Too many dots to connect?

[atlbuzz]

RLS, unknown to me as such when I was a teenager, was an occassional bother. Years later, I had spinal surgery, L5/S1 fusion, at age 42. It kicked into HIGH GEAR. I started anti seizure meds. This past year I had a brain tumor removed, and i've been type I diabetic for 25 years. I'm not sleeping unless I knock myself out. In which case I only get two or three good hours of work into a day.

Currently trying intense sports massage and very painful accupuncture. The crux of this email: Do I have to give up coffee?

[ViewsAskew]

Gee, after all that, I don't know that you could convince me to give up coffee . I mean, I don't drink it, but if I did, you know...

Not a doctor....but my limited understanding is that spinal surgeries can sometimes severely effect RLS and then diet won't matter much. No way of knowing if that's what happened, but it seems to.

A neurologist I saw a few years ago felt that since I was sooooo tired in the morning from the drugs that I should use caffeine to help as I normally do not drink any. She felt that it would probably work. When I know I have to "perform" in some way early in the morning, I do drink some tea now. It does seem to work.

On the other hand, you might find that if you give up coffee that the RLS is less and that you could use less meds....

[Polar Bear]

Hi atlbuzz

What about decaf...

Betty

[SquirmingSusan]

Hi atlbuzz. I take it you're one of those people who REALLY LIKES coffee. My husband is one of those and I can't imagine him ever giving it up. So, to your question - No, of course you don't have to give up coffee. Some people do find that caffeine makes the RLS worse. And some people find that it doesn't make it worse. If you know that it makes the RLS worse, then you have a choice to make - do you just take more meds to cover the increased symptoms or do you cut the coffee, or drink less of it, or whatever.

I'm not a coffee drinker either. I do like tea occasionally, but chocolate is my favored source of methylxanthines (caffeine family). I try to limit it to early in the day when it can't get me too jazzed up to sleep, but there is no way I'm giving it up. I'll give it up when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers.

You say you're taking anticonvulsants - how well-controlled is your RLS with those? There are lots of options for treating RLS. In the "New to RLS" part of the message board, there is a sticky at the top with lots of information on how to treat RLS.

It's always good to look at things that could possibly worsen RLS, and then try to eliminate the ones you can. Many medications can worsen RLS, caffeine often does, as does alcohol, even things like too much sugar can bother some people, and one of the common offenders is ice cream.

It sounds like you've been through a lot of unpleasantness in your life. I'd say to take your comforts where you can get them, and if coffee is one of them, enjoy.

[lorabell]

Hi. Since rls and the meds and methods we use are so different, I'd say try to see if the coffee is a problem by cutting dowm a little a t a time and see what happens.
As for me, I have coke, all the time , no real problems with it. give me a Pepsi and I am reallllllly sorry, relllllllllly fast. I can have a glass of wine with dinner, but a wine cooler sets me off.
Artifical sweetners , mainly aspetane ( sp ), is usually bad for us. All of the rls thing is simply trial and error. What I can have, you can't, and vise versa. My own daughter can have foods i wouldn;r dream of eating, and my niece,one of them, has to be careful of icecream. To quote Squirming Susan, I'll give up Rocky Road when they pry it out of my cold dead fingers. But I can't havr French vanilla. go figure .
Welcome to the board and please join us in our chat room , mon 8 pm central time.
lorabell
aka
wowobl