leg cramps

Everyday living
1

Hey everyone -

Hope you’re all well. I’m suffering from quite bad leg pain at the moment - It’s getting worse but I’m not sure if it’s to do with my ms or not. I’ll be sat down and when I get up the top of my left leg locks up and hurts to straighten. It happened over the summer for the first time but now it happens a couple of times a day. I’m only 20 and, like all of us I’m sure, get a bit frightened sometimes. Does anyone know if this is to do with my ms? And if it is - does it mean my legs are going? Is there anything I can do?

Any responses would be massively appreciated. Thank you xx

2

Hi, well leg cramps and spams/spasticity can be treated with baclofen.

I cant tell you if this means your legs are going`, as you say.

I take 30mg of baclofen each night and 300mg of quinine.

These drugs help reduce my problems, but I still get bad spasms in my feet sometimes.

Try drining tonic water to se if it hepls,as it contains quinine.

At 20 you are so young to be plagued by MS…I`m sorry for you about that.

luv Pollx

3

Hi,

I don’t think pain is a very strong predictor of disability - if at all. So try not to read into it that you’re losing the use of your legs.

Unfortunately, I don’t get a lot of interest from my neuro when I try to talk about pain that’s NOT obviously neurological (tingling, burning, electric etc.) He always seems to take the view it’s unconnected.

However, although I’m 45, I don’t think it’s very likely to have all these aches and pains, but it have nothing to do with MS. Other people my age don’t complain of this all the time, and I don’t think I did, either, until I started developing other symptoms of MS.

So to my mind, there’s definitely a connection - even more so if you’re just twenty, because why on earth would your knees start playing up, at twenty, if it weren’t for the fact you’re already ill?

MS can cause pain in a lot of ways - sometimes just because our gait and posture is altered, so we might be putting abnormal strain on joints and muscles. Over time, asking them to do what they’re not designed for leads to pain.

You might get more help from a neuro-physiotherapist than from a neuro, because they are better at spotting postural abnormalities, and will be more clued-up about what the effects could be.

Tina

4

Thank you - have rung my ms nurse and she is seeing me tomorrow and starting me on baclofen and physio!