Interesting Side Effect

There are certain unpleasant things that go along with having a spinal cord injury and being quadriplegic. One of them is involuntary muscle spasms. For me, these occur on a regular basis, several times a day. They are often the result of being touched or moved. But can also occur spontaneously. For no apparent reason. Probably coinciding with internal noxious stimuli (or external for that matter).

Spasms are not pleasant. For me they feel like getting punched in the stomach by Mohammed Ali. Another manifestation is the feeling of elephants sitting on me, making it harder to breathe. I know, by now you’re probably thinking I’m even more loony than you previously thought.

I’m not posting this to complain, but rather to relate an interesting correlation.

Last week I suffered a fierce bout of what I think was food poisoning. I was very sick for a few days. I haven’t had very many acute systemic illnesses (such as the flu) in the past eight years. But the few that I have had, I have noticed an interesting side effect. My spasms go away.

In fact, that’s a way that I can gauge how sick I really am. When the spasms disappear, I know I’m pretty sick. When the spasms start coming back, I know I’m on the mend. In fact, this time around I still felt pretty sick when the spasms returned, and I told my mom, “It looks like I’m getting better.”

I don’t know if there have been any studies done on this particular phenomenon. Or, if maybe, it’s something unique to me. It would be interesting see a study done. But, at any rate, it’s a welcome side effect. Although I would much rather not be sick and suffer the spasms. It’s nice to have some relief from the daily nuisance of spasms while suffering from acute illness.

That’s my two cents.