Restless Leg Syndrome [View all]
Last edited Wed May 12, 2021, 06:18 PM - Edit history (1)
I've had restless legs since the mid 80s . When they started, I tried different home remedies, because there weren't any treatments, just stay up and wait it out. Some time in the 90s, RLS was designated as a sleep disorder, and as soon as I learned that, I asked my dr. for a sleeping pill. He gave me Ambien and I've taken a low dose since.
I asked if I could get a higher dosage and break the pill. to save a little money. I will admit since Covid-19, I take half the pill before I go to bed, and the other half when I wake up in the middle of the night and can't back back to sleep. On top of restless legs, I get leg cramps. I have other concerns as well. A lot of times, I had oddball reactions to medicines. I feel like if it isn't broke, don't fix it. I don't exceed the dose on the bottle. I don't want to change from a medicine that gets me to sleep to a medicine that might not work, might cause other problems. At this time in my life, I just want to sleep and wake refreshed. Even with the Ambien that doesn't always happen. I made changes to my diet, less caffeine, way less sugar. My labs are always good.
Now my dr. wants me to stay at the lower dose. And her nurse called me about my usage and says there is medicine for RLS. When I started having them, there weren't any specific meds for stopping them. I checked before I started writing this post, and I'm not confident the medicines will help me. I'm truly worried that she'll stop prescribing the Ambien and I will have sleeping problems. I get by on about 6 hours of sleep, and even with activity, I don't sleep longer than that. I always feel tired, and my days are long enough the way it is. I've taken Ambien since at least 1995, and if I were going to have problems, I think they'd show up by now.
I don't think I'm addicted to Ambien, although pretty sure if I go without it, I won't sleep. I don't have adverse affects from it, like overeating, going for drives and so on. If I want a drink, I have it before 5 so it is out of my system before I take the Ambien around 10.
Has anyone tried the medicine prescribed for RLS? Do they work? If she cuts me off from Ambien, how hard is it to get used to not having it? I want to make an appointment before she tries to change anything. If she wants to prescribe the lower dose, I can live with that, but if she wants me off it entirely, not sure it'll be easy for me.
Things like guns that impact other lives are virtually unregulated, but medicine just keeps getting scrutinized and limited. Thanks for reading 
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