Would your partner wake you up shouting due to cramp?

Yes! I've had sudden cramp in a calf only very occasionally. The sudden pain is excruciating and I find myself hammering the calf muscle with my fists to try and reduce the pain. Putting weight on the affected leg is very difficult and the soreness can last for a couple of days, even with pain relieving gel. My sympathies to whoever gets these. 🌹

I agree - and at least with labour, you can ask the midwives to send you a nice anaesthetist to come along with an epidural.

@5yearsleft whereas someone else would walk in with half their hand missing, just moaning a bit and with a tea towel taped around it.
That was my 3 year old, top of his
finger off one scream and barely a tear.
Some suggested he was in shock but I don't know.

Even now If he's really hurt he just goes really quiet and won't tell you anything or where hurts.

I get bad leg cramps when I’m asleep fairly often, and no I don’t usually shout out in pain.

BUT

for every 1000 times I’ve had a normal leg cramp that I can just stretch out, there has been one that is unlike any other and yes I have involuntary woken up shouting in pain, shaking, crying and can’t physically move due to the pain to be able to relieve the cramp.

I think this is the important point.

if he’s suddenly getting up to go to the loo or having such bad cramps that he shouts, it probably is a slight potassium or magnesium deficiency. A banana a day and a magnesium supplement for a little while wouldn’t be the worst idea. If that doesn’t help, it might be time to see the GP (I’m only saying this if the frequent loo visits are new; if not, one cramp is no big deal).

Also, I can’t tell you’re being unreasonable or not. When I first got sick, LONG time ago, I spent a lot of time in and out of hospitals before and after my diagnosis, until my meds were stable. My ex-DH (who was often with me) and I noticed from other patients that pain is often relative. Everyone feels pain differently, and copes differently. This is an overdramatized example but it was as if someone could come by ambulance with a gash on their finger and be screaming their head off in pain, whereas someone else would walk in with half their hand missing, just moaning a bit and with a tea towel taped around it.

I’ve had terrible foot and leg cramps from really low potassium (caused by diuretics after steroids) and didn’t yell. But, that could just be because I’m not a yelling person (except once, when I tore about five tendons in one go). Maybe someone else would have yelled. Or maybe someone else’s cramps are worse; maybe your DH’s cramp was. I’ve always thought it would be helpful if you could have a machine that would show you how much pain people feel, so then you’d know how to best help, because it’s impossible to know when you can’t feel it yourself.

Oh, to be so perfect and stoic!

We are all different but some of us are doing it wrong...

Yelling in pain is an involuntary response most of the time. I highly doubt people are doing it to be Drama Queen, especially in the middle of the night.

I'd also be concerned about him getting up to go to the loo a lot if it's a new thing.

My dh does this. He is not one for making a huge fuss though, so, although I am kind of in agreement with you and deal with my own cramp silently, I am prepared to believe that for some the pain is stronger.

OP I am with you. My dh has done this occasionally, the first time it happened was several years in to the marriage and he didn't know what it was. At the time I had been through a pregnancy where I had had quite frequent calf cramps and he had been none the wiser. This was not because my cramps weren't bad, nor that his were worse. They were agonising but my way of dealing with pain does not involve yelling! It was the same in labour- the midwives were going to send me home because they didn't think I was in enough pain for anything to be happening- turned out I was almost fully dilated.

We are all different - so to me, someone yelling and waking up others in the process is being an inconsiderate drama queen.

I thankfully don't get them often but when I do then I absolutely wake up yowling! It isn't to be deliberately annoying. DH is brilliant and knows to quickly manipulate my foot to release it.

The posters who claim to cure the problem by a bit of stretching have clearly never experienced a real Charley Horse.

It's possible to stretch your way out of a twinge of cramp but a full blown attack is so shockingly painful that loud hollering is unavoidable.

My DH gets them often. Yes from what I can see they are awful and worthy of shouting. I have to run over and rub his leg until it stops. He's literally frozen in pain and can't move until it passes. Yabu

and you sound awful.

Have a look at the majority of posts, leg cramp in the middle of the night is painful.

Reading this post is painful, just the thought of them. I'm now scared to sleep tonight 😂

I've had to have my husband stretch my leg because I couldn't get out of bed and nothing I was doing was working.

I also started having a banana a day at a point where I had these a few nights in a row.

I tend to swear and scream a bit, no matter how hard I try to muffle it.

Yes, I had sciatica cramp in my lower leg in both pregnancies, and woke up screaming in pain.

Dh woke up startled, but bless him, proceeded to give my calf a rub until the pain passed.

At least you're prepared for it next time.

He sounds like a complete wet blanket.

Okay I have questions.

Do you not get period pain?

Have you never had a Lemsip?

Leg cramp can be INCREDIBLY painful. I can absolutely understand that someone might cry out with the pain of it.

It is really, really painful. I'd try to stifle my shouts of pain, but I might writhe around a bit in agony.

If he'd been up going to the toilet a lot, had he been drinking? This may have increased your irritation.

Cramps can be linked to dehydration which can be caused by drinking (not always).

But yes, they can be that painful!

I had horrendous leg cramps when pregnant too. I woke poor dh lots of times with the pain. I felt bad but really couldn’t help it at the time.

My DH has a really high pain threshold, cramp is the only time he has shouted out in pain, it can be agony.

I get thigh cramps sometimes - seems to be about once a year and they last for a few days on and off. They are SO painful they've had me in tears before.

Me too, I don't think I ever moved quite so fast at 8mths pregnant. I was like a rocket 🚀 getting out of bed!

Op YABU

I’ve also found grabbing my toes and pushing my leg away from my body is the quickest way to resolve the cramps.