new member - in Canada

[Guest guest]

,

Welcome to the group. I am a little confused about exactly what all of your

symptoms are.

Is it just the pain? Do you feel the need to get up and move about sometimes

when you lie down at night? Are your covers all thrown around when you get

up in the morning? Do you ever have problems sitting still at meetings or

movies?

Most of us experience an irritating, " jumpy " feeling in our legs, that can be

described many ways....... " creepy crawly, tingly, ...etc.. " and we

desperately need to get up and walk around to alleviate this feeling.

Quite a few of us have had sleep studies, but we are told that this is not

needed to diagnose RLS. The studies rule out sleep apnea and other problems

and also help diagnose Periodic Limb Movement Disease, which often

accompanies RLS. I am certain though, that if you have RLS while hooked up

in a sleep lab, it would register something on their monitors. I was told

that I could not take a breath that they would not know about. I spent a

good part of my night there standing next to the bed, moving around.....or

dangling my legs over the side.

Interesting that I have also experienced pain in the area you mentioned in my

right leg. It is very like a cramp that normally comes behind that area in

the calf. I attributed it to possible damage from having fluid removed and

cortisone injected into an arthritic knee. At the time the fluid was

removed, I felt a tremendous stab of pain when he had the needle in there,

and I assumed he accidentally hit a nerve and damaged it permanently. That

has been over ten years ago and I still occasionally get these " cramps " or

pains in that leg, although I do not know for certain what causes it.

I have had occasional pain with my RLS, but normally I experience just a

" grinding deep nerve feeling " that makes me jump all over the place. I feel

like mine originates somewhere in my lower spine. It is absolutely

unbearable at times. Once in a while I also have it in my arms and upper

body, which makes me feel positively ill with it. I thank the Lord this does

not happen often.

I had a lot of blood work along with my sleep study and an MRI of the brain

plus the normal neurological exam. This was done to rule out any other cause

for the feelings in my lower body and thus attribute it to RLS.

Occasionally, there have been people who find relief because their body needs

something that they can take in pill form, like folic acid, iron or

magnesium. There are even some reports of vitamin supplementation helping,

but I don't believe this is common. If you have diabetes or kidney problems,

even Rheumatoid Arthritis......you could also have RLS as a complication to

this. I don't know of a whole lot of documented supplementation that gets

rid of it, although many have created their own personal crutches to create

what I think of as a " mind over matter " situation, which is definitely not to

be taken lightly. The mind is a powerful tool. Sometimes these crutches

have to be changed around or used alternately until some relief is finally

found.

A relaxing tea is often helpful, but I personally, do not recommend the

Tension Tamer Tea because it has ginseng in it as it's first and prime

ingredient, and this is a well known stimulant that is not conducive to

restful sleep, and may possibly interact with other medications being taken

at the same time. There are many other teas on the market that are much more

beneficial for this purpose.

I wish you luck in pursuing this situation and if you have insurance to cover

it, I would recommend going ahead with the sleep study. Please keep in touch

and let us know how you are doing.

Connie, 63, MD