Cold turkey

[Loopylegs]

Hello everyone, I decided to go cold turkey on the last quarter of pramipexole, its been 5 days now, I had to up the codeine as the 900mg dose of gabapentin was making me feel weird, the rls is mostly confined to my legs which is great, so far I'm not getting a huge amount of sleep, mostly 1.5hrs at a time before symptoms wake me, I'm taking tylex(zapain) every 4 hrs through the night, feel a bit hung over in the morning from the meds, my question is how long, roughly, can it take to recover from taking pramipexole and will my rls worsen when I try to reduce the other meds I'm on, I reckon I will always take gabapentin as it does help me sleep, but I would love to be on just 300mg of gabapentin and 30mg of codeine, maybe it's just wishful thinking but I am hopeful as I'm 5 days off pramipexole and only have symptoms in my legs instead of all over!

[Madlegs1]

That's great to have got to this stage.

It should slowly get better.

Taking some paracetamol ( 250 to 500 mg) along with the codeine will help matters.

Meanwhile, have you addressed ferritin levels and possible triggers?

Read any of Sue Johnson's replies to get more information.

Slán.

[SueJohnson]

It can take several weeks for it to get better. Hang in there. It's great you are off it. As far as reducing gabapentin, if it is helping you, reducing it will make your RLS worse. Same with the codeine. If you do decide to try reducing it, do it 100 mg at a time with 1 to 2 weeks in between each reduction to avoid withdrawal effects.

[Joolsg]

It can take a few months for withdrawal symptoms to settle so stay strong. The first 2 weeks are the worst. You've done so well to get off Pramipexole. The side effects of gabapentin do settle after the first month as well.

I think you may be able to reduce meds, but give it time and go very slowly if you do start to reduce them.

Make sure your serum ferritin is above levels recommended for RLS as that will also reduce symptoms.

Good luck.

[Loopylegs]

Thanks so much all, delighted to have gotten this far, made possible by your support and wonderful advice, thank u all xx

[Hidden in reply to Loopylegs]

Are you completely off the Estrogen? Did you ever try two instead of one Gentle Iron capsule?

[Loopylegs in reply to Hidden]

Yes, I'm on the 2 gentle iron but still weaning off the estrogen as I don't want menopause symptoms hitting me too, I'm only on estrogen a year or so, my rls didn't get any worse while on it, I hoped hrt would help rls, I used to crawl all over the past 6 years or so, whereas it used to only be in my legs until I started dopamine agonists, at the moment it's just my legs again which to me is a huge improvement.

[Hidden in reply to Loopylegs]

Loopy, you may not have noticed a worsening since you were on a DA and codeine. Like I’ve said on here many times, the HRT did not hurt your dopamine receptors and may even have helped. Once the HRT is completely out of your system my guess is you will see a noticeable improvement in symptoms. If not, then you can discuss with your doctor about going back on, though I personally would not do that. Please keep us posted.

[Loopylegs]

Will do, thanks

[pennygates]

Bravo. You have done really well.