If you wanted to check effective levels of magnesium I hear you need to do a red blood cell test. They open the cell up and see what the levels are inside, not just in the serum of the blood. That tells you what is available in the body tissues.

Magnesium malate is a good form of magnesium to take. I wouldn't do the mag/cal, as they compete with each other for absorption. I have been told to take them separately.

When I was using IV magnesium, I had a PICC line (internal line to give IV drugs) in order to treat my Lyme disease. So I could add all kinds of extras in, in terms of supportive nutritional IVs. However, many alternative doctors offer IVs that may contain magnesium, as well as Vit C and B. It tends to be expensive, so I don't do them now, though I would like to.

Transdermal magnesium is supposed to be very helpful too, if you can find one that gives enough. I find 400-600 magnesium is what I can tolerate orally, but I was taking over 1,000 mg IV, and that really helped.

I have also used Iv forms of magnesium with a nebulizer, something used fro asthmatics to break up drugs so they can be inhaled into the lungs. It really helps when my lungs tighten up, but I don't use that form all of the time, because I understand it weakens the immunity of the lungs. I already have troubles with infections, so don't want to risk it.

Speaking of infections, I have to say it concerns me that you may have an infectious cause for your pain. My doctor usually treats rheumatoid arthritis with antibiotics, and over 75% of the people in the fibromyalgia group I was in were re-diagnosed with Lyme disease. Including me. Not everyone got better with treatment, but many did. We figured out I had the infection for 11 years before it was diagnosed, so mine has been a tough case. My doctor thinks the long term infection is what triggered my mast cell issues.

Lyme is not the only infection that could cause the type of pain you are going through, but infection is something to keep in mind as a possibility, especially with some of the blood test results you are seeing.

Take care! I hope the pain continues to improve. Its miserable when you are in pain like that.