Help! My rls is getting progressively worse. My symptoms start earlier in the day, and I can get it to stop briefly for a couple hours at night with medication, but the symptoms get me up again early in the morning. I started taking mirapex about a year and a half ago .5 pramipexal at night as well as 100 mg lyrica .75 venlafaxine. My doctor has also prescribed 50 mg tramadol if I need it. I also take ferrous chelate.
The mirapex used to work amazing with .125 then I needed to take .5 now that isn't working. I am terrified of augmentation. Do you think that is what it is? I have a huge family history of addiction and I am afraid of taking stronger drugs to get off the mirapex. But if my rls gets worse I will loose my mind.
It is 2:00 a.m. and I am so afraid of my future. Please help me. Thank you.
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Ranrach
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This does sound like augmentation, but lots of us on here have experienced this and come out the other end. I do understand how hard life feels when you are sleep deprived, but things can, and will, get better.
Don’t be tempted to increase your Mirapex, in fact you are going to need to wean off it gradually (there are endless threads on here regarding this) talk to your Dr re this, lots of people on here will recommend you access some appropriate opioids to make weaning easier. Don’t just stop the Mirapex.
Things that will also help...
1) Find out what your ferritin level is, it needs to be well over 100, if it’s not get onto a good supplement
2) if you’re on other medication check it’s not on the list of drugs that can make RLS worse (lots of antidepressants and antihistamines do)
I fear that this is augmentation, Ranrach. Many of us have been through this terror.
You need to discuss your regimen with your doctor. The truth is that a strong low-dose opioid will very likely assist you if your doctor will agree. There is little or no chance of addiction on an opioid like methadone, in a low dose - but NOT Tramadol, which itself can cause augmentation, alone amongst the opioids.
I also think, as do some experts, that DAs are themselves highly addictive - thus the appalling difficulty of stopping them.
I would write to Doctor Buchfuhrer through the rlshelp.org portal - he is one of the world's top experts on augmentation and opioids, and a reply from him will carry weight with your own doctor.
You are on a lot of different drugs, all of which act on the brain, so simplifying your regimen might help a lot.
It is well known that RLS/WED sufferers are much less likely than others to succumb to opioid addiction, so do not concern yourself with that.
There is a way through this, Ranrach, although I know well the feeling of complete hopelessness. Be brave, write to Doctor B.
My heart goes out to you, Ranrach. You have a difficult road ahead. 0.5mg mirapex is too much and almost certainly causing your current difficulties. I got off a high dose of mirapex (1.6mg) without the assistance of opioids but it was not a picnic - I was good for nothing for a good few weeks - and the recovery once I eliminated mirapex took a long time - in fact it was only when I started a temporrary opioid about 3 months after I stopped the mirapex that I really started to improve. Would you consider kratom? Some people have posted that it helped a lot during dopamine agonist withdrawal and it is easier to discontinue than an opioid if you decide to pursue a different treatment regime once you are off the mirapex.
Yeah my legs are 24-7 now...never had augmentation...that is caused by the
drugs that effect the dopamine receptors. It could be augmentation or your symptoms are getting worse. I take 60 mgs of norco/4 mgs of clonazapam/15 of valium/use a near infrared light...that is about 850 nm. An electrical device that is used for neuropathy.
And medicinal marijuana. When the meds quit working then i turn to the electrical and
the NIR light. The medicinal marijuana at a 4-1 ratio cbd vs thc. it also has terpines in it.
Have had it for 5 years do not see it getting any better.
The newer drugs they have for rls from my understanding after a while will make your RLS
worse. Some folks have it over there whole body just not the legs.
Gabapentin when first presented to the FDA was rejected because it caused bladder cancer. Then they decided to Say oh it is an okay drug.
I have tried all kinds of diet...find that loads of sugar and diet coke really set it off.
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Restless Leg Syndrome and Mirapex
Augmentation?
