is this RLS? Horrible, horrible feeling

[Morgoth]

I'm up late tonight because I just had a resurgence of something that I first encountered two years ago. I am sitting here at the moment dreading having to go back to bed, with this strange, heavy, numb feeling creeping into my legs and my hands. I'm really afraid that this is happening again as I thought the time it happened before was just a one off thing, possibly because I was ill. But it seems like maybe it is "Restless Legs Syndrome". It's not just in my legs though, it spreads through my whole body.

The first time I had it, I woke up in bed one night with my entire body totally numb. It felt as if my body from my chest to my hands and feet had pins and needles, as if somehow the body was dead and outwith my control. The tingling feeling was not just numbness, it really scared me, I can't explain it exactly but it felt like a deadness in my chest. It was like the feeling you get when your foot goes numb, but deeper inside, as if the flesh is tingling inside, with a sick sort of feeling along with it. And when I moved my arms and legs, it felt like I couldn't really feel them, they were tingling, they felt like arms and legs do when they have lost circulation, except again, in a deeper, nastier manner.

Eventually, after I woke myself up and rubbed my arms and legs and generally tried to be more awake, I felt nearly normal again. I tried to get back to sleep, but this extremely scary numbness started to creep over me again, starting in the hands and feet, and creeping upwards like some horrible disease into my chest. It felt like my body was dying in some sense with me still alive. The feeling was so horrible I had to give up on the sleep. The next night, it happened again. I couldn't sleep for the dread of feeling it again as my body started to shut down for sleep. I remember I stayed awake until my parents got up for work, and complaining to them about the feeling. I fell asleep, without the numbness, eventually, in their bed when they'd got up. I went to the doctor about it and he was exceedingly dismissive. I don't think he listened to anything I said. Thankfully after a couple of days it got better.

I was concerned as to what this could possibly be. But I remember the first night after I had the feeling in my body I went to my work at the university library (part time) where my mum also works and I mentioned it to her and someone else at work said to me 'I've been feeling that too'. She said she felt like her hands and her feet were tingling when she was in bed, and that she'd been worried she was getting MS or something. This made me think it must be some sort of contagious thing.

The feeling is so hard to describe - it's not exactly like the numbness of the feet 'pins and needles' in that it feels _deep_, it feels like it reaches far into the body, and it gives this strange feeling of disengagement with feeling, but this strange sick trembling too. I really, really, really, really hate the feeling. I'm not quite sure why it is it bothers me so much when it's just numbness, really, but through my whole body, and in such a cold, sick, deep way. It has this deadness about it.

I can feel this feeling again right now, in a minor sense. I have been feeling it in my back and neck all day. It's like a sort of prickling feeling, during the day, like a shudder or something. I am starting to feel the dead feeling in my legs. They feel really heavy, and slightly numb, and my hands feel slightly prickly too. When I was in bed just now, I started to worry this feeling was coming over me, I could feel it in my legs and to some extent it's not gone away. When I felt the numbness coming over me I had to get up and out of bed. I notice I was extremely cold and shivery afterwards. I don't know what I can do, I don't want to risk ever feeling that dead body feeling again, and yet it feels like it's back. I don't want to go back to bed if I'm going to feel like that. I don't feel I have to move my legs, I only feel I must get up to stop the feeling.

Does this sound like the kind of thing people here are used to experiencing? I notice that it is linked to iron and I wonder if perhaps the lack of iron in my diet has been a factor. At the moment I don't eat anything that has iron in it. It really scares me to think this feeling could get worse, or become more constant. I'm 20 years old and just one night of this seems hellishly frightening, let alone a few days or weeks.

[alecto3]

I would really go see a doctor about the problem you are having...because to me it sounds more serious than RLS. A more serious condition I mean. Nothing I have ever read about RLS has been discribed the way you described your problem....

[nephriticus]

Morgoth,

I'm with alecto3. I don't believe you will find relief for your condition in this Forum. I think you should follow alecto3's advice and consult a physician.

[Guest]

Margoth wrote:

[color=brownI went to the doctor about it and he was exceedingly dismissive. I don't think he listened to anything I said. Thankfully after a couple of days it got better. [/color]

Good advice, fellows, but she already tried that. I would modify the advice slightly and write: go to a good doctor.

Seriously, Morgoth, a neurologist is warranted. Possibly you could have a sleep test done but a doctor may have to refer you to one.

If you go back to the same doctor, please take one of your parents with you. The doctor will pay better attention.

Jumpy Owl

Let us know what happens!

[Guest]

Margoth wrote:

I went to the doctor about it and he was exceedingly dismissive. I don't think he listened to anything I said. Thankfully after a couple of days it got better.

Good advice, fellows, but she already tried that. I would modify the advice slightly and write: go to a good doctor.

Seriously, Morgoth, a neurologist is warranted. Possibly you could have a sleep test done but a doctor may have to refer you to one.

If you go back to the same doctor, please take one of your parents with you. The doctor will pay better attention.

Jumpy Owl

Let us know what happens!