Mrs D, Thanks for the heads-up.
I'll try to find the slow-mag or 64. I'm not near a WalMart, Costko, or Kmart. They're waaay across town in the suburbs, I'm in the heart of the city, but I'll try to find it, maybe make a trek on a day off.
I like Black Beans, and have greens (collards, turnip, kale, etc) frequently.
Just had Black-eye peas w/ham-hocks and Collards cooked w/bacon for New year's day (That's Southern good-luck food for the New Year- my wife's from Missouri & we live in MD) - maybe that helped reduce the pains (?). I had two big helpings of greens. Still have some left in the 'fridge', prolly should finish them off!

I take a daily--
 

--225mg magnesium citrate pill (from Swanson Vitamins) and it's pretty d**n large.

Yes, the magnesium malate from Puritan's is basically a "horse pill"... as we commonly call those huge ones. If the tablet is not labeled "delayed release", it can be cut in half etc.

You cannot cut SlowMags, but they are not so huge IMO. And they are coated and slippery and go down easily.

Those other huge chelates are another story!

I am going to try out the cream by Kirkman soon, and I'll put up a post when I get around to it, maybe in a week or so.
I don't expect to be able to tolerate metformin with oral magnesium for myself. I am so sensitive GI wise etc.

I assume they ruled out intermittent claudication.

I also read that calf pain and buttock pain comes with autonomic dysfunction as those muscles attempt to return blood upward they tense.

But please get the intermittent claudication thing ruled out first.

Wow, did I have a horrible attack tonight. I went through a bad time with leg/feet cramps over the summer when I gave up dairy, but they seemed to resolve when I started back with the dairy and supplemented as necessary.

Tonight, I can only attribute the "attack" to eating something way too salty. Unfortunately right afterwards, I ran out to do errands, and was practically debilitated. I think every muscle in my feet and lower legs were affected to the point where I was unable to control my feet. I was worried about driving obviously, but thankfully was able to use cruise control for the bulk of drive and kept cramping at bay by constantly moving and extending my feet.

I could barely walk when I got home. I immediately drank about 20 oz of water, popped two calcium supplements, a Mag64 and a potassium supplement. Something in that mix resolved the problem pretty quickly, and I've been fine since.

As I thought about it, I was very weak on calcium intake today, but I had taken a Mag64 earlier in the day, so I assume it wasn't just that. I can only guess that the sodium did something really bad, maybe in conjunction with low calcium? Or maybe it was just dehydration, but I've NEVER had cramps like that from dehydration. It was downright frightening.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this that they can attribute to excess sodium?

I have to change doctors with a change in health insurance, and think I'm going to make an appointment just to see if the new doc has any thoughts. If anyone can suggest any tests that might be good to run, I'm all ears.

^^I experience those cramps all the time, but I do not have a clue as to what causes them. Mine come at night.

I got them at night during the summer too. I've never had them during my waking hours like this, though.

I- perhaps wrongly- assume that when this happens it is a poor hydration day, not enough to eat, the like. But it is indeed brutal.

Turn my ankleto the right, spasming. And not a gentle one (if there is such a thing) but my foot will feel like it is folding into itself and if it is in bed there is enough noise there are twp of us working it out.

I think it is hydration related for me because it happened more in the summer and when it happened this past week it was milder and I was able to halt proceedings before they got too far with cessation of movement and massage.

When my legs are in a bad was the epsom salt lotion comes out, though.

One of my residents I work with has diabetes insipidus. Her sodium level often gets high and she has to drink tons of water to lower it. When it gets high, she gets extremely weak, especially her feet and proximal muscles.
Not saying you have diabetes insipidus.....just thinking maybe there is a link to high sodium and muscle weakness.

I definitely am on the pre-diabetic sprectrum somewhere, so I'm going to watch this. I have low-normal blood pressure, so watching my salt is not something I've ever worried about. I'm going to start paying more attention, after all, when you read about neuropathy, you'll hear a lot about "sodium channels" being involved.

Thanks for the responses.