Help please.

[20west]

I have been taking ARARTREL for many years now with no worries really. I get an occasional breakthrough but it soon settlers down. I took 1mg for approx 8 years and now 1.5mg for the last two years. No problems. I had a new right hip on 16th October . My newly operated on leg has never stopped hurting jerking and all the other things it pulls along the way. I just don t know what to do, I have taken extra ropinoles to see if they work to no avail. If I could chop my leg off would. My left leg is not affected as of now thank goodness.

I am sure it willl settle down in time but any suggestions meanwhile would be appreciated.

A locum doctor at my practice has prescribed GABapentin 100mg 3 times a day, increasing to 2, 3 times a day after a week. He really didn't seem to know what he was talking about.

[Elffindoe]

Sorry to hear you're having this problem.

I'm not a doctor and certainly no surgeon so I can't say what's happening with your leg. Is it any particular part of your leg?

If it has affected your RLS then there MAY be two possibilties.

One is that a nerve has been damaged or compressed due to the surgery. This could make your RLS worse. It depends relly on what excatly the surgery was, you donm't say.

Don't you have a follow up appointment with the surgeon.

The other possibilty is if you were given any o;piod painkillers becasue of your surgery and you have now stopped these. It coudl be opioid wiothdrawal effects.

Your Dr is right NOT to increase the ropinirole. This is very important and you should not increase it yourself.

Gabapentin is prescribed both for nerve pain and for RLS, The prescription for nerve pain is 3 times a day and for RLS it's once a day.

In combination with the ropinirole, this could help reduce your RLS, but even 200mg 3 times a day may not be enough for the nerve pain. 900mg or more may be needed.

That is, if it is nerve pain.

If it isn't then the gabapentin will help with the RLS but not the pain.

Hopefully your DR has considered whether the pain may also be due to inflammation which might respond better to a NSAID.

It would be best if you could get the pain diagnosed properly, it isn't likely to be due to RLS.