Severe Muscle Cramping

[dkader]

Thank you for taking my question - I was in the middle of writing this before and everything disappeared, but my question was not on the forum, so I'll try again - I hope I did nothing wrong.  For years I have suffered with muscle cramps of the feet, toes, sometimes the arch, the front of my leg or the back of the knee (feels like the whole leg goes into a cramp and then the other leg does also).  I've tried quinine (I'm alergic to it but it did help) and muscle relaxers (didn't help much) and no doctors seemed to be really concerned about it.  I have researched it extensively on this forum and the internet.  I don't appear to have other neurologic symptoms but I need help - this is very depressing when it happens, which is nightly or every few days.  The cramps appear after I get home from work, while relaxing or most commonly in the middle of the night.  The only relief I can find (cannot walk or stretch them out) is getting in the hottest water I can stand.  I'm afraid someday I'll burn myself.  I have recently been trying vitamins and magnesium which has offered some relief.  I tried Calcet (triple calcium for leg cramps) and they hit with a vengance again - both legs).  Either before or after the cramps I also experience little twitches all over my legs - I can feel them and see them, but they are not in one spot.  Do you think I'm deficient in certain vitamins and are there blood tests for this?  Could this just be a vitamin deficiency or something more serious that needs checking?  One thing I found is some people that are deficient in magnesium, calcium and potassium.  Please give me some suggestions or how I can convince a doctor that this is a serious problem with me.  Thank you so much.

[Sandy]

Does anyone know any info. on Thoracic spinal stenosis T9-L1.
I am interested in what your symptons are and what type of
treatment you use.  I have pain on left side from T6 to L-1
and also radiates over my lower ribs in the front and also pain
in the soft tissue on the side or a better description might
be the "love handle" area.

[tlee]

Have wanted to reply sooner but have not been able to get the book I mentioned from the libary to share info on sensory symptoms seen in some ALS patients but you may be familiar with the authors Dr. Hiroshi Mitsumoto and Dr. Forbes H. Norris, Jr. who wrote the ALS book. It really is an excellent resource and anyone dealing with ALS patients and families should keep a copy for them. Am interested in what you are writing. Will it become available somewhere??? Hope you are still responding to this column. Thanks

[CCF Neuro[P] MD, RPS]

Dear TLee:

We just finished a chapter on ALS to be published in the Neurology Clinics.

CCF Neuro MD

[tlee]

Will try to get you specific literature references. One particular that I recall was a book entirely about ALS that our library had. I wrote down the info on the author but don't have it with me at present. Other articles of reference were from the internet. It is a small % but has been demonstrated enough times to comment on.

[CCF Neuro[P] MD, RPS]

Dear TLee:

In the hundreds ALS patients that have come through are clinic we have not any evidence of a sensory problem related to ALS. I would be very hesitent to believe otherwise.  

CCF Neuro MD

[tlee]

I agree. There are no tests that people with a disease will test 100% for. Finding a common denominator for a disease 100% of the time is why there are so many neurological diseases that cannot be pinponted in early stages....the frustrating part for patients an no doubt their doctors, too. I hope the studies on EAAT2 will some day be helpful for testing for ALS. Again, I really don't think I am even in the beginning stages when I am thinking logically. Your mind just gets the best of you when you are unable to function and try to surpress the discomfort of your symptoms. Some days you even think that the whole boat is being missed and the problems are caused by something very basic, because it is so hard to understand in this day of scientific technology why there aren't better answers without prolonged months of waiting.
On the ALS...yes I believe it is predominately a motor neuron disease but studies and literature, again, have shown ALS patients, a percent of them, to have some sensory symptoms. I guess I have just seen too many patients not diagnosed early with diseases because they did not fall in the "majority" of the way a particular disease runs its course. Sometimes that oddball or small percent is out there, and people do fall in it. Again what does ever have the 100% to it. I do think it is good that there is a strict criteria for the diagnoses of ALS but I also hope that the medical science will allow us to be flexible as we learn more down the road. We don't need misdiagnosis or premature ones, just accurate ones that can be made  in a reasonable length of time.
Once again, I appreciate your time in responding. You are no doubt one of the special ones who are more than just a specialist. By the way, do you think absence of SNAP is a conduction block???.....curious....thanks again