Night pain.

[John C]

Hi everyone,
At four months, I am delighted with the progress, but am still having one problem that I am wondering if anyone can provide any insights about.
I am at the point where I can sleep comfortably on either side, until about 4:00 AM, at which point I am awakened every night by pain in the muscles around the surgery site. It does not matter which side I go to, the pain slowly increases to a burning pain. If I turn over onto my back, I can very slowly straighten my leg, and immediately feel spasms start to release. In under a minute the pain is completely gone, until I roll to either side, and the pain starts to gradually build again. If I get up and walk around, for a few minutes, it increases the time on my side before the pain starts up again. Since I cannot really sleep on my back; once this cycle starts, I am too uncomfortable to get any more sleep that night. Luckily, it usually does not start up until 3 or 4, but it is happening every night.
I have nothing like this during the day, and am being pretty active every day; walking a couple miles twice a day, swimming laps, stretching, going to the gym for bike/ stairmaster/ light weights/ rowing machine, and have just started back into surf kayaking. None of this fires up the pain like I am getting part way through every night.
I should mention that I do have a bad back, and odds are 50/50 whether this is coming from my back or the hip, but it is right over the surgery site. I did have a occasional episodes like this before the surgery, but this is now happening every night.
I would welcome any experiences or suggestions.
John

[obxpelican]

Hi John,


Do you have a body pillow?  One of those long pillows that go from your feet to your chest?  I know I would have pain if I did not use one right now, they're great and I sleep well.  It is possible that your leg in your sleep is crossing over to a point that is bringing on that pain, try that if you have not already tried it.  I've heard that body pillows are good for your back too.  Put the pillow between your legs (feet all the way up) and just hug it.

I am not a doctor, but with all the stuff your doing during the day and you don't end up with pain then it could be that you are over doing it a bit too.  If you are not having pain during all those activities to me it does not sound serious, if none of that helps you might want to give Lee or Dr Gross a call just to make sure.


HTH


Chuck

[John C]

Thanks for the reply. It was also my first thought. Back in the old pre-surgery days, the king size pillow between the knees was often necessary for me to be able to sleep on my side, and it was also key in those first couple of months after surgery. For the current situation, it does not seem to be making any difference. I am fine with or without it for the first half of the night, and using it does not seem to make any difference in how this pain comes on.
As you said, if my current level of activity does not bother it, it would not seem serious enough to want to bother Lee about it, but I might if it continues much longer, just to see if she has any suggestion.

John