RLS 268

[Guest guest]

Hi gang, it's me for the 2nd time today responding to some of our friends

here on the net. I hope I get this right, if not please forgive me. I am so

tired these days that I am lucky if I remember my name. First of all I find

that deep massage in certain areas of my body helps me a great deal. I also

find that when I have massage done that some of the deeper almost painful

stuff that brings the blood/circulation to the forefront really helps me

especially in the neck and upper back area. There are some areas, such as

back of my legs and hips that respond much better to gentle massage. As

suggested and as we all know by now, we all respond differently. As to the

question about the job. I have not worked a full time job in about 10 years.

And yes, it was directly related to my RLS in that I was so exhausted from

lack of sleep that I just wasn't able to keep up with the type of work I did.

As the years have gone one though and I have had so many operations and

total knee replacement and with the PLMD I have so much chronic pain, also

with the Fibro, that I just never know when I will be able to work. As a

result I do some work here at home on my computer, medical transcribing, and

some consultant work outside of the home. These jobs allow me the freedom to

work when I'm feeling comfortable enough about it or when I feel that I am

emotionally able to deal with the consequences of working. I do pay for it

with pain for at least a couple of day, depending on how long I work. At

those times it is a choice that I make knowing in advance I may have to deal

with pain for a couple of days, but that is my way of dealing with this whole

thing. My sleep has been better in some ways and I for the first time in at

least 10 years I actually have been dreaming and rememberin some of the

dreams in the past week or so. I'm not sure why except for the increase in

my Mirapex nothing else has changed. I also wake up feeling really groggy

but after I do my exercises, I'm almost fully awake and then jump into the

shower and I'm OK. I still don't get out of bed until around 9 or 10 AM

which I used to have a real problem with but now realize that if that''s how

long I have to sleep to feel rested at all then I now do it without any

guilt. BTW, I too was a smoker, almost up to 3 packs a day. I quit 2 years

and 8 months ago and I can honestly say that it made no difference in my

sleep. I didn't sleep any better or worse for it. The one thing I can say

for sure is that I gained 15 lbs. Oh joy ). As for caffeine I gave that

up at least 10 years ago and that didn't make any difference either. I never

felt that caffeine bothered me one way or the other. I stopped it for other

medical reasons. Well, again I have probably broken the rules by writing

such a long message. I try to respond when I feel I can be of help and I

usually end up by responding to more than one person. Nite all!

Kathy/Cambridge 51 and counting!