Do you have any ideas?

[work4lvng]

My husband has had 3 spinal fusions from L-4 to S-1.  He currently has a crack in L-3.  He's also had cervical laminectomy, shoulder reconstruction, 8 knee surgeries, and a kidney removed. About 3 years he began suffering from muscle cramps mainly in his legs but now they encompass his entire body.  He also has periods of sweating profusely followed by chills.  He is not able to sleep but maybe 2 hours a night due to the pain and the muscle spasms.  Nobody has been able to give him help except to say that at this time the good news is you don’t have a muscle disease but the bad news is we don’t know what you have.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

[Charles Rosen, MD]

Dear Work4lvng,

Sweating and chills sounds offhand like an infection of some sort.  If it’s in the spine, then an MRI can usually determine this and is treated by a spine surgeon.   If not there, then maybe consider seeing an infectious disease expert in medicine to see if he has some infection, parasite, etc which may be unrelated to his spine.  I assume that you have seen your own family doctor or internist already.  If not, that should be done.

Dr. Rosen

Charles Rosen, MD
Clinical Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery
Spine Surgery
University of California, Irvine, College of Medicine
Founding Director, UCI Spine Center
101 City Drive, Pavilion III
Orange, CA 92868
[phone]
www.charlesrosenmd.com

[work4lvng]

Thank-you, yes, his potassium level is fine, we've had all sorts of blood tests done and everything comes back fine the only thing that comes back abnormal is that he is anemic. I forgot to mention that he has spinal stenosis.

[Confessions]

I suppose I didn't read your post clearly enough.  For as long as this has been going on, he may benefit from seeing a neurologist and then a pain management doctor as well.  This is the next step for my hubby.  

[Confessions]

My hubby has had a 360 rotation, fusion of L3-4-5.  The muscle cramps may be from a lack of potassium.  Does he take multivitamins or eat many foods high in potassium?  When my hubby doesn't it only takes a day for the leg cramps to start and then he can't sleep because of them and soon the spasms start.

It may be a good idea to tell the doctor about this and ask for some bloodwork to be done.  It is amazing what they can tell about our bodies from a simple drop of blood. ; )