Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group Chest pains, hospital, etc.

you asked about muscle relaxants: i take zanaflex, every night, and then in the day when i really really need it. i tried flexeril, they often put you on that first cause its the cheapest, but its old fashioned and there are better ones now. the flexeril made me feel like zombie marshmallow man all day long. the zanaflex only lasts in the bloodstream for 6 hours so you can time it as needed. it does drop my BP and thus makes me sleepy during that time but only for about an hour out of the 6. for bedtime that's absolutely perfect, like a muscle relaxant and sleeping pill all in one, bigger bang for the buck. but a lot of people don't get such a BP drop from the drug, i tend to respond very well to drugs, a little going a long way. but i love the drug, its the one and almost only drug i've been able to tolerate for my musculoskeletal stuff (all the NSAIDs and Cox2 inhibitors work for the inflammation, but all give me edema and gastritis so they are all out; lyrica did NOTHING for my pain, but gave me a new one, a splitting migraine!) now the LDN is finally a new drug that is helping (helps the body rid itself of inflammation) with no side effects that i can discern. if you do take zanaflex, get blood work done to check your liver (1, 3, 6, and 12 months from starting it and if those are all good, then get one yearly after that. i've never ever had a problem with my liver, its really nice and healthy, but there was a very small percentage of people in the trials that did have liver problems on the drug). i've been taking it since 2001, every single day without fail and it was one of those things that really made a huge difference. like during the day the muscle spasms escalate and the zanaflex and night helps set the dial back toward zero, rather than just continually escalating problems. thats how LDN feels for the inflammation as well, but maybe more subtle. the LDN just helps the immune system help itself, supposedly, supposed to just allow the body to generate more endorphins and / or serotonin so feels pretty "natural" to me, something that seems important to you. i end up with so many side effects from so many drugs that whenever i can do something more natural, less invasive, i do that as well. speaking of which, since i can't handle the NSAIDs and the LDN wasn't doing a good enough job on my SI, i started wearing flector patches over the SI almost constantly, for the last month, and not only are they eliminating the inflammation back there, but wiping out the looseness too so i don't misalign (causing more pain and inflammation), and no side effects so far, been doing the flector patches for over a month now, and they've been great!