Is spasm related to fluctuating blood pressure?

[Cancankwok]

Hi Dr. Young,

Hope you are well. My sister Debbie recently gets more pain on her upper limbs and doctors as well as therapists seems they have no clues for this. They told us that they rarely encounter a patient with most of the complications of spinal cord injury like my sister's. My sister is quite upset since it seems like there's no one who can help in her case.

And also, her spasm seems to increase and now she also feels it on her chest. Due to her increase in spasm, doctor had once increased the dose of medicine. But after taking the heavier dosage, my sister's blood pressure became very fluctuated and one time, she almost fainted while the helper brought her to shower. In this case, I would like to know if there's any relationshilp between the medicine and blood pressure.

Besides, it's about Debbie's bowel problem. She is now having a drinking program for bowel management. And she sometimes gets urine leaking and I just want to know if it's a good sign, or it's just one of the side effects of the medicine for spasm?

Last but not least, will spasm in her chest threaten her life?

Thanks for your taking time with us and we are looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Best regards,
Candy

[Lee555]

Here is a shot in the dark for you. Chest spasms can be caused by chronic hyperventilation syndrome. Check on how she breaths, more than 7 regular breaths per minute and she is probably expelling too much CO2 which is causing muscle spasms. And see how she is breathing, from the belly to lower rib cage, or if it is higher, upper chest above the breasts. This would cause major problems with muscle fatigue and activate a feeling of panic and an inability to breath. Big question here, does she breath through her mouth a lot, and moreso when she is having these spasms?

And the BP will fluctuate with this situation, and spasms in other areas. I have this problem real bad, and as the Pain doctor said, I am always on the edge of going into a pain episode because of the way I breath. If she has been in pain for a while, I would expect she has caused things to change in the Sympathetic Nervous System. I take Klonopin, Lorazepam, Vicadin, Calcium Gluconate, Inderal to deal with this problem.

[David Berg]

What is she taking for spasms?

I could be wrong here, but I think I've heard of amyltriptiline being used to help with incontenence.