Feeling Very Discouraged Tonight

[debbluebird]

You are both right. When I was on gabapentin before I was on 600 mg three times a day. A few days ago I took the third dose and later felt like eating like crazy. I think I will spread out the four capsules into three times.

[debbluebird]

I'm think maybe I should restart the mirapex and stop going through this. I had really thought that this would not happen, or that it would have ended by now.
So my iron is 86 and ferritin 482. Is this ok to restart the mirapex ? Actually this is the highest that my iron has ever been. I won't restart it until I hear from everyone. Thanks. I also know none of us are doctors, but I find the doctors don't know any of this.

[debbluebird]

I forgot to say that I tried spreading out my gabapentin and methadone. It has not worked. I have had a miserable evening and into the night. I can't take more of either, due to side affects. It's going to be a long night.

[rthom]

Sorry you are hving a long night

[rthom]

Are you better now than a few weeks back, Before you went off the mirapex? This is probably the best way to tell if the mirapex is a good idea, I would think anyway. Your ferratin level is this a new test or your old one? It sounds the same as before--I'm not sure about high levels.

[EeFall]

I don't know, I think I would stay with the saying, "If it's not broken, don't fix it.". If things are going along well then I think we tend to think that we can start getting off of the drugs, but that has never worked for me. I think it is because we start feeling good and it actually messes up our thinking. Like we don't really need it anymore - but we do. RLS/WED gets worse for most who have it severely, not better. Drugs are a fact of life for us. When we are feeling well then we start thinking about the druggy feeling, if we could just get rid of that too then the world would be so wonderful -- personally, that is when I usually crash and burn. Then I try to get back on the same drug cocktail and it doesn't work as well as it did before, then the doctor tries to find something that works and I go through hell and then it works and I feel better and then if it wasn't for the druggy feeling the world would be great and so...

I still feel this way (I wrote the above on this thread the 24th of January)...

[debbluebird]

The ferritin level is the new one from a couple of weeks ago. I am not better now. I am worse since trying to stop mirapex. When I first stopped aspartame it took a week or so before I felt better. I could tell that I didn't need all of the meds anymore. I just wanted to see if I could stop mirapex. I think now, that I can't. The only thing that's in the back of my mind is, maybe it will take a little longer to get it out of my system. I don't think there is a reason to take my max drugs when I don't need to. Because if I then had a major flare up, where would I go. I wouldn't be able to increase anything. I have the feeling that if I go back on mirapex I won't need any gabapetin, and be able to cut the methadone in half, or even be off of it too. That's what I used to be on, just mirapex, before my wed/plmd got bad. Right now I also think that my hip makes it worse. The feeling come from my hip. It did the same thing when my knees were bad before the replacements.

[rthom]

I understand that--it's mind bending trying to figure it out. Have you tried to figure out the amount expected to be in your system, by the half life? It might give you an idea--can't actually figure it out, but could maybe get a concept of it.

[Polar Bear]

Deb ---- This is just a thought off the top of my head - you felt better after you had been off the aspartame for a week and reckoned you therefore no longer needed as much mirapex.

Is it possible that you felt better because you were no longer taking aspartame and as the aspartame was no longer aggravating your symptoms... then the medications that you were taking at that time were able to do their job. So much so that you thought you could reduce the mirapex but when you did so your symptoms kicked back. ??

[debbluebird]

I think you are right PB. I was able to cut back on the gabapentin and methadone. But then I thought that I'd rather be off mirapex. So I went back up on both of those, in order to try to stop the mirapex. I just had to see what would happen. Well, since that hasn't worked I'm about to restart the mirapex. I wanted to see how tonight was going to go. I took gabapentin in the morning and late afternoon, took my 5pm methadone and I'm ok. Better than yesterday. I realized after someone's post to me, that I wasn't spreading out the gabapentin like I used to.
Thanks for your reply.
rthom, I'm not sure what you are talking about. My mind doesn't work anymore without sleep. : )

[rthom]

Deb

Your previous comment--"I just wanted to see if I could stop mirapex. I think now, that I can't. The only thing that's in the back of my mind is, maybe it will take a little longer to get it out of my system."

not surprised you had no idea what i meant--sorry

Ok here goes, when you were talking about getting the mirapex out of your system I was trying to give you a bit of info to help with that. Thus the comment about the half life of the drug.
Does that make more sense?

[debbluebird]

oh, ok I do know about half life of drugs. I used to have a drug book that told half lives of drugs. I looked it up online and it is 8 to 12 hours. But I know from my own experience and what I've read here that it seems more like a withdrawal situation. The last time it took me 2 weeks.

[rthom]

Sounded that way to me too.

hope you have a better night tonight!

[debbluebird]

I have not restarted the mirapex. Something happened yesterday. I was blessed at church. I was having leg jerks during the service. After the service I went to talk to the paster (leg still going). Then during the blessing they stopped. They didn't come back all day and into the night. I did get into the tub a little while. I slept from 12:30 to 5:30. Leg jerks came back a little then. I got up, (helps to get up) had breakfast. They were still there when I sat back down. I rubbed them out, which usually doesn't happen, fell back to sleep. Woke up with the phone ringing at 9:30. There was a time in my life that I wouldn't have believe what happened. I feel very good.

[rthom]