4:15 am: Bouncing in Bed

Not as exciting as one's mind may conjure from the title's description.

4:15 am and something is not right.  I feel a rocking motion but I'm not dreaming about sailing on the ocean.  Spasms!

Last night I had to wait for the creepy, buzzing, sparkling electrical feeling, above and beyond the constant burning sensation, in my bouncing, spasming right leg to subsided before I could fall asleep.

Now at 4:15 am I am awakened by my spasming left leg.  It is no use.  I can't get back to sleep; put the coffee on.

Right leg becomes "creepy" where it feels as if it inflates and a swarm of bees with extended stingers bounce around the hollow interior of my calf.  The sensation may also feel like the leg is filled with hot bubbling soda water with bubbles bursting as the touch the interior surface of the skin.  Or perhaps those Christmas sparklers which erupt in sparks when lit, each burning spark hitting the inside of my calf.  Then there are the rhythmic contractions; the pumping spasms - contract and relax, contract and relax, contract and relax - for up to six hours at a time.  Spasm may originate in the thigh but the calf is where the torment ultimately presents itself.

Left leg differs from right as the injury is not symmetrical. It seems as if the back gets tight and contracts tugging (stretching) on, or perhaps compressing the sciatic nerve.  These spasms can be of the simple variety as in contracting and relaxing or they can now be of the "atomic" variety where the leg contracts quickly and violently, trying to go past the range of motion that the joint was designed to offer.  These spasms may be so explosive and violent that they rival the speed at which an automobile air-bag would deploy as they try to disjoint your limb from its socket!  They can lift you up and even throw you from bed.

An interesting observation is that left and right never occur simultaneously (ie only one side spasms at a time).  There may be a momentary crossover when they change sides, but they really only happen on one side at a time.  Some sort of neurological pathway property??

Things aren't suppose to change so late post injury.  It was only last year, the ninth year post injury, that spasms woke me up.  They would run their course in the late evening and be done with until the following night.  Now they often wake me, extending their torment until dawn.

So too with the "atomic" spasms -the ones that try to disjoint you.  They started only in the ninth year (March) and have continued since.  Why so late when nothing else in my routine has changed?

So, running on about 4+ hours of sleep today.  Spasms can occur anytime, but they come with a vengeful force every nightfall.  I wonder what tonight will bring?

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