Sooooo…I’m lying there. Asleep, perfectly comfortable, minding my sleeping business, when I am jolted awake by the severe dicomfort in my right foot.
Because it is spasming. And it’s not kidding. It is visibly spasming, as in, it’s as though there is a string wrapped around my big toe, and there is a leprechaun on my knee, pulling on the string, so that my foot is bending backwards, like the top of it is going to touch my shin.
And I can’t stop it. And it hurts. I just have to flop around whinging and freaking out trying to help it relax. Takes…I have no idea how long. 3 minutes? 5?
This isn’t the first time it’s happened. It started about a year ago. It’s happened about four times.
It sucks, but what are ya gonna do? You live half a century, things are going to start to break a little.
Come back to me when you’ve prolapsed a spinal disk or two in the space of 3 months, been diagnosed with breast cancer and/or uterine cancer and/or bowel cancer, suffered from insufferable hot flushes and murderous mood-swings, had a recurrence of friggin ACNE at the age of 50, popped your Achilles tendon, got vaginal thrush, AND your hot-water service broke down and your plumber is on holidays for the next three weeks.
As I told my 23 year old neice a couple of years back;
Be careful how you injure yourself now. You may bounce right back, but trust me, every injury you’ve ever had will come back to haunt you once you get into your 40’s.
Hey, does anyone remember a thread from a year or two ago, I think it was in the pit, from a woman who had been through the most genuinely unbelievable series of medical nightmares imaginable, just multiplying exponentially? It was a devastating tale that started out like a scratch and ended up with something crazy like months in the hospital and amputations? (Maybe not amputations…)
Leg spasms can be for several reasons. Sometimes a magnesium shortage will cause it. Google for this and you can find something to try. They also happen from physical stress on the legs and foot. For either case, they can generally be stopped by standing up and perhaps stretching some.
I’ve started to get chronic leg and foot cramps, especially at night. Sometimes I can just stretch them out while still in bed, but standing up always does the trick.
My Mom suffered from cramps, twitching, and restless legs for years before someone recommended that she drink a lot of water in the evenings. It worked very well for her. How’s your water intake?
Can’t some leg cramps relate to diet? Think back to what you ate the day before it happened. Is there anything new that you ate or that you had a lot more of than on any other average day? If there is, you might have found a possible cause.
Well, quit it, will ya? We’re fresh out of poster glue* and if we put the parts in our pockets until we can get you fixed, we might lose some.
I second stretching, but rub the muscles & stretch slowly. And stop when you’re really forcing it or when it hurts.
That said, now you can laugh at me for breaking too. I looked down at my hand this morning & found myself bleeding. How’d that happen? Where’d that happen? How long ago did that start? Fun.
*PS- Stay Away from that Staples place. I tried to find Poster Glue there and all they had were “command adhesive poster strips” and “mounting tape” :eek: .
Damn Pervs.
I have a pinched nerve in my shoulder. It causes sporadic dull aches all down my arm, and tingling in my fingers. And because I’m old, I just know that it will take forever to get any better.
Yeah, but have you tried to swat a spider and then had to have a cortisone shot in your shoulder because you couldn’t lift your arm afterward? Oh, the fun.
Restless leg syndrome. It comes and goes. Maddening! And standing up straight after lying down or sitting, I lurch around for a minute or two like Igor. And the sciatic nerve pain that hits for no particular reason - hurts to sit, is agony trying to stand. If no one is around to give me a hand upright, I have to take a deep breath, count to three, and…quick, stand up! OWWWW!!!
I’m 35 and have had occasional foot or leg cramping since I started playing volleyball in high school. Mostly it’s caused when I’ve been particularly active. It’s like my muscles are having trouble calming down from all the exercise. I used to get these awful hamstring cramps while I was sleeping. They were so painful I had to stuff a pillow in my mouth to keep from screaming, and I could see my foot arched down so my toes were practically folded in. It was terrible. Luckily, I haven’t had it that severe since the 6-hour long practices stopped.
Anyway, if you can, stand up when it happens. If it’s too painful or you can’t get your foot to unfold, try to massage it with your hands to make it go away faster. If you’re starting a new diet, that could be part of it.
I get spasms like that in my left hand. I’ve had that at least since my early 20s, maybe before.
I don’t remember that thread, but since my membership on this board, I knew an ellderly lady. She tried shutting a dresser drawer with her knee and injured it. Her one-night stay in the hospital ended up lasting her the rest of her life, which was about 3 more years. I can’t remember all of the horrible things that happened to her, but I know she suffered at least five heart attacks. She spent most of that time in severe pain and wishing she would die. She finally did on July 4th, 2005, having just turned 86.
I had that happen too. Went through the whole physical therapy thing and ended up with pain from my neck to the middle of my back as well. Discovered by accident that if I turned my chair so that my head was turned to the right while I was on the computer, the nerve quieted down. Evidently took the pressure off.
Everything seems to have hit the fan in the last year. From being pain-free and active until July of 2010, I’ve developed severe wrist tendonitis in my right wrist, two frozen shoulders (for which I receive physical therapy), achey hips and an on-and-off stiff neck and back.
I knew getting old would suck, but I had hoped the suckage would hold off until I was 65, not 54.
