progressing!

[6236]

hello everyone! I just wanted to update everyone on what is going on since seeing Dr. Nichols. First he is a fantastic doctor! He listens and I would highly recommend him to anyone in the area that has RLS to seek him out. Together we have laid out a plan to get me off Ropinirole slowly. I am going to have a full iron panel done asap and also at his request have a sleep study done because of “according to my wife” I snore excessively and Dr Nichols want to be sure that I have nothing working against me when I come off ropinirole. He said that an iron infusion would probably be something we should do but he wants to see the results from the lab work first. He has started me on gabapentin at 300 mg and slowly increasing until I get to 1800 mg a day as we do this the Ropinirole will be slowly decreased until completely off. He said that it would take time and that he would do what was necessary to make the process as easy as possible including opioids. Oh and one thing about the iron infusion, my insurance will not pay for an infusion without a fight so I’m not sure that it will be an option for me since the cost of an infusion is anywhere between $400-$1800 dollars which I don’t have but Dr Nichols said he would fight them and try to get it paid for. I have also purchased some red vein Kratom as recommended by a few on here so I will see how that works. Thank you for all of the information and support and I will keep you updated.

[Madlegs1]

Great to have positive progress.👍

[Joolsg]

That's great news. Dr Nichols sounds wonderful.The sleep study will help as well. Dr Jose Thomas,here in the UK, says many RLS patients also have sleep apnoea, and treating that reduces RLS.

Good luck.

[LotteM]

Sounds good, apart for the insurance bit about iron infusion. Discuss with dr Nichols whether - after your bloodwork - you should already start taking iron orally. It may work. It is a much longer process, but it may work out for you.

[SueJohnson]

That's terrific!

[Ticki]

hi hon, can I ask where Dr. Nicholson is located and good news to hear your progress.💜

[6236]

good morning sorry for the delay in responding. I actually got a little sleep ! Dr. Kendall Nichols is a doctor with Emory hospital in Atlanta Georgia he is a neurologist and sleep specialist. He is a young man but so far seems very knowledgeable and up to date on RLS. My daughter and I saw him last Monday and I was very impressed with him. We talked about my situation and then he discussed how he wanted to proceed. He spent over an hour with us which in this day and time is very unusual. I would highly recommend him to anyone with RLS

[Mert3122]

I have an appointment with Dr. Nichols on your recommendation but not until late September and am really hoping that you have had some success with your RLS and new Dr. since February. He's about 90 minutes away into no man's land (Atlanta), so I'm not looking forward to the drive, but have high hopes. I'm going to cancel my appointments with my current Neurologists who don't prescribe opioids soon. I'm augmenting on Ropinerole even though my dose was 1mg. I'm down to 1/4 of a tablet (with .50 Pregabalin) but don't know where to go from here. I tried to do without that 1/4 last night adding some Codeine cough syrup but was mightily unsuccessful. Looking forward to your update!