I can barely walk. The cramping in the arch of my foot is unrelenting! I’ve taken a muscle relaxer and something for pain along with my normal drugs. My toes want to curl. From the ankle up my shin all VERY tight. Good grief…. So very, very painful! I can feel it trying to work its way up to involve my entire leg. WTH am I going to do about this?! I have felt all week as though I have been walking on rocks. For good measure I am also having the classic Neuro lightning strikes of pain too. Wow, this really, really hurts!

My CRPS II started in this limb, now progressed everywhere, but right now this cramping has been going on for at least an hour. Ugh!

I know this pain all too well. It happens in my feet (toes to the arch) often. As it starts to subside the toes violently thrash back and forth.

My RSD burns hot in that foot. I elevate the foot, try not to move it and pack it with ice. If I can reduce whatever inflammation set it off, the muscle cramps start to subside. i keep the foot rested until I am sure all the inflammation subsided or it will return again. I get this much more in the summer with the heat. I figure the heat make the swelling and inflammation worse and sets it off.

I hope this helps. I have never found a medicine or doctor to help with this issue.

kathie

This pain has become so familiar, that I can tell the pre-pain nerve sensation before it starts. So I immediate elevate and ice it and I have found that I can head-off the pain and cramping sometimes. My daughter has been trained from when she was young that If I start yelling "My foot, my foot it is starting, help" She runs to the freezer and loads 2 ziplock bags with ice and brings them to me.

She is a sweet girl
kathie

Vrae,
Happens to me!!! So incredibly painful. Mine has gotten to where the whole leg, even both legs cramp violently. As cait24 noted once I get the spasms to calm a bit, I elevate my legs and relax as much as possible.

My spasticity in my legs and feet had gotten so bad that my toes curled. Finally, they curled permanently, along with my feet. It got to where I walked on the side of my left foot with my toes curled on both feet. Eventually I had major surgery to sever the various muscles to straighten my ankles/feet/toes. They put pins in my toes to hold them straight after they cut the tendons behind each toe. Despite my feet finally being back straight, I am unable to walk very well. The muscles still spasm even though they are not all the way attached. The spasms still work their way up my legs. The more I try to walk the more my legs fight against me and spasm. My Dystonia actually throws my left leg around uncontrollably. Unfortunately once these attacks start they seem to feed off themselves and are difficult to stop.

I do have a baclofen pump. I also get Botox injections every 3 months. I bathe my legs in Epsom salt water and soak my feet in it in a pan in the shower. I use epsom salt lotion (both recommended to me by mrsD). I take tizanidine and a oxi pain pill. Sometimes it is necessary for me to take some oral baclofen too on top of that provided by my pump. I used to use ice until I got on this forum and was advised not to do so by several of the forum members. The ice is great for calming the burn quickly, but apparently it causes more problems for CRPSrs in the long run. Pickles and or tonic water! i've heard there is something (I presume salt) that is in the pickles that helps. Water! Do drink water and lots of it. Relaxation exercises or meditation would be great, but realistically they are near to impossible when in the throws of a spasticity attack.

I hope you find relief soon. You might try some of the techniques I noted above. They might help you.

So sorry you're dealing with those horrible painful cramps, hope they have eased off a bit by now....sounds a bit like contractures, i had them in my leg a year ago, and my physio told me they are a CRPS symptom where the muscle goes into spasm and is trying to contract along its length. Stretching and exercise are important to try and fight them off, but obviously when it's really bad you have to do whatever you can to control the pain. Try to keep the foot and ankle moving and at a continual gentle warmth, walking is good if you can manage a few steps on a gentle surface like carpet. Mine went within a month or so of regular gentle stretching exercises, and so far I haven't had them back, but that's just me, and I know I was lucky with that.

I have to back Djhasty up here on the ice. Ice is a really bad idea for CRPS. The tissues are already damaged with CRPS, and the ice causes your nerves to really react badly. As she says, they cool the immediate burn, but in the longer term ice is nothing but bad. There have been so many studies showing how ice worsens CRPS and can even encourage spread. I used to walk on a cold stone floor to cool my toes - but I have found that actually things are better if I just wiggle them on the cool arm of my leather sofa, I think even the stone floor was just too abrupt a temperature change. CRPS likes constancy....if I keep my foot warm as much as possible it is so much happier.

Hope things get easier very soon, this is such a vile and scary condition

Bram

My Neuro taught me this about leg / foot cramps; lay down (on your back), and painful as it may be, slowly point your toes toward your face. This will stretch the muscles and tendons in your legs shins and feet.

Hope it helps....


Pete

Ask your doctor for lidoderm patches. You put them right on the spots that are really bad. I had doubts it would work, but it did. I have PN, but the pain is pretty bad too. These patches keep me walking. ginnie

There is a new magnesium lotion by Morton's.
http://www.mortonsalt.com/for-your-h...-epsom-lotion/
non greasey and no fragrance.

You can gently rub this into your foot, and calf and ankle, and see better results than the soaking in epsom salts.

It is available at WalMart now for $5.98 and Amazon online for $2.00 more. It is wonderful and many of us on PN forum are using it now.

Low magnesium leads to cramping. Fixing this gives considerable relief.

I use mine every single day. It even brought my blood pressure down dramatically.!

Okay so I THINK I have figured out what one of the contributing factors was. Since I got my new sexy leg braces from PT a few weeks ago I have been wearing an old pair of sneakers that have an arch in the foot. So I changed shoes a few weeks back. I had noticed that my feet were having more of the I’m walking on rocks feeling lately, but I chalked it up to just another episode of that, as I’ve had that feeling before. Throughout the last five or more years of the ten I have had CRPS II, I have dealt with the charlie-horsing in my legs, and on many occasions my toes have curled and I have rubbed them back to a normal position. But what happened the other night was crazy scary, and painful as hell. I wasn’t swelling, it was just full on pain and cramping. My fear was, what if this just doesn’t stop or at a minimum settle down? Am I headed for contractures? Maybe…


The episode lasted several hours and continued to get worse until all the drugs kicked in and knocked me out. Just before falling asleep my leg started to have myoclonic jerks . When I woke up the next morning the cramping had subsided but residual pain lasted… well I still have some of that, but each day it’s getting a bit better I think.

I take soma. I did try baclofen once the spasticity in my whole body went nuts. For whatever reason, that drug does not agree with me. I know all of the cons of soma, and I sure don’t take it all of the time, but am real glad I have it for nights like the one I just had. I did push fluids too. And when I could I tried to stretch. I will ask the doc for lidoderm patches, and see if that helps. Even for this residual pain left in my feet. And yes, for under $6 bucks, I will get some magnesium lotion by Morton's and give it a try too.

Thank you so much for all of your responses and suggestions! I was at a desperate place when I posted this thread. I feel for those of you who have lost, or are losing the use of your feet/legs, or any limb for that matter. When I look at the progression of the CRPS in not just my feet, but all over I can clearly see where I’m headed. It’s horrible to think about, and this last episode really freaked me out. I try to just keep moving. I know that if I don’t I will probably deteriorate more rapidly.


PS, I never ice as I have heard it to be a no no. I have “cold” CRPS II, so I don't swell very often.

Nice to hear you are feeling a bit better. Please take care.