Self-diagnosed
Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2004 3:45 pm
I am approaching seventy, so I am no spring chicken. I am not in favor of taking medications but about twenty years ago I was put on antihypertensive medication. I never seriously believed I had even marginally high blood pressure. Actually had to cut down and vary the medication as I ended up hypotensive and hypokalemic.
When my younger brother suddenly died of cardiac arrest at the age of 65 I started to take my medications more seriously. After weeks of experimentation with various types of antihypertensives, I came to the conclusion that I do not need to take such medications at all so I gradually stopped. - Bear with me, I believe it has something to do with RLS.
During all that time I was also under a lot of stress so in order to be able to sleep I was prescribed a low dose tranquilizer taken only at night. This I was taking off and on for at least fifteen years. I weaned myself of that, too.
The last antihypertensive medication my doctor and I experimented with was a combination antihypertensive drug to prevent hypokalemia. That was a near disaster as it first blocked (temporarily) the kidneys then caused severe muscle cramps in the legs.
It was during these weaning periods when I started to notice crawling ant sensations in the lower limbs, severe pain in the knees, especially in the right knee, combined with some sciatica pain, so at first it was not clear what the cause was, possibly withdrawal symptoms
I had some minor knee injury in recent past so I had some MRS done and no major cause was found.
Hydrocodone left over from the dentist seemed to help. So did some tranqulizer also left over. Searching the internet last week I ran across this web site.
As if a spot light were turned on! I only had to read a few pages of the description of the symptoms to know that I had RLS. Then the more I read, especially on the type of drugs that help, I suddenly realized that taking calcium channel blockers, beta blockers of various kinds for decades when none needed could have easily interfered with the nerves' functioning and could have triggered RLS.
Now I am starting to look for a doctor who will put up with me and is willing to work with me, or am I supposed to work with him? I am not crazy about starting on some drugs again, but a man gotta sleep.
Aside but possibly relevant. My daughter is chronically ill with fbromyalgia which also seems to be related to a sleep disorder (alpha wave intrusion in delta sleep phase) and she is on Xyrem therapy that has been approved for narcolepsy and cataplexy. I may end up at the same sleep lab and then we shall see.
Are there any old timers out there with similar problems? Of course, we all have aches and pains, but these are something special!
JUMPYOWL
When my younger brother suddenly died of cardiac arrest at the age of 65 I started to take my medications more seriously. After weeks of experimentation with various types of antihypertensives, I came to the conclusion that I do not need to take such medications at all so I gradually stopped. - Bear with me, I believe it has something to do with RLS.
During all that time I was also under a lot of stress so in order to be able to sleep I was prescribed a low dose tranquilizer taken only at night. This I was taking off and on for at least fifteen years. I weaned myself of that, too.
The last antihypertensive medication my doctor and I experimented with was a combination antihypertensive drug to prevent hypokalemia. That was a near disaster as it first blocked (temporarily) the kidneys then caused severe muscle cramps in the legs.
It was during these weaning periods when I started to notice crawling ant sensations in the lower limbs, severe pain in the knees, especially in the right knee, combined with some sciatica pain, so at first it was not clear what the cause was, possibly withdrawal symptoms
I had some minor knee injury in recent past so I had some MRS done and no major cause was found.
Hydrocodone left over from the dentist seemed to help. So did some tranqulizer also left over. Searching the internet last week I ran across this web site.
As if a spot light were turned on! I only had to read a few pages of the description of the symptoms to know that I had RLS. Then the more I read, especially on the type of drugs that help, I suddenly realized that taking calcium channel blockers, beta blockers of various kinds for decades when none needed could have easily interfered with the nerves' functioning and could have triggered RLS.
Now I am starting to look for a doctor who will put up with me and is willing to work with me, or am I supposed to work with him? I am not crazy about starting on some drugs again, but a man gotta sleep.
Aside but possibly relevant. My daughter is chronically ill with fbromyalgia which also seems to be related to a sleep disorder (alpha wave intrusion in delta sleep phase) and she is on Xyrem therapy that has been approved for narcolepsy and cataplexy. I may end up at the same sleep lab and then we shall see.
Are there any old timers out there with similar problems? Of course, we all have aches and pains, but these are something special!
JUMPYOWL