General anaesthetic and RLS

[antelope99]

Could I have a reminder please.I have to have a general anaesthetic.Any advice to give to the anaesthetist regarding the anaesthetic and after drugs.

Thanking you in advance

[Joolsg]

The anti emetic/nausea is the problem. Ask in advance for ondansetron (zofran) and make sure they know you have to have your meds on time. And delay and RLS kicks off.

[Joolsg]

I had an operation on 1 Sep and had ondansetron. No problem.However- the private hospital took away my meds and then delayed giving them to me. I rang bell several times. I'd hidden a supply in my toiletry bag so took them. The nurse was furious. But so was I.

He got his own back by giving me a DVT injection at 2am by waking me up!

I sent in a complaint.

[Madlegs1 in reply to Joolsg]

Absolutely shocking.

Sue the boll*x off him!

[Joolsg in reply to Madlegs1]

If I hadn't been so drowsy he'd have received a Glaswegian/Scouse kiss! He did it deliberately. Waited until I was asleep.Sad little man.

[marsha2306 in reply to Joolsg]

I've had 3 operations in the past year and a half and all the doctors and nurses seem to not care about your schedule. They keep telling you and hour before or an hour after is perfectly fine. I kept telling them it's not but they don't seem to care. Also, I was recently hospitalized for 5 days because of severe vertigo and on the second day they decided they should STOP my gabapentin because it "could" contribute to vertigo! I have been taking it for 9 years and take 2100 mg a day because I also have nerve pain. I literally lost it with them and told them I needed it and besides, you can't just stop cold turkey!!!!!

[Joolsg in reply to marsha2306]

The negligence is very scary. I do worry about the lack of education on drug side effects and serious withdrawal symptoms!They're happy to prescribe meds they have zero knowledge about.

It's not good enough.

[SueJohnson in reply to marsha2306]

How terrible!

[Merny5 in reply to Joolsg]

Wow! That is horrible. 😬I’m sorry that happened to you! After a surgery a few years ago, the medical staff administered my methadone 4 hours late. I walked the hospital floor the entire night. From that day forward I have never gone into surgery w/o my methadone. Shame on them!! Another example of how others have no idea how much we suffer with this.

[SueJohnson]

Tell your doctors and anesthesiologists about your RLS and its symptoms and that you need your medicine and ask if there will be any drug interactions from what they will give you. Also talk with the patient representative ahead of time. Tell them not to give you any sedating antihistamines or sedating anti-nausea medications. Instead insist they use Zofran (ondansetron) as Joolsg said for anti-nausea.

You can download the Medical Alert Card that you can show your doctors, that tells them about the condition and what will happen after surgery and what medicines to avoid at rlshelp.org/ although you will need to join the RLS foundation. An international membership is $40, but they have some good information on it and you get their monthly magazine. However the safe antidepressants listed on medical alert card are not antidepressants: Lamotrigine, Carbamazepine, Oxcarbazepine. Also there is a 2 page handout "Surgery and RLS: Patient Guide" on the RLS Foundation website which is very helpful. Also "Hospitalization Checklist for the Patient with RLS"

[antelope99 in reply to SueJohnson]

Thank you Sue and Jools, so helpful as ever

[SueJohnson]

After your surgery your RLS may get worse for several reasons - inflammation from the surgery, withdrawal from any opioid they gave you and if there was blood loss your ferritin may have gone down. All of these are temporary but may take awhile to go away. Increasing your medicine may help.

[marsha2306 in reply to SueJohnson]

So true. All of my red blood cell counts tanked after my surgery. RLS was out of control whereas before it was pretty mild.

[Miss_E]

I wish I read this earlier. It did not enter my thoughts leading up to surgery. I had day surgery yesterday, Tue 22nd Jan. When I came to, I woke up with a bad hit of RLS, they gave me .04mg buprenorphine, it took a while to kick in. All I wanted to do was stand, but wasn't allowed. It's been a long time since I've had rls, about 9 months, not missed it at all! I was okay about an hour after.

[grizzly99]

I've had a lot of experience with this. I always tell them about the RLS and how my brain thinks I went to bed if my legs don't more for a long time. So far, the anesthetists have given me some magnesium, which is a calming agent, with the general and it always seems to work. I had a heart procedure recently where I had to lay totally still for 4 hours in recovery recently and it went fine, much to my relief. Good luck.