Severe pain with night-cramps in the Legs, can this be linked with my R/A condition or is this due to circulation problems.

[ggtone1937]

I have recently started on Potassium & Magnesium tablets to try and improve the problems. I very rarely have a full nights sleep, I would appreciate any advice.

[Sailaway]

I can't answer your question, but I too have had awful night cramps and I'd relate it to when RA started, but whether that's the direct cause or if it's because I'm not moving as much I'm not sure.

What I've found helps most is having a small heated under-blanket to make sure my feet and legs are warm before I go to sleep - that's just about irradicated the problem. The other thing I've done at times is have a fleece blanket to loosely wrap around my legs to keep them warm as sometimes the cotton sheets are just too cold.

One note of caution, it's ok to leave the heated blanket on overnight from a safety point of view, but doing that gave me chilblains.

[ggtone1937 in reply to Sailaway]

Thank you for this tip I will try because I have been colder lately, whereas I was always like toast in bed, so my Wife always said. Thanks to all the others with the advice, although Quinine is out because of the reaction with other medication.

I have had some slight relief with Potassium & Magnesium tablets.

Thanks again to all you very helpful people very much appreciated

[ggtone1937 in reply to Sailaway]

Thanks again "Sailaway", I had a very rare good nights sleep last night, The day has started with," now what jobs can I do this morning" but then again I must not be too ambitious, lets hope for the best. Once again thanks for the advice.

ggtone1937

[Sailaway in reply to ggtone1937]

That's fantastic! Isn't it good to find simple, chemical-free solutions? I hope this continues to work for you. Have a great day getting the jobs done!

[Hidden]

Funny how topics arrive in waves - someone posted about cramp only a couple of days ago & before that I'd seen little mention of it. My night cramps started in earnest about 8 months before diagnosis which was about the same time that I began feeling generally ill. I'd agree with the previous poster that warmth is very important.

Whilst I am generally in remarkably good health (apart from RA!) and feel fine, I am nonetheless plagued by a whole load of niggling little-ish health problems which seem to be associated with RA & / or Methotrexate . Most of them come and go. All of them, including the cramp, seem to respond to the usual healthy living type of approach - hardly any alcohol, best possible diet, as much exercise as humanly possible etc. etc. So if you are aware of any healthy stuff you are not doing that you could do that's what I'd recommend!

I'd be interested to know if the Potassium and Magnesium help you at all. I'm just trying to decide whether to see my GP next week as cramp has been criminal lately, though of course has calmed down now!

All the best, hope you do get this really annoying problem sorted,

Luce x

[2plus2]

GP prescribed Quinnine sulphate tablets at night for cramps. Had a lot of problems with cramp in legs and toes RA or circulation? Bit of both I expect. Have not had any cramps since I started on these tablets a year ago. Bliss

[earthwitch]

If the home remedies of potassium and magnesium aren't working, or aren't working well enough, then you really do need to talk to your GP about this.

I know I get really painful cramps when I have bad enthesitis - it sets up a reaction in the muscle and can hurt an awful lot.

[earthwitch]

meant to add that the only way I can deal with it is to make sure I have inflammation well under control.

[Hidden in reply to earthwitch]

So you reckon inflammation is the RA-linked cause? Makes sense.

[earthwitch in reply to Hidden]

It definitely is when its enthesitis as part of spondylarthritis. Thats because enthesitis is inflammation right at the end of the tendon where it joins onto the bone, so stands to reason that it can cause the tendon/muscle to become crampy. I'm not sure if you get enthesitis with RA as much, if at all, as I understood that RA was more about synovitis (which is the area within the joint rather than outside it). But, I think there are a lot of people around who have been told they have "seronegative arthritis" when it could well be spondyloarthritis, and you can have both RA and spondy as well. Its worth asking your rheumatologist to properly examine your joints and see if there is pain or inflammation at the entheses (where tendon joins bone).

[Hidden in reply to earthwitch]

Thanks for your explanation. I think my Rheumy might be reviewing my diagnosis in so far as he did not write 'RA' on post-appointment letters (which he always has done previously) & has replaced it with 'Inflammatory Arthritis'. And it would seem to be the nature of the swelling on my wrist which gave him pause for thought as well as the fact that mtx isn't working quite as anticipated. So I would not be particularly surprised to be diagnosed with spondy. Asking about enthesitis is on my list for the next appointment. I'm just about to check out one of those entheses diagrams to see if any points correspond with (relatively) painful areas.

Now I'm wondering whether ggtone or Sailaway have any doubts hanging over their diagnosis??

[Sailaway in reply to Hidden]

I think there was a bit of debate on my diagnosis, my consultant's special interest is spondylopathy and for a while I was given inflammatory arthritis as a diagnosis. However in the last few months that's changed and he's confirmed it's RA.

[muffin]

I have had pain in my legs at night for about three years,off and on. It is now 8 years since I was diagnosed with RA and didn't know why I should just start to have the pain. Mine are not cramp like pains, rather pains in or just behind the bones on my legs.

RA has a not to answer for, all these little thinks like night time pains, make life during theday more difficult to get through.

hope you have success with your pain relief.

Muffin.

[RUBELS]

I get these cramps alot too very painful, my legs feels stiff most of all the next day. Has anyone had the feeling like they have been digging into their bed with their heels? I get this alot, ). If anyone else had this feeling what if anything remedies it.