Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) Discussion Board

Hey all, I haven't been around in a while, I've been soooo very busy these days. I am still on the Methadone, and as it turns out, I was wrong about the methadone, I thought the methadone was making me sick, but it wasn't the methadone that was making me so sick it was my adrenal glands. I was suffering from secondary adrenal insufficiency, so I needed steroids, so now I take prednisone for my adrenal glands and am feeling much better.

So I still take my methadone. I only take 5mg at bedtime though.

Today I had one of my large teeth extracted, a large molar and I am having some pain from today's tooth extraction.

So, I am wondering, should I take more methadone ie: 10mg tonight at bedtime versus my regular dose of of 5mg for the pain? OR should I take the 5mg Methadone along with the Vicodin I was given for pain? Which one would be safer that is?And which would be easier on my liver?

Thanks so much, I miss you guys and I hope everyone is doing well these days and living somewhat RLS free like I am

Love Mia

Hey, Mia. Sorry about the tooth and the adrenal stuff. Glad all is working well for you, though.

Please remember that while many of us are well read and may know a lot, we are NOT doctors. Just take anything we say with a grain of salt.

The exceptions would be our two pharmacists. You might want to PM them. Neither of them post a lot, but both check in once in awhile. Josh and Ed...

I would definitely call a pharmacist and ask. You should have thier number right on the RX bottle. I have consulted them on many occasions for different meds and they are a very trustworthy resourse and are the professionls in the field. I would be very cautious on mixing medications without the approval of a pharmacist. Good luck, I hope you sleep well!

Well, I was prescribed the Vicodin and the Methadone by a doctor and a pharmacist, so I am not mixing medication without their knowledge or without their permission, that really wasn't my question. My question is which one would be safer and healthier on my liver etc...
Thanks,
Mia

Hi Mia, glad to hear that you are still getting relief from the Methadone and didn't quit after all.. Sorry to hear about your glands though.. But better than suffering from RLS I guess?

I have some experience in this area. I would say go ahead and take the Vicodin for your mouth pain.. I have had two teeth remove in the past year or so and believe me I know how bad it can hurt.

You aren't a drinker and you don't have liver health problems, so either one is perfectly safe for your liver. The reason I recommend the Vicodin over the Methadone is that in my personal experience, methadone is good for long periods of chronic pain, but short acute pain that is more severe is best dealt with by the Vicodin. You won't feel much (if anything at all) from the Hydrocodone in it, but it will still provide you with pain relief like normal painkillers would anyway, and also the Tylenol will also provide you pain relief.

Technically the methadone is safest on your liver as it contains no Tylenol (acetaminophen) and the Vicodin does. However I see no reason to believe why you can't safely take a couple a day as needed. As long as you have no outstanding health problems with your kidney and you are not drinking, you will be fine.

It would take a wastefully higher dose of methadone to equal the immediate relief from acute pain that the Hydrocodone/Acetaminophen will provide.

Alternatively you can take Ibuprofen, as it is VERY good at mouth/tooth pain relief, and just send me your Vicodin... LOL just kidding.. Don't send it to me, it wouldn't do much anyway these days

Zach, LOL thanks you are hilarious!! I will take your advice, thanks so much as usual! Yes the Adrenal glands are better to have issues with then RLS!

I just found out that both of my kids ages 6 and 3 have RLS, its so hard because I don't believe in giving meds to kids that are so young, so they suffere a lot, it really sucks for them, and for me, as I am up all night sometimes massaging their poor little legs

Mia

Wow, that's terrible.. Do keep a close eye on them and make sure they are functioning appropriate / getting enough sleep. I know its hard not to give medicines to kids, but maybe you should do some research or e-mail Dr. B and ask him if he has any advice for managing RLS in children.

Zach, who is Dr. B?

I have spoken with David Rye before, he is the one that helped to locate and isolate the gene that causes RLS in Iceland, since I am from Iceland I have talked to him and met him before. But I am not sure who Dr. B is?

What is his email address?
Thanks
Mia

Dr. B runs http://www.rlshelp.org/

People ask him all kinds of stuff and he answers back in a fair amount of time.

Wow that's great!
I will email him, thanks Zach!
Mia

Methadone might usurp and hold the receptors the hydrocodone is using, so taking them at the same time might damp the effects of the hydrocodone. That's one of the reasons why methadone is useful for opioid addiction.

However, if that's so, you might nevertheless find that the hydrocodone will help the pain at other times of the day, when you have less methadone in your veins than you did earlier.

Personally, when it comes to mixing drugs, I'd always want to talk to my doctor about any specifics, just to be sure the particular plan I had in mind had no pitfalls, be they dangerous or merely inconvenient.

It's probably too late to reply-- but the general rule is to simply increase the opioid you're currently taking when you have new pain from a procedure, etc. (Plus- compared to methadone, vicodin is a much weaker opioid.)

For future questions like this-- I always run it by the doc before I leave the office. Most pain specialists recommend increasing chronic opioids by 30% when an acute pain crisis is occurring. Since methadone doesn't come in a form where you could do this-- I'd just bump your methadone up to 7.5mg or add the 2.5 mg in the AM, etc. But run this by your MD, please!

Hope you feel better.

Very interesting. When I had minor surgery a year ago, the doctor was going to write me a prescription for Vicodin for the pain. I told her that I was going to the pain clinic, and she said that she shouldn't write me a prescription in that case. When I talked to the pain doctor next, I mentioned that to him. He told me that pain management is different from treating acute pain, and that the surgeon should have written me the prescription. Hmmm.

What I did was to just increase the methadone for a couple days anyway, and it worked just fine.

Guess I'm in the minority heh.. I just never felt like taking extra helped all that much for my tooth pain in particular..

Now a couple months ago I pulled a muscle in my leg or something in my sleep and THAT hurt. This was just before I asked for my supply increase, so I had a very limited supply to deal with it. Basically taking 1 extra at night, although the first or second night before I did that I was laying on the heating pad, which did nothing.

The pain was horrible, I have rarely experienced pain where I could not sit or lay still for more than 15 minutes but I almost called the doctor the next morning because it was so bad. Thankfully the extra 5mg at night helped, and I also took some tylenol and ibuprofen on occasion..

I looked like a cripple the moring I woke up with the injury, lol.. I had to go out to work as it was Sunday... so I was limping my way all through Walmart and other stores.. getting in the car was almost impossible.. I had to pull my leg in with my hands because it hurt to try and move it naturally and if you bumped it or got it in the wrong position oh....

I pulled a muscle in my leg or something in my sleep and THAT hurt

Only for this crowd is going to sleep dangerous!