Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) Discussion Board

i will be doing a drug holiday from 1mg ropinirole, 2 weeks before a second round of iv iron.

any advice or tips on how to survive the above? or even how the experience is going to be like?


Thanks!

Use kratom (or an opioid if you have it) with cannabis and gabapentin (or Lyrica). If you mean no drugs at all, be prepared for a week you will remember for the rest of your life, no sleep at all for a day or 2, then an hour or so per night, gradually improving.

In addition to Holland's comments, have someone hide your ropinirole because unless you have an extremely strong resolve, you will give in take it again before the week is out. This isn't an issue of addiction per se, but more of a situation where you will be craving sleep so much that you would be willing to give up the idea of the drug holiday just to be able to fall asleep.

Are you augmented? I can honestly say I am not sure what will happen if you are not - my guess would be that you would go back to the level of symptoms you had before you started it. If augmented, what they said!

not sure if i am augmented.... neuro doesn't think so. thinks it's natural worsening.

Holland: no opiods; have a low dose of lyric, zopiclone and tons of clonzapam and tramadol for standby.....

i'm braving myself for the worst.....but Steve is probably right... i should get someone to hide the ropinirole.....

Ann - managed to taper down from 1.5 to 1 mg over 3 months but miserable in the past 2 moths. but i dont want to fight with my doc anymore who told me upfront that if he has his way with me, he wants me back on 1.5mg if not 1.25mg ropinirole.

keeping fingers crossed..... hoping for the best i guess.....

thanks for the advice peeps.... will keep all of you updated.... 3rd oct is the start of doomsday for me :p i have a month to get myself mentally prepared.....

Does your doc at least support the notion of a drug holiday? Point him to the webinar or (if he's like me and can't stand watching things that could be skimmed from text in a tenth of the time) the Foundation brochure on drug holidays.

badnights wrote:Does your doc at least support the notion of a drug holiday? Point him to the webinar or (if he's like me and can't stand watching things that could be skimmed from text in a tenth of the time) the Foundation brochure on drug holidays.

Beth: his idea of supporting me is to cover me with medical leave; he has never done a drug holiday with a patient. i sent his the brochure and Dr B's webinar. it was an ugly phone conversation we had with him which im more than keen to forget

braving myself for the worst and hoping for the best that's all i can say!

Well, I wish you the best of luck, with both the holiday and with him!

thanks Beth!

badnights wrote:
Does your doc at least support the notion of a drug holiday? Point him to the webinar or (if he's like me and can't stand watching things that could be skimmed from text in a tenth of the time) the Foundation brochure on drug holidays.

The Webinars are excellent but I agree that you have to find time to watch them (that sounds rather ungrateful, sorry) and so I'm inclined to watch them while doing the ironing.

Hi all who has so kindly replied to my post

Just an update

I survived the drug holiday and is 3 weeks post IV iron.

Drug holiday was awful but I'm glad I did it! Would do it all over again if I have to. It required a lot of determination but it helped to have the tramadol, clonazapam and zopiclone during this period to tide me through. I was literally having the symptoms all day. In between my drug holiday, my migraine was triggered and was admitted to hospital --> horrors of all horrors, I was put on a 24 hour drip due to severe dehydration. Just imagined what happened at 11pm when an RLS patient was bed bound for a whole day ... They had to take me off the drip and allow me to wander around the halls in the hospital - they eventually gave me a sedative to sleep because my walking around was apparently distressing the night nurses and some of the patients who were stil awake.

The IV iron has been quite amazing and I will share my experience in a different post.

Thanks for all the encouragement and advice!