# I'm On Muscle Relaxers and I Feel Fine **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 5, 2002, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-on-muscle-relaxers-and-i-feel-fine/102083 "2002-04-05T22:21:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2002, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-on-muscle-relaxers-and-i-feel-fine/102083/1 "2002-04-05T22:21:44Z")
Forgive me if this post isn’t the most coherent… Last week I was at the gym doing seated cable rows. I followed this up with some flies with a new weight for me. About halfway through the set if felt a SEARING pain right under my right shoulderblade. I’m talking red hot poker stuffed up under that sucker and scrambled around. I’m talking major league hurting. I hied myself into the steam room for about 30 minutes thinking that the heat might ease it up a bit. No such luck. A hot sauna didn’t help, and a hot shower didn’t do anything but turn my toes into prunes. It hurt like eight motherfu…well, it hurt a lot for the entire week and I finally knuckled under and went to the dr. today. After xrays and an MRI, he verdict: “Well, Mr. Plnnr, you’ve herniated another disc (I have a bad disc in my lower back). This one is located right here in your neck (C4-C5 for you anatomists out there). The muscles in your neck and shoulder have gone into spasm and are compressing a nerve. I’d imagine that it hurts pretty bad, eh?” Yes, young Dr. Kildare, or Ben Casey, or whoever the hell you are, it does hurt. Alot. After a cortisone shot in the neck, a prescription for Celebrex, and some muscle relaxers that would sedate all the blue-hairs at a Wayne Newton concert I am now, officially, pain free. I could learn to like these little pink pills. ---
**Author:** ![beckwall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b487fb/32.png) [@beckwall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beckwall)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2002, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-on-muscle-relaxers-and-i-feel-fine/102083/2 "2002-04-06T01:07:01Z")
Well then, there will be no partying for you tonight, mister. No drinking, no driving, no strippers, nothing. Sleep tight. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2002, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-on-muscle-relaxers-and-i-feel-fine/102083/3 "2002-04-06T02:57:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by beckwall \* > \*\*Well then, there will be no partying for you tonight, mister. No drinking, no driving, no strippers, nothing. > > Sleep tight. \*\* Oh, I don’t know. I’ve met a few strippers who’d like to be with a guy on muscle relaxers (especially if he’s willing to share). ---
**Author:** ![Billy\_Rubin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/billy_rubin/32/3622_2.png) [@Billy\_Rubin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billy_Rubin)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2002, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-on-muscle-relaxers-and-i-feel-fine/102083/4 "2002-04-06T12:10:13Z")
Okay, did anyone besides me look at this thread and think about Paul McCartney singing it? “I’m so glad, I got these little pills! They’re so great, they’re curing all my ills” :: d&r :: b. ---
**Author:** ![Qwisp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qwisp/32/397_2.png) [@Qwisp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qwisp)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2002, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-on-muscle-relaxers-and-i-feel-fine/102083/5 "2002-04-06T20:03:59Z")
I just gotta ask, what are the name of your muscle relaxers? I’ve been on three different kinds for back spasms and none of them do anything. (skelaxin, flexeril,and now zanaflex) ---
**Author:** ![kiz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7feea3/32.png) [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2002, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-on-muscle-relaxers-and-i-feel-fine/102083/6 "2002-04-06T21:09:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Qwisp \* > \*\*I just gotta ask, what are the name of your muscle relaxers? I’ve been on three different kinds for back spasms and none of them do anything. > (skelaxin, flexeril,and now zanaflex) \*\* I’ve been on Norflex for almost a year for my back. Can’t say that I don’t feel anything because I do, but it’s a lot less intense than it would be if I wasn’t taking it… At one point a couple of months ago I didn’t get my prescription renewed in time, so I went a couple of days without. My gawd, I thought somebody was trying to twist a knife through my sacrum…:eek: What I wonder is that, after taking muscle relaxants for awhile, their effect diminishes…😕 ---
**Author:** ![purrplebear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/90ced4/32.png) [@purrplebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purrplebear)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2002, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-on-muscle-relaxers-and-i-feel-fine/102083/7 "2002-04-07T01:45:39Z")
I can totally sympathize, **plnnr**. Thanks to a Pepsi semi truck last July, I’ve been living on muscle relaxers ever since, and my lower back still managed to spasm enough to pinch a nerve/disk in my lower back. L4,5 for those who wonder. While over time many things have finally gotten better for me, easier to do, etc; many other things are still beyond what my back will tolerate. I finally allowed my back specialist to inject directly into 3 of my facet joints some serious steroid/anti-inflammatory/pain killer mix twice now. That has helped a _huge_ amount, but I am **praying** that a third round won’t be necessary. Numbing that pain and continuing the muscle relaxers (I’m on Robaxin at the moment) are giving me a lot of my life back. Still, there are days I wonder if those relaxers are doing me any good at all. Then I forget to take some and am forcibly reminded that they do help. Drugs are our friend. Better living through chemistry, as a friend would say.