@annie1 - Sorry you have leg cramps! They can be painful and often interrupt sleep. I had both cervical and lumbar "big" surgeries in 2023 and leg cramping was not one of my pre-surgical symptoms. In fact, only at 12+ post surgeries did leg cramps become a problem for me. The fact that all my other DDD, stenosis, and spondy pre-surgical symptoms are gone - I can't make a connection between lumbar stenosis and leg cramps.

I have been experimenting and have found two things that seem to alleviate the cramping: (1) Greatly increase water consumption. I drink 80-100 ounces of water a day and consume at least 20 ounces of water containing concentrated electrolytes. I currently prefer Liquid IV. (2) I now take 500 mg of magnesium as a supplement. Magnesium is difficult to get through normal dietary intake yet a deficiency can create leg cramping.

So far so good. Cramping is much less frequent and when it happens, less severe. Might be worth a try for you? If you try it - let us know if it helped. Trying to build our knowledge base!