RLS COPING MECHANISMS

[Felicity21]

What I might do to calm my legs before bedtime:

1. Stretching 2. Messaging 3. Walking about 4. Drink a glass of water 5. Take a bath to relax 6. Make myself a cup of Pukka Nighttime Tea 7. DISTRACTION: Looking at old photo albums, play Bridge or Scrabble on phone, try on clothes, do my nails. 8. Eat a plate of cereal 9. Lie on my front with legs dangling halfway off end of bed 10. Walk in the grass barefoot

Maybe people can add to these.

In spite of all the scary talk of Augmentation, I have been back on a DA for 18 months now and the secret is NOT TO INCREASE THE DOSE. I take 0.26 mg of Prolonged Release Mirapexin, 2 co-dydramol or co-codamol (10/500) and 0.5 mg of Clonazepam. I take my cocktail after supper in the evening. I may be a bit restless in the evening, but when I do get to sleep after my lovely relaxing bath, I sleep 8-9 hours. I am afraid Gabapentin did not work for me and I am a bit concerned about high dose painkillers.

This is not ADVICE just to tell you what works for me. Good luck everybody.

[Covenant1962]

Thanks for sharing Felicity21. I am currently taking medication quite similar to your regime and I'm hoping that the maintenance of a low dose DA will help stave off augmentation. Actually I also plan to switch the DA in and out to further lessen this risk. Just wondering if it would be worth trying Rotigotine? The patch is slow release and from what I have read this DA has less augmentation risk than Pramipexole?

[Felicity21 in reply to Covenant1962]

I was on Rotigotine for a while. That was when everyone on this forum was encouraged to try Alpha2Beta Ligands. It took me 3 months to come off and go onto Gabapentin only to discover it did not work for me. Miserable 6 months. Also my eyesight deteriorated with the Gabapentin. That is when my Neurologist prescribed the Mirapex. Everyone is different. Good luck.

[Joolsg]

Thanks for sharing Felicity. I'm delighted the low dose Pramipexole is controlling the RLS. Very sensible to keep the dose low.

[Hidden]

Thanks for sharing

Just to say.

High dose painkillers are not recommended for RLS however

LOW dose, HIGH potency opioids are.

Just a thought.