Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) Discussion Board

My story is I've had RLS for as long as I can remember. I suffered with it for years until I finally got meds for it. They have been working great except for hallucinations I've had recently. One time was very scary for me so I've decided to see if any alternative method can work. haven't any issues with augmentation at this point. A few years ago I did but was able to stop that by just changing my dosage and timing of when I took the meds. I don't remember exactly since its been a few years ago. My doctor also suggested that I take an opiate but I just didnt want to go there.
I didn't have any problems getting a card. I live in Longmont and went to a boulder Doctor who specializes in that. The doctor suggested a vapor system of inhaling it which works really well. It was a very expensive little device but it is very efficient. I will need to experiment with strains to use. I just started the process of getting off Mirapex. I know that's going to be really hard to do. i

Last night I went down one Mirapex pill and woke up a number of times and smoked some more. It worked and alleviated the symptoms but didn't last all night. I really like the marijuana but I will have to see how to make it work in my life. Right now I have to take my meds exactly at the same time every day or I'm screwed. So until I'm off Mirapex I'm not going to know if it going to work. For me all the strains make me drowsy which is fine if I'm sleeping but not fine if I want to be awake with no symptoms. Anyway, it will take time to figure it out. But I can say now cannabis really works well and I have no side effects from it at this point. Also the doctor gave me OpiMag Neuro As well.

The problems with using cannabis are: traveling since I can't really take It anywhere other then my state. It makes me drowsy so can only use it when I sleep. i'll have to try the CBD dominate type strain because that does not make you high. Although I had a little of it recently and it might set off the RLS.

I hope you are successful. I too am trying Med marijuana (MM), primarily for sleep. It clearly isn't strong enough for controlling my RLS jumpy legs, but does help with sleep. Kurvana makes two high cbd vape cartridges, Sunset Tea, and Banana Smoothie. I'm in California so don't know if they sell in Colorado. Also vaping doesn't produce effects that last very long. Edible MM lasts much longer.

Also, another alternative for getting off Mirapex (a DA, dopamine agonist) is kratom. It has a section in the non prescription section. It works much better for me for controlling jumpy legs than MM.

Oh, another thought, getting off the DA for 10 days or so will resensitize your dopamine receptors. At that point it may be possible to restart your Mirapex at a much lower dose that doesn't cause hallucinations, or switch to another longer acting DA like Requip XL or Neupro patches.

I was able to get down to .5 of Mirapex which is less one pill (.25) in two days and a lot less effort then I ever thought. I had a great sleep last night with just a little bit of A hybrid canabis strain and OPTMAG NEURO. Slept great!! Next is to split one of the Mirapex pills in half and get my dosage down further even further.

Hi Holland, I got this fancy (expensive) thing called pax vapor. It seems to work really well. So I can use any strain. I'm currently using a wonderful strain called Gupta kush which is an indica strain. I'll look into the kratom as well.that sound interesting. I'm in the middle of trying to get my Mirapex dosage down now so it's been ok but of course I'm getting symptoms. I don't think that marijuana will work completely plus it's not really practical unless I never leave colorado. But having a drug holiday is a good thing to do and I think you're right I will be able use a much lower dosage. Thanks for your insights and experiences holland!

Good luck. Keep us informed.

I would love to see how this is going if you check back in. I might go the same route in the end, though I'm already on a much higher dosage of Gabapentin (1800). The only thing I find with cannabis as a solution is once you have built up a tolerance you almost have to force yourself to smoke enough to get through that initial bump. But that might be me. Getting past the RLS is a breeze compared to not being awakened by the PLMD that kicks in 30 seconds later.

I saw a doctor where I live in Arizona yesterday for my mj card. It should arrive in about 10 days. I am hoping to transition from 150mg of Tramadol at night, to only mj to control symptoms. The Tramadol is losing its effectiveness, and I am also experiencing daytime arm symptoms when I attempt to nap. My plan it to reduce the Tramadol 50 mg each week. After three weeks just use mj. I was wondering: Is it effective to vape when initial symptoms appear (usually at 9pm) and also use a small amount of an edible mj to prolong the relief? Has anyone done this?

You may have augmented, TusconGirl - and may need to go through a withdrawal from tramadol where you take nothing and have increased symptoms for a week to several weeks. Only saying so in case you try MM and you think it doesn't help. Could be that it will help in the future.

Vaping works fast but wears off quickly. I use edibles exclusively now for my med marijuana. I hope it works as well as you hope. But be aware, while lots of folks find med marijuana helpful, only a small number are able to get by using only marijuana. Edible takes 1.5-2 hours to have a significant effect. Vaping is nearly instant (60 seconds) might last 2 hours while waiting for edible to kick in. More likely you will need to vape initially when you take the edible, then vape again an hour later.

I am going to try vaping, and right away add some edible. If I need to re-vape that is ok, better than not sleeping at all.

TucsonGirl wrote:I am going to try vaping, and right away add some edible. If I need to re-vape that is ok, better than not sleeping at all.

Oh, also be aware that many edibles are marked indicating usual dose is 10 or even 20mg THC, I find that 5mg is about the Max I can take. I find it hard to believe that there are people taking 20mg at a time.

Thanks for the info, stjohn. I also started taking magnesium. It seems to help me stay asleep.

TucsonGirl,
I use cannabis most nights by vaping first, allow about 15 minutes for it to take full effect, then eat a homemade edible, and lights off. I do all of this in my bedroom so there's no distractions and I waste no sleep time. I usually sleep solidly for 4 hours and then wake up. At this point it depends on how I'm feeling whether I take something else. I sometimes will take nothing and have broken sleep with symptoms until morning. It took me some experimentation but I have found my doses so I never feel the need to add more cannabis in the middle of the night. I always feel very drugged. But other times I have a strong anxiety that shows up. My mind will start bouncing around ideas and worries and mainly just thinking too much. And I've discovered Passion Flower or Valerian supplements from the health food store work really well. I just ordered some Kava to try as well. They don't take away the symptoms but knock me out enough to get another 3-4 hours of broken sleep.

yawn, when you say you sometimes have strong anxiety, do you mean at night? Or during the day? What strain of marijuana are you using?
Thank you so much for your contribution to this thread.

TucsonGirl, yes, the strong anxiety is during sleep, or rather when I wake from sleeping. It can be overwhelmingly strong to just innocuous continuous thoughts. Usually the kind of thing that in the morning makes me shake my head at how ridiculous it was but in a sleepy state I can't seem to be logical. Although sometimes I'm anxious just from waking up and not knowing if I'll be able to go back to sleep. The supplements seem to help with whatever kind of anxiety shows up.

I rotate through many different Indica strains that I make into CBN myself (I don't tolerate THC very well). I'm concerned about tolerance to a strain so believe rotation helps. All of them work really well but I have my favorites like Optimus Prime, Tahoe OG, Ewok, and Cactus.