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← Return to aches and weakness in legs
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I read all the comments and they are sort of I what do…stretching, holding legs in the air for a count of 15 when I first wake up and massage each calf and shin…..later in the AM I do leg lifts and a some bench presses….but still every so often I get severe charley horses, mostly lft thigh, mostly early AM while I am still asleep. Very painful. I try to grab a robaxsial but don’t like to as it slows up my whole day…so I do the following: As I lie in bed; I mentally try to separate the pain from the muscle spasm and try to figure which muscle is twitching which way. Slowing down my breathing to slow down my heart which is beating too fast….and consolidate the pain into a ball and send it to a deserving target….. then carefully I lower my calf on that leg about 6” over the side of bed for a count of 5 and then back up flat, rest 5, then raise about 6” for count of 5. Also when resting I take a big swig from my water-bottle that I keep in the bed with me. Turning on the bedside light is comforting and if necessary I also yell out my pain to relax my muscles and mind….(this is the reason we say “ouch” or swear) As for weak knees which I have even tho’ my legs are strong. My doc says at my age(83 soon to to be 84) my brain is not connecting with my knees to make them go up stairs without holding on to the bannister. Actually my balance is not that great so I am working on that. A bit of a piss-off. Hope this helps. Sorry if it is a bit long. Peace & Love everyone and bon courage.
Replies to "I read all the comments and they are sort of I what do…stretching, holding legs in..."
I note that you get your charley horses "mostly early AM while I am still asleep." Curious about that, because that's when I usually get my cramping (mostly right calf/shin). I wonder if there's something physical happening during the night, that accumulates until, bam! cramp in early AM. That's what made me think that adding salt to my glass of water could be helpful. I considered that after urinating a couple of times between 10:30 and, say, 2:30, I'd lost some quantity of electrolytes; when combined with reduced nerve function from the stenosis, it seemed "logical" that cramping could occur after that. I hoped that an extra hit of salt overnight would make up for the reduced nerve function, imagining that my nerves could use all the help they could get during the night to keep the "sodium-potassium pump" working well. But as I wrote, this didn't help.....clearly a simplistic and naïve idea....
I took special note when you said you "mentally try to separate the pain from the muscle spasm" and then "consolidate the pain into a ball and send it to a deserving target" (love that last bit!) I've read a lot lately about observing one's pain, separating oneself from it, but haven't yet made an attempt to do so. Now that I've read you're experience, I'm going to try to do it.
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Hi from the hill,
I'm sorry you are having leg pain, etc. It sounds awful! I can relate to the leg cramps. I have those. They often mean you are not drinking enough water. Keep some water handy and drink a lot of it when you get a cramp. It will relieve the cramps and/or take them away completely. My mom taught me this when I was a little girl and I'm now 76. I drink more water now and rarely get any leg cramps. I hope this helps. I will say a prayer for you. Prayers help a lot!
PML