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Suffering 20 Years With RLS!!

Posted by Yokono on July 01, 2001 at 00:31:22:

Hello!

I would like to share my story with someone who can relate to what I am talikng about. I have had RLS for over 20 years. It started before my last child was born and as I was in labor with her, my legs began to writhe! You talk about miserable! I have taken just about every kind of antidepressant, nerve and pain pill you could think of, for my problem. Of course, back when mine started, there was not a doctor around who knew what in the heck I was talking about. They tried to say it was a calcium imbalance or that it was my nerves or that it was a circulation problem. I ended up addicted to prescription drugs, trying to get to the root of the problem. As I look back over the years, I wonder how I made it and it is sad to think of all that I went through. I have been hospitalized because of taking antidepressants, which worsened my symptoms. I would walk the floor at night...drugged. I would go to sleep while I was walking through the house at night and run into the walls...sounds pathetic, huh? In the hospital, they gave me thorazine and of course, it made it worse, so I felt I needed to get up and walk but the nurses said I could not get up and walk around with the big shot of thorazine they gave me. They put up the rails but I was determined and not knowing what I was doing but still knowing that I could not lay still, I tried to climb over the rails...they tied me down! I can still remember the horror I felt. I have RLS not only in my legs, but in my arms, shoulders and neck, sometimes. There were nights that I would get maybe 2-3 hours of sleep and some nights, not any at all.

I've taken a couple of medicines in the past that seemed to help for awhile...klonopin and chlorihydrate. But both, eventually lost their effectiveness, after awhile and I did not like the way they made me feel the next day. About a year ago, I started going to a doctor in Oklahoma City. She knew just exactly what I was talking about. She gave me Sinemet and Ambien. It was wonderful...for awhile. Then she raised my dosage on the Sinemet. It was wonderful...for awhile. Then she admitted me into a sleep study institute. They found I had over 3,000 leg movements during the night. She then gave me another medicine to add to the Sinemet called Mirapex. It is working pretty well. Sometimes I have to take an extra Mirapex after an hour, if the initial dose is not working. So, I go along from day to day hoping that this stuff does not become ineffective, as well. Then, what will I do?

So, what is your experience with RLS? It seems I've told you my life story. But, it helps to tell someone who knows how it feels.

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