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Re: Is your DA causing augmentation?

Posted: Mon May 28, 2018 5:42 pm
by Bronwen
Hello Holland, I'm Bronwen.

Thank you again for the information.
Methadone is relatively cheap, as the only methadone you get here is for addicts, I think. A rather pleasant-tasting liquid in an anonymous amber bottle. The taste seems designed for little children, how odd.

Financing an expensive med will be beyond me, very likely, as RLS is not on 'The List' as a proper disease. (After all, every man and his dog has jumpy legs, no?)
But if I had cancer, and chose to do the whole shebang - cut-burn-poison - they would pay for all of it.
Ah well, I chose the wrong disease.
Silly me.
Anyway, Horizant is not here yet, and as the disease does not exist, where's the money in it?

I must stop being so cynical.

Bless you, too.

Re: Is your DA causing augmentation?

Posted: Mon May 28, 2018 6:05 pm
by stjohnh
Bronwen wrote:Financing an expensive med will be beyond me...


Bronwen, I had forgotten you were in South Africa. Prices of medications are frequently much different in other countries than in the United States. If Horizant turns out to be expensive, I'd switch to gabapentin as it is very inexpensive.

Re: Is your DA causing augmentation?

Posted: Wed May 30, 2018 5:19 am
by badnights
RLS is not on 'The List' as a proper disease. (After all, every man and his dog has jumpy legs, no?)
But if I had cancer, and chose to do the whole shebang - cut-burn-poison - they would pay for all of it.
Ah well, I chose the wrong disease.
Silly me.
Anyway, Horizant is not here yet, and as the disease does not exist, where's the money in it?

I must stop being so cynical.
You';re making me laugh, and that's a good thing :lol: :D Thank you.

Re: Is your DA causing augmentation?

Posted: Wed May 30, 2018 5:31 am
by Bronwen
Badnights, I am honoured.
And pleased to raise a laugh in face of this less-than-funny monster. I will do my utmost to produce the odd smile.
The one place we can laugh is here, no?
Next, I shall recount my journey to methadone. That really is a hoot, surrounded by po-faced pharmacists looking at me sidelong.

Best
Bronwen

Re: Is your DA causing augmentation?

Posted: Wed May 30, 2018 5:59 am
by badnights
I can't wait :)
But in case you're not feeling funny, don't feel pressured to be funny, you can be any old thing here.

Re: Is your DA causing augmentation?

Posted: Wed May 30, 2018 10:13 am
by Bronwen
Beth, I realize this and am profoundly grateful. Thank you. Where else can we find anyone who knows whatthehell we're talking about?

If I had fifty arms I would not have enough fingers to count the times I have been told to take magnesium, use tissue salts, put soap in my bed, buy a book on Positive Thinking, drink hot milk, don't drink anything, take calcium, have a warm bath, keep my bedroom dark, have a banana, stop worrying and so on and so forth.......
But even more, ad very nauseam, I hear about everyone else's appalling sleeping problems, like they have to get up for a pee at 2am.

But they are just trying to be kind, after all.

Oh dearie me.
Bless.

Re: Is your DA causing augmentation?

Posted: Wed May 30, 2018 3:24 pm
by 2BassetMom
Bronwen, I’m in the midst of a bad episode of rls in my shoulder & legs & your post brought a smile to my face. I love what you said about being told of the numerous home remedies that would cause our symptoms to disappear. I have friends insisting that essential oils or magnetic blankets are the answer. It’s a personal campaign for thier remedy to work. I hear about people’s various sleep issues too and know they haven’t a clue. Thanks so much for sharing!

Re: Is your DA causing augmentation?

Posted: Thu May 31, 2018 12:36 am
by Bronwen
Hello, I assume you have two Bassets, how nice. Hello, Bassets.

I do not know what time 5.24 is in Idaho, but it is 01.45 am here, and I have been using my bare-knuckles technique to dig to the bones of my right arm and doing an in-bed contortionist-act on my legs. Now I have given up and am drinking Rooibos tea.

When my arms go I first do this, before reaching for the heavy-hitters.
I lie on my side, trunk slightly angled forward,(still very ramrod straight) with the top leg stretched out at a right angle,(bottom leg remains ramrod straight), foot and toes turned up at a sharp angle, as fierce as I can. Then I sling the top arm out behind me in the opposite direction, also at a right angle, perhaps a little more. Let the arm just hang in space for a while - it will slowly sink to the mattress as the muscles stretch. Then stretch your wrist back, and your fingers, as hard as they will go. Hold, hold, hold, If you have not done this before, it will hurt, but stick with it, the discomfort will go. And hold for as long as you can. You are essentially a cross-shape, with very stretched extremities assisted by the extreme and seldom-ventured stretch of the upper arm and wrist/fingers, and the ankle and toes,

It helps me if I do not yet have the Screaming-Meemies, but am hovering on the brink of Meemie Land. I have fallen asleep like this.
Of course, I may not be able to walk in the morning, but I often can't anyway!

Should this not assist, then at least you will get bendy, which is good, and help to pass the time. In social situations, you can demonstrate it at the next Thanksgiving Dinner.

Re: Is your DA causing augmentation?

Posted: Thu May 31, 2018 6:11 am
by badnights
I use weird stretches in bed, too. As you said (not quite - I'm taking liberties), the stretches are effective if the meemies aren't screaming yet. you have to be careful though; I've fallen asleep on my hand with my wrist bent under me often enough that I now have wrist problems. And I've fallen asleep with my leg bent tightly and my foot under me, which hurts my knee but I don't seem to have lasting damage from that one. Also my neck from sleeping in froggie position, but I'm not sure that was started by something else and just aggravated by the frog position.

Re: Is your DA causing augmentation?

Posted: Thu May 31, 2018 6:20 am
by Bronwen
Oh yes, I do know this so very well!
We're all pretzels.
I shall reply in greater ridiculous detail later.

Off for an iron infusion now, it is 08.15.

Re: Is your DA causing augmentation?

Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2018 10:31 am
by Polar Bear
Bronwen - Regarding helpful advice from friends there is always the .... just relax !!
Or from the same friend...... I don't know why you don't keep on with the tonic water because it says in the magazines that it helps cramp.... yes CRAMP !!

Yes, I know I sound ungrateful and really I'm not, I know that people mean well. However I get frustrated when the same person, time after time..... repeats the same advice, even when I have repeatedly explained how and why these cures will not work.
Often I now just say - Yep, I'll try anything.
But really, I do appreciate that she is trying to help.

Re: Is your DA causing augmentation?

Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2018 1:49 pm
by Bronwen
Betty. oh yes. Yay!

We could write a very funny book about all the unhelpful help we have not been given, by friends and the medical profession alike.
Now if we broke out in boils or our limbs fell off or our eyes kept crossing or our hair turned green we might get some interest.

But you can't see this damned thing, and 'crawly feelings in the legs', apart from being a grossly inaccurate and unhelpful description, sounds so....ummm....ahhh......boring.

Do say to your friend that if you took enough tonic water your liver would fail, your brain would drown from all the liquid and you would get diabetes. And you don't have malaria. Tell her to bring the gin instead.

Re: Is your DA causing augmentation?

Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2018 4:47 pm
by Polar Bear
Bring gin instead :) I hate gin, but I'd drink it by the bucketful if it would help. Or perhaps... just wouldn't care !!

We are a group of 6 friends of very long standing, at least 40 years, who have helped each other and given a shoulder to each other through the hard times of illness, bereavement and divorce. Raising our little ones who are now spread around the world.
Some of us meet more regularly than others but we always always meet up, all 6 of us, at least twice a year. for a lunch that often runs from late to very late......

I guess we've all got the friend who is opinionated and is a pain in the a**......... but the thing is, as we ofen tell her ...... she's our pain in the a**.

I've used the knuckles and the fist. I've even used the fly swat which doesn't go deep enough, and indeed that's a sight you wouldn't want to see.

And yes, trying to describe RLS is boring boring, I bore myself at times.
I remember reading somewhere, possibly on this site, that some folks feel it is easier to just refer to the sensations as pain because pain is understood.
However, I think describing it as pain doesn't give an inkling, not even an iota, as to how the crawlies will torment and destroy us.
Though I dare say that a person suffering with agonising pain would be saying they'd sooner cope with RLS.

Re: Is your DA causing augmentation?

Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2018 9:12 pm
by Bronwen
Betty, I now tell people that I have Willis Ekbom disease and that it is a progressive neurodegenerative condition of the brain.
That shuts them all up pretty damn quick, as they now fear you are about to go barmy on them.

Re: Is your DA causing augmentation?

Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2018 9:44 am
by Polar Bear
Bronwen - :thumbup: