This may be interesting to some, I hope
Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2004 10:07 pm
I've not been to this site before, as I am not an RLS sufferer. However my grandmother has the most severe case of RLS that I've ever heard of - to the extent that at one point she felt like she didn't want to live any longer if she had to live that way. It wasn't just at night and it wasn't just her legs. She could often be found beating on her stomach with her fist in an attempt to make the feeling go away. She tried several prescriptions, but none worked.
Without getting any more depressing, I'll get to my point. Today I ran across a news article on Yahoo! entitled "When Sleep Becomes A Nightmare." Naturally I clicked because of my interest in the subject. The article linked to this website, and here I am.
Wow, I still haven't gotten to my point! Sorry! A year or so ago, my grandmother was prescribed a Duragesic (Fentanyl) patch for her severe pain (unrelated to RLS). The first night of wearing the patch, her RSL disappeared. Literally. Gone. Not a twitch. It took quite a while for her to believe that it was actually true. Now, a year later, the only time she's ever had any symptoms of RLS is the few times she's forgotten to replace her patch at the right time.
I've often wondered if any other sufferers of severe RLS have heard of this, but never knew where to tell her story. It seems like doctors and researchers must know, but I did a search on this site and in the forums for "Duragesic" and "Fentanyl" and found nothing. Obviously a person cannot take lightly the prospect of using a hardcore painkiller, but for those who suffer relentlessly, it may be the lesser of two evils.
I hope this information is helpful to some. If it's already common knowledge, I apologize.
Take care, all...
Lori
Without getting any more depressing, I'll get to my point. Today I ran across a news article on Yahoo! entitled "When Sleep Becomes A Nightmare." Naturally I clicked because of my interest in the subject. The article linked to this website, and here I am.
Wow, I still haven't gotten to my point! Sorry! A year or so ago, my grandmother was prescribed a Duragesic (Fentanyl) patch for her severe pain (unrelated to RLS). The first night of wearing the patch, her RSL disappeared. Literally. Gone. Not a twitch. It took quite a while for her to believe that it was actually true. Now, a year later, the only time she's ever had any symptoms of RLS is the few times she's forgotten to replace her patch at the right time.
I've often wondered if any other sufferers of severe RLS have heard of this, but never knew where to tell her story. It seems like doctors and researchers must know, but I did a search on this site and in the forums for "Duragesic" and "Fentanyl" and found nothing. Obviously a person cannot take lightly the prospect of using a hardcore painkiller, but for those who suffer relentlessly, it may be the lesser of two evils.
I hope this information is helpful to some. If it's already common knowledge, I apologize.
Take care, all...
Lori