Question:
I am having severe leg pain in the bone not the calf of my leg, Can you help?

I am having severe leg cramps in my right leg that runs down the bone below my knee and all down my foot. It will make my foot curl up and my toes point to the side. The pain is really bad and is not like a charley horse as it is more in the bone than the muscle. My potasium comes back normal in recent blood work and I take my calcium citrate daily. I drink 64 ounces of water daily. After the cramp goes away my toes and top of my foot are sore for hours. Any suggestions on what this may be?    — cfstevens (posted on October 24, 2003)

October 24, 2003
Cheryl, I have no answers here but to encourage you to call your doctor and have it checked out ASAP. This may be something serious, or it may be nothing at all. Nevertheless, since you stated it affects your toes and the top of your foot, I doubt it is in the bone, but rather a nerve or muscle problem causing the cramping. Whatever the case, you need to know and hopefully be able to alleviate the symptoms by finding the root cause. Best wishes.
   — artistmama

October 25, 2003
The pain could be originating from your spine. Have your doc check that out
   — Gottahaveit I.

October 25, 2003
I am writing for my boyfriend who is a neuromuscular therapist - this sounds like it could be active trigger points in the muscles of the leg, and that can feel as if it's in the bone. Seeing your dr would be the very first thing you need to do. Once you've seen your dr write to Pete at [email protected] if you want to talk further.
   — Megan *.

October 25, 2003
Yes! I've experienced this on two occasions --- Both when I was driving. The pain gets really severe... so much so that I must stop and pull over. It is not quite a muscle spasm-type pain but feels much deeper. It extended up to my thigh! It was in my right leg, too. All I was doing was driving (to or from work). I'm seeing my PCP next month and will discuss this with him. I'm glad it hasn't happened more frequently. It went away after about 15=20 minutes and getting up, standing, stretching. All the best, Teresa
   — Teresa N.

October 26, 2003
This is a "Charlie Horse" and the main cause is low potassium. You need to eat some bananas or raisins IMMEDIATELY (forget the sugar content for the time being, this is IMPORTANT) and then you need to call your surgeon and get some potassium pills. When you drink alot of water, you flush out the potassium in your body and have to restore it. And in WLS patients it's worse because you have even less intake of it than before with the malabsorption and high protein diet we tend to have. So call your surgeon and ask for a potassium pill, you can have a heart attack if you are low on potassium. (and it happens) Even though your labs might have been "in range" last time, doesn't mean your body hasn't lost what it had stored. I eat about three bananas a week and take one potassium pill a week. Most multi's don't have a high amount of this vitamin in them.
   — Michelle A.