Thursday, October 08, 2009

Restless Legs

I appear to have developed Restless Leg Syndrome on top of everything else, if my suspicions are correct. The last few nights I've been unable to sleep in bed because my legs are twitching so much. I've had to sleep in the recliner, where it takes me about an hour and a half to finally get my legs to calm down. Every 15-30 seconds they twitch and jerk - feels like I have something under my skin, or they're trying to cramp.

My father called while I was writing this and I told him about it (mistake, I know). He tried to tell me it's because of the work the chiropractor is doing, that because of the adjustments I can now feel the nerves in my legs. Um, dad? It's not like my legs have been dead for the past 32 years. They're just fine - I feel pain just fine, believe me. This? Not PAINful, just really uncomfortable. I feel like a marionette!

RLS isn't uncommon for people with fibromyalgia. According to this site, "Many people with fibromyalgia suffer from restless leg syndrome symptoms. RLS causes unpleasant sensations in the lower limbs, so much so that the limbs have to be moved in order to reduce the pain. RLS occurs mostly at night, between the hours of 10:00 pm and 4:00 am, though it can also occur throughout the day in severe cases. It is thought that somewhere between 20% and 40% of fibromyalgia sufferers also have RLS." Consider now that I get off work at 9:30 at night, go to bed at about 1:30 or so, and start having issues as soon as I lay down.

It seems odd that it cropped up at the same time I started taking meds for a UTI. I've looked into it and that's really not one of the side effects...so I really think it's just coincidence. I have at least another 3 days of the meds, so we'll see what happens when I stop taking them. If it continues I'm going to have to go talk to the doc.

Joy. I needed another syndrome. I wonder if that's my superhero name: Syndrome Girl

4 comments:

Jess said...

Suck! I hope it miraculously disappears!!

Anonymous said...

that does suck! But cute rodent...it does kind of feel like someone up there is laughing, huh?

Anonymous said...

but stay hopeful...

wishtobeamommy.com

Lorin said...

I have RLS. I've had it for years, though, so I don't know where it came from. I hope your goes away as mysteriously as it appeared. If not, I recommend trying to go to bed earlier and cutting back on caffeine if you drink it. I cut caffeine out entirely. It was either that or take these scary meds my neurologist wanted to prescribe. No thanks! So instead, I try to take care of myself and think of the twitches I get before bed as a reminder that my body is ready to lie down. And the twitches in bed - mostly they wake up my poor husband more than me! Anyway, its late, I'm tired, my feet feel like ants are crawling on them - but I thought I'd share. =)