Severe calf cramp! Who else has experienced this painful beast?

[Littletinytarzanswingingfromanosehair]

I was walking with DP on Sunday and I had the worst calf cramp in my 39 years, it was so bad, I jumped into the main road in shock and nearly got hit by a car. I went to the Drs who referred me to A&E as I couldn't even flex my foot. I can just about weight bare now. I was given codiene and Naproxen.

The weather is nice so I thought I would limp around the block but then had a panic attack as I was convinced I was getting it in my other leg.

I have been suffering from stress due to work and getting married in less than a month so I don't know if this is a factor and I have been gymming it most days and on Thursdays I gym and dance, maybe another factor?

Has anyone else had it this painful before?

I have gone down the Google route which is feeding my health anxiety and making me more stressed. My period was late this month and it's making me so tearful too!

Are you drinking enough? Not deficient in anything like magnesium? Start with the basics and go from there. Muscles need a lot of fluids or they get stroppy.

Ouch! Yes I have had painful leg cramps, usually on waking in the morning. Not as bad as you described but definitely some will make my calf sore all that day. I find taking magnesium stops them happening, but I have to make sure I take it daily or they come back quickly. I take Magnesium malate.

I've had the same. Swollen ankle too. Actually went to the Dr earlier today. Like you I went down a rabbit hole 😩Turned out it's a mix of plantar fachiates(spelling?) and my rheumatoid arthritis 😞

Are you eating enough salt? I always get it when there's not enough salt in my diet usually resolved with a nice plate of chips with lots of salt and vinegar.

I have only had severe cramp once. I was in bed when my calf cramped and it was the worst pain. I was screaming in a blood curdling way. My husband was panicking as he didn't know what to do and I couldn't move.

After about 2hrs it eased off and I fell asleep exhausted. I couldn't walk on it properly for a week.

I was told to eat a banana

I’m going through the same, am deficient in magnesium and sodium. I get it in my fingers too.

Me too and it actually worked. I now eat a banana about three times a week and no longer wake up in agony with cramp.

Magnesium and also Vitamin B complex help a lot. As salt is also an issue, I have marmite on toast a few times a week, but if you don't like Marmite, just take B vitamin complex tablets and add salt to your diet.

You could also massage tiger balm into your calves.

I hadn;t realised cramp could be linked to plantar fasciitis which I have also had. Good to know that. Massage flip flops/crocs help for this.

Get it occasionally, especially if you wake up and then stretch out in bed after being asleep, seems to bring it on.

Only solution is to get out of the bed and hop around, all the time yelling like crazy (or not yelling if it is the middle of the night and you don't want to wake anyone up). This normally stops it within half a minute or so.

Sometimes it leaves a permanent ache or dull pain, but it goes away fairly rapidly if you walk on it gently.

Two hours is one hell of a time to have that type of pain if it is the same type I have had.

I have broken limbs .... but that cramp was the worse pain I've ever experienced. My muscle felt crumpled up like a used tissue. I went to sleep through exhaustion

Oh gosh that's awful.
Isn't horrible when its that painful you are scared of either the other one kicking off or it happening again?
I have broke my leg in 3places and I think this has felt worse.
We purchased a spare pair of crutches at the time of the breakage when my others went back to the hospital and boy am I glad we did.

I used to wake up multiple times a night with cramp in either my calf or thigh. By morning I could barely put weight on my leg. The dr gave me pills to help but I had an allergic reaction so I now just have to keep my sodium levels up. If I start to feel crampy I stick some extra salt on my dinner. The dr also said tonic water works but I can’t stand the taste.

i got one in bed so bad i passed out unconscious from pain. it was agony. it hurt for a week but not as bad to knock me out again.

my gp recommended tonic water as it has quinine in it but it’s yuk.
i take a magnesium supplement at night of three types as i dont know which one i need. problem solved.

I get hideous cramps. It feels like the pain is in the actual bone and I’ve been in such agony I’ve actually fallen to the floor. As other people have said it’s definitely related to my fluid intake and the only thing that helps in the acute painful stage is a hot water bottle placed straight on the affected area. My dh has often got up from a sleep to go downstairs to get one as I’ve been unable to walk on it. Sympathies.

I used to get them quite a lot (before I started being more careful about hydration). They never last longer than a few minutes though – and thank goodness, it's the kind of pain that means you can't think about anything else. I once drew blood biting my hand to keep from screaming! And yes it's then sore for the rest of the day.

Magnesium and regular stretching before and after any exercise stopped mine. I stretch as soon as I get up and before bed, which has stopped the middle of the night cramps.

Yes, before I went on HRT, then they disappeared.

Sorry to hear you've had this - bloody awful isn't it? Yours sounds horrendous, am sure mine lasted maybe a minute or 2 but can be very sore for days.

I first experienced it when I was pregnant and get it very occasionally, I noticed it coincides with having alcohol the night before and it happens when I wake up and stretch my feet out. I guess that means a combination of dehydration and whatever else.

Thanks to PP who have said to take magnesium, I really should start doing that again.

Hope you feel better soon, OP!

Yep another cramper here.

I rub magnesium cream on the affected muscle. And get out of the bed, and while keeping foot (of the affected leg) flat on the floor and hands on the wall, stretch that leg back as far as possible, and repeat.

I've just been convincing myself now I'm going to get one in my right, it's started to feel tense just then hoping around.

Had bananas, magnesium supps but they are citrate. I'm having an epsom salt bath tonight too. Im already missing exercise!

Hope you don't get it again OP. I get these cramps regularly at night and wake up shrieking, unable to get out of bed to try and stretch out my leg and foot. But they do subside after a few minutes, thank God.
Bananas and not too much exercise seem to reduce them.

I sometimes get that in my calf. Utterly horrendous.
Yesterday I got one in my thigh. I couldn’t walk for a while. 🥲

Hope things are easing off. Are you certain it is cramp? I had what I thought was cramping, as I knew no better. It was a bad calf strain (couldn’t flex foot, do a heel raise or weight bear). In retrospect, the pain I was feeling didn’t have the increasing intensity of a cramp but it was a deep strong pain and my only similar experience had been cramp. Stretching it out didn’t ease it off was another clue it wasn’t cramp

It's easing off day by day and getting easier to walk.
I think it's been a terrible cramp which has strained the muscle but also caused it to completely stiffen.