Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) Discussion Board

So, after posting the above I’m having a severe rls episode. It feels like when I augmented on pramepexole. I had such an attack in the afternoon that took awhile to calm down. Is it too early to call this augmentation? Sure feels like it. Sad thing is I’m stuck in our bedroom walking a very little space to pace or distracting my brain with solitaire on my phone. Sorry, I needed to vent.

2BassettMom - feel free to vent here, always remember that we all know how you are feeling.

I can recall staying with family and didn't want to wake them with my nocturnal wanderings - it is pretty difficult to get the walking just right in a cramped space.
Walking on the spot (for me) has next to no benefit, there has to be room to step out.

I augmented in days on ropinirole.

Have you started the iron yet?You should probably get going on that immediately. Take with vitamin C, preferably on an empty stomach. It might take a couple of weeks to have an effect, but it should improve your symptoms. Also - - 84 might be low for you, it varies by person, and especially for someone taking a dopamine agonist, your ferritin should probably be over 100. There's no way to tell what it should be for you, really, other than trial and error ... but if you have no contraindications, you might want to aim for something higher.

Thanks for that information. It sure felt like augmentation to me last night. I’ll start on iron tomorrow. We’ll see what the next few days show.

The only time - in my limited personal experience - I have wrongly accused a medication of augmentation was when I had also stopped opioids. Many people mistakenly think that opioid withdrawal causes RLS. It doesn't. It causes some kind of akathesia that is very darn similar to RLS. I had it specifically in my arms, which is where I get augmentation. After it happned a couple times I teased out how they were different.

I can hardly keep my eyes open, so forgive me for not going upthread and seeing if you are also stopping an opioid. If you are not and you know what augmentation feels like, it's just about a slam-dunk you are right.

Home at last. I find that I have 2 episodes of rls during the night and they are less intense on Requip. I thought I was augmenting but that was probably due to being in tight quarters and not being able to deal with the rls as I normally would. At home I do what I need to do to calm the legs down without worrying about disturbing others. I still need to get with a sleep doctor to start on a C-Pap machine for my sleep apnea. Hopefully I will find I am more rested in the morning after doing all of this.