Treatment for that searing muscle pain?

For anyone who gets that intense muscle pain that I've seen described as searing, burning, like you've been injected with poison, etc.:

Have you found anything that helps ease the pain? Ibuprofen? CBD? Blood letting? (Haha jk).

Acknowledging of course that everyone reacts to meds differently and one should always check with their medical team before adding one. But I'm just curious there is anything that seems to somewhat reliably work for that specific type of pain? It is debilitating for me so anything that gives me a starting point to look into I'd be grateful for.

 

Oral analgesics mess me up so it's a balance as to whether to take anything - I avoid paracetamol entirely and rely on infrequent aspirin or ibuprofen. However ibuprofen gel applied externally is a help for the burning muscle symptoms, so that's my go to solution, though regular use on one spot does cause skin sensitisation.

My perception - wouldn't say this is what actually happens - is that the muscles/tendons are prone to "tearing" when cold, so I'm much more diligent about keeping wrapped up in colder weather - especially when sleeping which is when I seem particularly at risk of "ripping" something.

 

I use a cherry stone bag heated in the microwave to very warm. It relaxes the muscles, increases blood flow which washes the cells and brings in oxygen and such and the nerve cells can only carry a heat signal or a pain signal. It does not last but it feels wonderful to be pain free for an hour.

As CRG says keeping limbs warm helps but it has to be up close, turning up the thermometer does not work as well as a woollen scarf wrapped round my arm. Hope you find something to help.

 

I have fibro pain which is searing, or rather like Thor up there twisting my muscles into a knot as hard as he can. Or like pulled muscles everywhere.

I use every day:
microwave heat sac,
heating pad
capsaicin cream (0.1%) 3 applications a day, trying not to get it into eyes, or other mucus membranes (briefly has a burning sensation)

tizanidine 0.5mg (a muscle relaxant)

 

Microwaveable hot packs
Sleep (the most effective intervention against pain for me)

 

Thank you all for sharing your insights!! I really don't know why trying a heating pad has not occurred to me before now... I have one sitting in my closet anyway! I guess maybe I just associate it so specifically with menstrual cramps that my mind wasn't automatically connecting it to this different context.

Also appreciate the mentions of medications that do/don't work for others. It's always helpful to at least have a starting point for looking into these things!

 

I am curious about the experience of using this, because I have a strongly imprinted memory of getting 'hot pepper hands' after cutting jalapenos one day and it was *painful* haha! I imagine that the capsaicin cream burns much less intensely at 0.1% concentration -- is your experience that the burning sensation is slight, as opposed to intense?

 

A while ago I tried a capsaicin cream on my feet for burning neuropathic pain. I soon learnt what real burning was! For about 18 hours I was in severe pain. It was an OTC product called Zostrix I think. It was 0.075 w/w.

 

For the burning muscle spasms of fibromyalgia, the hard pressure of the edge of a door frame or corner of a table undoes the knots. It hurts a lot but it works. If that's not practical, heat is my next choice.

 

I take Gabapentin 900mg and Nortriptyline 10mg (trying to increase it to 20mg soon). I’ve also tried pregablin which imo was amazing for pain, but I had to come off it due to side effects, but it’s more effective than gabapentin I think. I also use lidocaine patches every night on a particular area (feet currently).

I’ve also discussed lidocaine infusions but that requires regular travelling & finding a clinic that does it, but for people who have pain which is resistant to treatment with meds, there are infusions like ketamine, lidocaine etc which sometimes help people a lot.

Otherwise I use heat.
CBD did absolutely nothing, I’ve tried capsaicin cream which just produced a skin stinging sensation without doing anything for the pain, and I’ve also been on Butrans patches and then fentanyl patches for other severe pain I was dealing with, but that did nothing for the muscle pain.

 

Slightly weirdly—pressure.

I get the worst pain in my quads when I'm lying down, but turning over and lying on my front relieves it almost completely. I can't stay like that for long because it hurts my neck, but sometimes I can dampen down the pain for long enough to get to sleep.

 

As you can see from the posts, everyone reacts differently. I use capsaisin because it has been shown to have effectiveness in knee pain (osteoarthritis) and also it does dampen my pain in different areas and works quite quickly. It's not as effective as a drug for severe pain, but moderate pain, yes.

'That said, you have to avoid taking a hot shower or bath for an hour after applying the cream (you will have a burning sensation, how intense, I don't know). Also, the most annoying problem for me is getting it onto my finger tips and then rubbing an eye or other mucus membrane. It burns but subsides after 5 mintues (for me).

 

I've been doing that a lot lately and it really works for some of the back pain. I use a rounded corner on a tall cabinet, has to be pointy but not too much. Kind of like a bear does to scratch their back on a tree.

It's like there are these vertical strings throughout the muscles that have to be manually, uh, de-gunked, it has a sort of sandy/putty feeling to it. What I do is find one of those suckers, press on and sort of squish it and wiggle back and forth a few times around it, move on to the next. From near the spine all the way out to the sides.

Firm pressure, but not too hard that it hurts a lot. When done right there is pain but the pain relief is greater, like a deep muscle massage. It doesn't work day 1, has to be done with some regularity. For legs I use a massage gun and magnesium seems to help as long as it's the right kind.

 

@rvallee , your description is exactly what I do too, except for the legs. I just copy what years of physio has taught me. It's hard not to flip over the sides of the ropy muscles as you push into them physio style so your "sort of squish it and wiggle back and forth a few times around" helps to avoid that.

I'm lucky I don't have much thigh pain but the muscles are stiff and burn slightly all the time. I've found that kneeling down, sitting on my feet and leaning slowly backwards as far as possible over a minute or so, so the fronts of the legs are stretched, works. It stings a lot but I feel a wonderful lightness and freedom in my thighs when I stand up.

The very best physio I've ever been to was not a physio at all but a masseur employed by one of the big AFL (Aussie rules football) teams. He got me to sit on the table with my legs out in front and pick up the quads muscles and knead them. You cannot imagine how much that hurt. It's too hard for me to do to myself though.

 

Heat and cold are standard treatments but did not really work great for me. I found menthol rubs to work best, here in Australia the brand is Ice Gel, but I think you may need to look around in other parts of the world. This stuff was amazing for me, and better than all the other rubs, but it depends on what is causing your pain. It might not be the same as my issues.

 

Interesting -- can I ask what you've found to be the right kind? I have magnesium citrate that I sometimes take but haven't tried any other types so far

 

It's not super effective but I see the difference over time when I don't take enough and it's a big factor in the worst leg pain I get.

I tried several and what works is called "enhanced absorption", a 500mg combination of oxide, malate and glycerophosphate. I usually take half per day and full pills every few days. I don't know if it's the combination or one, or maybe two, of the 3 but I'm not really able to experiment rigorously enough to know better so I usually stick with whatever works at keeping the worse of.

 

Thank you for sharing!