voner
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Saline infusion post
Want to relate this experience I just had with a saline infusion.
To start off, here's some information. I'm like many others, I have not found a medical doctor who really has any experience or clue with POTS or dysautonomia, but I did get the doctor to order up a trial of weekly saline IVs.
My symptoms are; POTS, Cold and numb feet, cold hands that get discolored, a flulike body ache that seems to force me into the prone position for much of the day, PEM, etc.. My initial symptoms started as myofascial pain syndrome with muscular trigger points that caused debilitating neuropathic pain and still do....
I've had no testing like Tilt table, or blood-pressure test or norepinephrine levels, et cetera.
The first saline IV I got was 1 L infusion. I had no discernible symptomatic relief. On the second IV, I got 2 L of saline. Half an hour after the IV, I have an appointment with my physical therapist who does osteopathic manipulations, and more importantly, dry needling of trigger points.
You're not familiar with the dry needling of trigger points, trigger points are hard to describe but they're like the muscles that cramp up real tight and then the acupuncture needle goes in and hits a little hard nodular area and there's an explosion of pain but the trigger point releases and a couple of days later after some soreness wears off patients tend to find some relief.
I remember standing in my physical therapists office and explaining to him that all of a sudden I felt that my musculature felt different in a positive manner. It was like me hard and ropey muscles have released a bit, a significant bit.
He went and dry needled a few trigger points and the effect inside my body of the needle hitting the trigger point is usually an explosion of pain and I usually yelp, ow!! But this time when the needle hit the trigger point nodule, there was a release but very little pain associated with and certainly no explosion of pain. i have had my trigger points dry needled hundreds of times and the reaction is very predictable, and this was an extremely anomalous reaction, and in my experience of 15 years of having these symptoms, a rare case of something positive occurring in relieving my symptoms.
My PT said that the muscular twitch response which occurs when the trigger point explodes, was no different than any other time he's dry needled me. He was perplexed but he kept saying that must have something to do with the nerve response because the pain levels were immensely different when the twitch response/explosion occurred.
As far as being able to stand upright et cetera. I'd say that there was some relief, but it wasn't extraordinarily dramatic. But perhaps I was just paying more attention to the muscular/nerve system pain that had subsided quite because that pain from certain trigger points had been really debilitating for the last month and a half or two months.
About 36 hours later, the trigger points, & hard, ropey muscles came back and the associated pain was in full force. I remember when I woke up at about the 36 hour later point, I had a headache which is unusual. 48 hours later I was back on the floor is usual and in quite a bit of pain from the trigger points.
Soooo..... Any ideas on what this is telling me? (Besides the fact that he Saline IV had some effect on me )...... I was recently reading a thread on this forum about brain scans and fibromyalgia and CFS/ME and hypoperfusion... could this be in increase in the blood flow to the brain? And increased to bloodflow of the musculature?
Anyone want to speculate?
Want to relate this experience I just had with a saline infusion.
To start off, here's some information. I'm like many others, I have not found a medical doctor who really has any experience or clue with POTS or dysautonomia, but I did get the doctor to order up a trial of weekly saline IVs.
My symptoms are; POTS, Cold and numb feet, cold hands that get discolored, a flulike body ache that seems to force me into the prone position for much of the day, PEM, etc.. My initial symptoms started as myofascial pain syndrome with muscular trigger points that caused debilitating neuropathic pain and still do....
I've had no testing like Tilt table, or blood-pressure test or norepinephrine levels, et cetera.
The first saline IV I got was 1 L infusion. I had no discernible symptomatic relief. On the second IV, I got 2 L of saline. Half an hour after the IV, I have an appointment with my physical therapist who does osteopathic manipulations, and more importantly, dry needling of trigger points.
You're not familiar with the dry needling of trigger points, trigger points are hard to describe but they're like the muscles that cramp up real tight and then the acupuncture needle goes in and hits a little hard nodular area and there's an explosion of pain but the trigger point releases and a couple of days later after some soreness wears off patients tend to find some relief.
I remember standing in my physical therapists office and explaining to him that all of a sudden I felt that my musculature felt different in a positive manner. It was like me hard and ropey muscles have released a bit, a significant bit.
He went and dry needled a few trigger points and the effect inside my body of the needle hitting the trigger point is usually an explosion of pain and I usually yelp, ow!! But this time when the needle hit the trigger point nodule, there was a release but very little pain associated with and certainly no explosion of pain. i have had my trigger points dry needled hundreds of times and the reaction is very predictable, and this was an extremely anomalous reaction, and in my experience of 15 years of having these symptoms, a rare case of something positive occurring in relieving my symptoms.
My PT said that the muscular twitch response which occurs when the trigger point explodes, was no different than any other time he's dry needled me. He was perplexed but he kept saying that must have something to do with the nerve response because the pain levels were immensely different when the twitch response/explosion occurred.
As far as being able to stand upright et cetera. I'd say that there was some relief, but it wasn't extraordinarily dramatic. But perhaps I was just paying more attention to the muscular/nerve system pain that had subsided quite because that pain from certain trigger points had been really debilitating for the last month and a half or two months.
About 36 hours later, the trigger points, & hard, ropey muscles came back and the associated pain was in full force. I remember when I woke up at about the 36 hour later point, I had a headache which is unusual. 48 hours later I was back on the floor is usual and in quite a bit of pain from the trigger points.
Soooo..... Any ideas on what this is telling me? (Besides the fact that he Saline IV had some effect on me )...... I was recently reading a thread on this forum about brain scans and fibromyalgia and CFS/ME and hypoperfusion... could this be in increase in the blood flow to the brain? And increased to bloodflow of the musculature?
Anyone want to speculate?
