until I was back to "normal" for me.

Hugs Beth

By Patty on Friday, December 08, 2000 - 04:00 pm:

Have you tried vitamin B6 for nerve pain? I find it makes a nice improvement, but it takes a while. Since I discovered it, I have read that there are doctors who use it for Carpel Tunnel. It seems that yellow food color #5 (tartrazine, I think they call it) and petrolium pollutants interfere with the body's use of it and putting more into the body helps.

By Jeff Mason on Friday, July 18, 2003 - 12:52 pm:

Some questions.
Are there simple self-chiropractic things we can do to realign our own spines?

Three Examples:
1) My brother's friend had us clasp our
hands together, hold them on back of our neck,
pull our chin to our chest, then he picked us
up (one at a time, of course) from behind,
around the elbows and slowly let us back down
to the ground. As he did this, it POPPED a lower
vertebra back into place, and I was good to go
for about a year!!! Has anybody else had experience with this type of thing? I know it
is basically 'stretching' the spine and realigning
the vertebrae.

2) How about "hanging upside-down?" Can that
help stretch our spines out?

3) Popping my own neck "whipping it around" to
one side, then to the other, with my own hands.
Is that safe. It seems to realign something in
my neck.

Jeff