Cramps?

I have CIDP but I get charlie horses in my legs too. I have had these on and off for over a year. I wonder if its a lack of potassium someimes. (I’m not good about eating my daily banana.)

This is a list of some other Food Sources of Potassium ranked by milligrams of potassium per standard amount, also showing calories in the standard amount so you can make better choices and get a variety of foods. (The AI for adults is 4,700 mg/day potassium.) So you can see you would have to eat many bananas to get the daily requirement. Add Potasium from other sourses too. Tomatoe Juice is a great source for the amount of calories you consume. Even Yogurt and you are getting one of your dairy servings in the process. I know this because my blood tests show my potasium levels are low. I tried the prescription potasium pills and they gave me side effects that were easy to live with. Changing my diet to get a variety of foods that gave me the same amount as that pill was easier. The list below might help you double check your menu to make sure you are getting enough daily.

[B]Food, Standard Amount Potassium (mg) Calories[/B]

Sweetpotato, baked, 1 potato (146 g) 694
131 Calories

Tomato paste, ¼ cup 664
54 Calories

Beet greens, cooked, ½ cup 655
19 Calories

Potato, baked, flesh, 1 potato (156 g) 610
145 Calories

White beans, canned, ½ cup 595
153 Calories

Yogurt, plain, non-fat, 8-oz container 579
127 Calories

Tomato puree, ½ cup 549
48 Calories

Clams, canned, 3 oz 534
126 Calories

Yogurt, plain, low-fat, 8-oz container 531
143 Calories

Prune juice, ¾ cup 530
136 Calories

Carrot juice, ¾ cup 517
71 Calories

Blackstrap molasses, 1 Tbsp 498
47 Calories

Halibut, cooked, 3 oz 490
119 Calories

Soybeans, green, cooked, ½ cup 485
127 Calories

Tuna, yellowfin, cooked, 3 oz 484
118 Calories

Lima beans, cooked, ½ cup 484
104 Calories

Winter squash, cooked, ½ cup 448
40 Calories

Soybeans, mature, cooked, ½ cup 443
149 Calories

Rockfish, Pacific, cooked, 3 oz 442
103 Calories

Cod, Pacific, cooked, 3 oz 439
89 Calories

Bananas, 1 medium 422
105 Calories

Spinach, cooked, ½ cup 419
21 Calories

Tomato juice, ¾ cup 417
31 Calories

Tomato sauce, ½ cup 405
39 Calories

Peaches, dried, uncooked, ¼ cup 398
96 Calories

Prunes, stewed, ½ cup 398
133 Calories

Milk, non-fat, 1 cup 382
83 Calories

Pork chop, center loin, cooked, 3 oz 382
197 Calories

Apricots, dried, uncooked, ¼ cup 378
78 Calories

Rainbow trout, farmed, cooked, 3 oz 375
144 Calories

Pork loin, center rib (roasts), lean, roasted, 3 oz 371
190 Calories

Buttermilk, cultured, low-fat, 1 cup 370
98 Calories

Cantaloupe, ¼ medium 368
47 Calories

1%-2% milk, 1 cup 366
102-122 Calories

Honeydew melon, 1/8 medium 365
58 Calories

Lentils, cooked, ½ cup 365
115 Calories

Plantains, cooked, ½ cup slices 358
90 Calories

Kidney beans, cooked, ½ cup 358
112 Calories

Orange juice, ¾ cup 355
85 Calories

Split peas, cooked, ½ cup 355
116 Calories

Yogurt, plain, whole milk, 8 oz container 352
138 Calories

I also have CIDP and get charlie horses/pains in legs.

I didn’t get them before CIDP….so is this one of issues with CIDP?

Interesting to know how many people suffer from this.

Rhonda

Toes and legs are not the only place I get these charlie-horses. I also get them in my fingers, neck and face.:eek:
Alma
MFv 1994 and 2004

[QUOTE=Sharon]wow … it is funny! My husband thinks this stuff is in my head! Yeah … I get them under my chin after a big yawn sometimes and even on my inner thighs … ouch! Glad to know I am not alone and it is not in my head![/QUOTE]

I am glad to see your post! I thought I was the only one that was getting the ones under my chin. I get them when I hold a pencil or pen in my mouth while at the computer. I think I might be putting a little suction on them. So I have tried to get out of that bad habit. I also get them after I yawn, but that was not at the beginning that only has been happening since about my 18 month. I can feel it starting and I try to relax to avoid it happening. The first time it happened I was in a panic. It felt like my tongue was swelling. I could not breath thru my mouth. I had to talk myself into relaxing and breath thru my nose. Once I was able to do that it started to relax. I could not get up out of the chair and I could not make any noise or call for help. It was one of the scariest things that has happened to me. Now they hurt and I can feel them move from about my collar bone up my neck and into my tongue. That muscle aches for a few minutes after. It worried me because I thought I was taking a seizure but it went away to fast and did not effect anything else. Strange side effects! I am glad you brought up this thread, I am sorry you are dealing with this too but now we know we are not alone. I also had a terrible time with my rib cage when I would sit and twist slightly. It was like a rib was twisted and out of place. That is very painful too! It does not happen as much now. I also get them in my ham strings, but they have always been tight and hard to stretch out in exercising and sports.

I find that drinking Gatorade is also good to get some of your potassium. Once I was very sick and kept throwing up and the health line nurse wanted me to get Gatorade even tho it was in the middle of the night. I couldn’t get some till the next day but it replaces what your body is missing.

Sue

I have been having some leg cramps or what feels like a charlie horse coming on but never does. It’s painful and it’s a nag. I found this cream at Walmart called DHS cream, and its for neuropathy pain in the feet and legs. It’s over by the diabetic stuff and it cost me about $ 7.00. I have found that If I rub my legs and feet down with this and put on my compression hose, it calms down the pain.

Charlie horses/cramps have been part of my life the past 11 years. Especially in my feet when I get in bed at night. I am usually very hot lately with hormones, but when it is bedtime, my feet turn to icebergs. I don’t know what I would do without my heating pad. I take vitamins and believe I get plenty of potassium. A few minutes with my feet under the heating pad usually calms my feet to stop cramping.

That list of foods is great, but now I am really hungry!

I think muscles spasms are to be expected when your nerves are trying to figure out how to function again. There are bound to be some signals that just don’t make it to where they are supposed to go and short out causing spasms. I also think some of the restless leg activity is simply due to the fact that I don’t exercise as much as I used to and the energy potential gets built up or stored in my muscles. When I lie down to sleep it’s like my body decides it doesn’t need that stored energy anymore and releases it. I don’t know if this is true but this is what it feels like to me.

I drink plenty of Gatorade, but I dilute it half and half with water. I eat bananas and other foods with lots of potassium, and have had my potassium tested numerous times and it’s fine. My solution for the night spams is a hot epsom salt bath before bed, followed by slow and careful stretching of my leg muscles. I sit upright in bed with my legs straight out in front of me and slowly bed over attempting to reach my toes. I never push it, I never over stretch because with reduced sensation you can’t always tell when you are hurting yourself but I’m trying to get my muscles to learn a new pattern and release some of that energy before I’m halfway asleep. It’s SO annoying to be constantly jerked awake just when you fall asleep, isn’t it? Grrr…

Good luck and I’d be interested to hear what other solutions people have come up with, other than medications that is, I avoid them unless desperate.

Julie

It seems that the legs cramps are very common post GBS.

I too suffer cramps in the midway of night. Sometimes, it is so embarrassing that I have to get out of the bed, stretch my legs and/or had to take a walk for 10/15 steps.

I remember in one of the threads this issue was earlier discussed and it was also mentioned that eating banana is a very useful remedy. I did start eating one banana thereafter and it helps me to reduce the cramps.

mine are not just cramps.I get leg pains that feel like a sun burn on my thigh nothing can touch it then its better the next day or two days later but still comes back. I legs have been feeling like they can walk on their own and when they hurt I wish they would leave me lol. I have facial pain too and here lately my HEAD has Had the sunburned feeling. But is not just a feeling it gets red and feels hot to the touch. Husband says stay out of the sun then realizes what he has just said is funny because I have been by his side all weekend in the warm cozy comfort of our house. I am afraid I am relapsing

I get cramps in my fingers. It feels like they are “drawing”. It’s painful but I can usually rub it out or bend my fingers back into place with my other hand. I also get those things in my ribs when I twist, like to scratch my leg or something, especially in bed at night. It takes my breath away, but it will go away in just a few minutes.

[QUOTE=sstengel]mine are not just cramps.I get leg pains that feel like a sun burn on my thigh nothing can touch it then its better the next day or two days later but still comes back. I legs have been feeling like they can walk on their own and when they hurt I wish they would leave me lol. I have facial pain too and here lately my HEAD has Had the sunburned feeling. But is not just a feeling it gets red and feels hot to the touch. Husband says stay out of the sun then realizes what he has just said is funny because I have been by his side all weekend in the warm cozy comfort of our house. I am afraid I am relapsing[/QUOTE]

Oh man, that’s EXACTLY what it feels like on the tops of my feet—Sunburn! It’s hard to explain but when I lie on my stomach, the tops of my feet feel like they are sunburned. And when I take a shower, the water hitting on my feet feels like sunburn. I can’t stand for the covers to touch my feet or toes at night–it’s really painful.

I have CIDP and I’ve had a lot of leg cramps and what I describe as “weird feelings” in my legs. They can feel like a burning or little knives or whatever. The doctor told me all this is normal for any type of nerve disorder. He said in his experience that both GBS and CIDP have it. I tried some painkillers for a while, but, it didn’t really help, so now, I just live with it. Occasionally, it still surprises me.

Well this is one thing I can relate to. Now remember it is my husband that has not been diagnosed yet but doc leaning to cidp. Anyway when we lived in Ohio about 2 1/2 years ago I had been taking a diaretic to keep from getting kidney stones. I had been on them for about 9 years. I asked the urologist if I could just eat bannanas and he said I would have to eat too many to get the amount I needed.
I do not have any nerve damage,etc. but I know if I forget to take my 3 pills a day I will get cramps. It is very dangerous to have either high or low potassium;
so I do not know if it is the medicine you are taking for the rest of you guys and girls or if it is a symptom for your disease. I do think exercise does help you mainly stretching. Hopes this helps.

Two ideas.

One is dill pickle juice. Yes, dill pickle juice. when I get those “grabbing the dresser and screaming” cramps I make it to the kitchen and take two big sips of dill pickle juice and usually the cramps dissapear within 10 minutes. I actually learned this from the coaches at school. I make sure during basketball season that the kids in the consession stand save the pickle juice from the one gallon jars and I keep at least two in the ice box just for that reason.

It’s much faster than Gatoraide or banannas.

If I know that I will be in a situation where I will be over doing it ( I’m a high school band director ) I make sure to carry my quinine ( sp ? ) pills. My neuro wanted me to try them and it works very well. I can take one on Fridays before a football game and usually be able to make it through the day and night without problems. The script is cheap to have filled and a great way to prevent problems when you know you’re in for a long day.

TOE CRAMPS ARE THE WORST… I hate them. It is difficult to even walk when I get those darn things. Thanks for the advice about the pickle juice, never heard that one before and I love pickle juice..ha ha. But yes I get cramps in other places too but it seems like the toes hurt worse than anything.