Muscle Twitching and Spasms in Legs and Feet

[Maxkwak]

Can lumbar spine problems (or spine problems in general) cause chronic twiching and/or spasming of muscles in the calves and feet?

My background: Posterior interbody lumbar fusion (L4-S1) 7 months ago, anterior cervical fusion (C5-C7) about 4 years ago, and undifferentiated spondylitis. Leg muscles twitch constantly, regardless of activities, worsen when I first lie down, but then settle down to mild twitching all night long after being in bed awhile. If I do any physical activities (walking on treadmill, stretching, eliptical machine, etc.) the twitching goes into severe spasms in my calves and sometimes in my feet during the night. Sometimes the calves will spasm when I climb stairs during the day, but I immediately walk out the spasm. On bad nights, however, I have to get up every 10 minutes all night long to walk out the spasms. If I don't exercise, the spasms are infrequent, but the twitching is constant. With exercise, the spasms are chronic on a nightly basis. At night my lower back frequently tightens or spasms, and in my sleep I'll arch my back and tightly lock my legs in a stretch to counter the lower back spasm, and it will wake up in the process; this may, at times, contribute to the leg spasms, but it doesn't happen everytime. I'm still having moderate groin and hip pain since the lumber surgery, but benefits have far outweigh the discomfort, and the pain is slowly but surely diminishing. The twitching and spasms preceded the lumbar surgeries and have not abated since the surgeries.

I don't have MS and don't seem to fit the pattern for RLS. I've taken RLS meds, potassium, magnesium, quinine, heomeopatic remedies, etc. but nothing help. Flexeril 3x daily will help when spasms get bad, but the side effects are pretty intense, so I stopped exercising for the sake of trying to sleep at night.

I would appreciate any insight you may be able to provide regarding back problems and leg and foot muscle issues. Thank you.

[Maxkwak]

I'm 56, in otherwise good health, and have no neurological or systemic diseases, such as MS or diabetes. The twitching does not involve the entire calf muscle ususally, but rather small areas of the muscle contract first in one spot then another, moving around rapidly in differenly locations within the calf, or at least that's how it feels. It's possible to see the muscle move in various areas and to feel it with my fingers, but I feel it much more intensely than it shows. I have it all the time in both legs regardless of whether I'm sitting or in bed, but in bed it initially gets much worse, but then settles down after I've relaxed for awhile. If I get up to go to the bathroom during the night, when I return to bed the calf muscles jump around intensely, but eventually settle down. If I exercise or even stretch during the day, I'll have leg and foot spasms all night beginning two to four hours after I've gone to bed and often lasting the entire night. It's really awful. When my legs and/for feet spasm, very often my lower back also tightens or spasms, too. It's for that reason that I wondered there might be a connection between my spine problems and spasms in the legs and feet. In the lower back, I had moderate stenosis but the main problem was scar tissue impingin on my nerve roots. The lumber fusion was an 8-hour surgery because the doc had to separate the scar tissue from the nerve roots. The twitching preceded the surgery, however, and has not improved after the surgery.

[will270]

How old are you max?
Are you most comfortable sitting than in bed?
and are you  diabetic?

Willl270