Neuropathy....owwwwwwwww!!!!!!!

Good morning OH family.....Im 2.5 yrs post op....everything is wonderful health wise EXCEPT lately my feet have been acting up at night! (and nothing during the day).  My soles are the focal point of the pain.  I wake up in the middle of the night to severe cramping and the feeling of sharp pains on the soles of both feet, and also severe toe cramping.  This has been going on now off and on for about a month.  I was told pre-op (diabetic pre-op as well) that I had neuropathy in my feet, but never really had any symptoms or pain.  Ive got an appt w/my primary next week, but wanted to reach out to my OH family and see if anyone else has been experiencing this occurrence. Oh, and yes, I take my supplements FAITHFULLY...and drink plenty of water...my exercise consists of walking tapes, no jogging, as my knees are shot after carrying around 300+ lbs for over 30 years!    What the heck is going on do you think?  Have a fantastic day all!  Take care  deb 

Hi Deb! Don't have an answer, but I, too have been having terrible toe cramps in the middle of the night and have no idea what the reason is. I am a little over 2 years out and also take my vitamins. I thought it might be potassium, but that hasn't helped. Could it be neuropathy?

Darla - Detroit

Hi Deb, I suffered from this too, but then a friend told me to take calcium and magnesium at night before I go to bed. I switched my calcium from morning to night and added 66 magnesium and I sleep much better and my cramps have stayed gone. Others say it works for them too. I hope it works for you, nancy (2 months away from being a grad, but...)

Check out neuropathy.org   they have a whole section on nutritional deficiencies and neuropathy...they specifically talk about gastric bypass (and other WLS) and it's relations to neuropathy. It's a very intersting read for anyone who is a post op .....these are things we (as WLS grads) need to be aware of  for our long term care. Scott

The first thing I'd look at would be B1 and B12 levels. B1 needs to be toward the higher end of normal ranges as they are. B12, newer ranges have 800 as the LOW. Some docs are up on this, some are not.

The cramping part might be water (drink more) or potassium or calcium or magnesium, as suggested. My money would be on magnesium. I'm 13 yrs out, suffered with this on and off over the years. Lab levels consistently come out in optimum range (my ranges are much picker than the doc's), so , HUH?

So, I was on my way to try to end my 11 yrs of chronic constipation with magnesium citrate (pills, not the green bottle clean out stuff!) and kept upping the dose and didn'tfix the constipation, but wow, suddenly have foot cramps more like every 6 weeks instead of 2-3 per night. So, I take 200mg of magnesium citrate 4x per day, which is not to be construed as a recommendation for you. If you take it, start with one, and then increase per your choice.

Most naturpaths (ND) will insist we do not get enough magnesium and frankly, most MD's, don't care much about minerals.

Now you say, couldn't find mag cit, but found mag OXIDE, same thing? Nooooooooooooo. If you want to end your constipation, mag oxide is what does it. They're not interchangable since they work in different ways.

Now, here's the really strange things, My blood mag levels were always near the higher end of normal. I thought surely taking more would do strange things. I added 800mg of mag cit and 1000 of mag ox and my blood levels DID NOT MOVE AT ALL. Freaky, huh?

I've taken care of my constipation by taking fiber capsules (2 - 3 times a day) and getting my thyroid meds upped. Constipation is one of big signs of hypothyroid. Now I go once a day - usually late afternoon/evening - and don't have any more hard stools or constipation. Diona