When we are talking about how to manage pain, it’s important to know how to tell difference in muscle, bone, and nerve pain. I should have known better, after being a work out addict for my whole life, but nope. What felt like a muscle strain to me, was actually pain from a pinched sciatic nerve. Let’s dive right in.
Muscle Pain
This type of pain can be the soreness you feel after a work out or walking a long distance. You can probably pinpoint the exact muscle group that’s overworked. However, it can be tricky, because muscle pain can also be a general sense of hurting all over. A cold or flu can give off body aches that are muscle related. In either one of those instances, it doesn’t last more than a day or two. This type of pain also is relieved by a hot epson salt or magnesium soaking in a bath tub. Rubbing a ointment that gives off some heat to penetrate into the muscle can also help. Another tip is that muscle pain can hurt so good when you stretch it.
Bone Pain
Bone pain is a deep pain. It is less of an ache and can also be a sharp pain. I’ve never broken a bone, but those who have tell me they felt a little nauseous. If I have ever experienced bone pain it was after years of having hepatitis C. I also felt bone pain during treatment, which was an older drug that I took for almost a year. My bones kind of throbbed at times, but I got cured and the treatment saved my life. The newer drugs are much easier on the body.
With bone pain, we know that some of it can occur due to arthritis or osteoporosis. After dealing with hip and low back pain, I started getting bone scan every couple of years. I’m in the early osteopenia range. That means that calcium supplements and weight bearing exercise can help keep my bones strong.
Often kids have bone pain, which we always called growing pains. Mom’s advice to to drink milk. We know that almond, oat, or soy milk can be supplemented with non-dairy forms of calcium. Many of them are algae based.
Drinking alcohol and smoking can contribute to bone loss. If cancer spreads to your bones, or begins in your bones, it can be a source of pain too. Your doctor can tell you how to tell the difference in muscle bone nerve pain if you have HCC.
Safely Manage Pain
Your doctor can advise which type of pain management is safe for liver disease. For a transplant recipient, low dose of acetaminophen is our only recourse. I took it during a bout with COVID, but otherwise just tough it out.
Nerve Pain
Nerve pain is the tricky one. Most of us do not figure this in when calculating our pain. I had lived with an inflammatory virus for so many decades, that my pain management was on autopilot. After getting rid of Hep C, I felt like running. Seriously, I was Forrest Gump. You couldn’t catch me! It was thrilling to get on my bicycle and felt as free as a bird gliding along with less pain. My muscles got strong and I felt pretty powerful. Then liver cancer, HCC hit.
Post Transplant
It’s a long story about my spine and hip, but I’ll just say that the pain I told my doctors about – in my foot and leg – were NOT muscle pain or bone pain. It was not neuropathy either. After testing, I was totally misdiagnosed. How was I to know that lower back nerve pain shooting down into my left leg and caused my foot to throb?
Who would have thought that foot and leg pain were referred from a pinched nerve?
I did what most athletic people would do, I pushed through the pain. Sadly, it was the absolute wrong thing to do. Looking back, I wish someone could have given me a straight answer to begin with.
How to Tell Difference in Muscle Bone and Nerve Pain
So if you are in pain, try to figure out how to tell difference in muscle bone and nerve pain. Keep talking to your doctors, providers, physical therapists, and massage therapists til you get the right answer. It would have saved me some pain. I know many post transplant, and also those who are not, are dealing with mystery pain. Keep a pain diary. Try gentle stretches and exercises, but do NOT allow a physical therapist to push you through the pain. If it hits a nerve, pushing through makes it worse, not better.
I can tell you right now there should be a whole section devoted just to this. Also check out my YouTube channel for more exercise and yoga, stretch videos. My diagnosis was liver disease, but it can lead to other types of pain. Do you have different types of pain and wonder where it comes from?
xo Karen
