Requip & Erectile Dysfunction ???

[legsbestill]

Would have been nice if you had had the morning sleep also but so brilliant to hear of the improvements. Moving chair as a treatment - it is worth bearing that in mind - very non-invasive and I have had occasional success with that method myself! Hopefully tonight will be even better.

[Polar Bear]

Jim - whoop whoop............. progress.

I'm following you eagerly - I have at times changed chair and had a very temporary respite.

[rvjimzhr1]

Hi y'all. Last night was the 7th night and I went into it excited after night 6. Night 7 was not good. Movements kicked in about midnight and moving from chair to chair didn't help as it had the night before. My girlfriend was here last night and I finally went to bed just after 5. I was unable to sleep and we got up and went to the hot tub about 630, she had breakfast with me and left about 9. So I didn't get the usual morning 3 hours of sleep but I'm kinda getting used to that. Now the strange part. Just a little while ago a friend called and we'd been talking for about 30 minutes when I just fell asleep! I woke up confused in my chair, called him back and he told me he'd been talking when he realized I was asleep and so hung up. I awoke about 15 minutes later and we finished the call. I know that's never happened in my life. I just went to sleep with no warning, no yawning, no feeling of being tired, etc. The lights just went out. Strange! We'll see what happens tonight. I'm still going with the thought that I may have turned the corner.

Jim

[ViewsAskew]

I would blame it on cell reception, lol.

I do that now - never did before - but for me it is the drugs. For you, it hopefully is that your body is starting to work the way it should without the drug's interference.

[rvjimzhr1]

Cell reception....perfect!

Last night, my 8th night, was about the same as others. I fled the bed when the legs started moving at 0100. Again, I couldn't sit more than a couple of minutes so stood and walked 'til 0530 when the legs quieted. Back to bed but no sleep then or since and it's now 1530. I'm curious as to whether suddenly, one night, I will sleep well and long or will I just start slowly and get more and more sleep as time passes.

Jim

[SLEEPY ANGEL]

to rvjimzhr1---

I haven't come to the Board Discussions for several days since things were fairly OK with my rls. But I can't seem to sleep tonight and got up --- thought I might see what's new in the "Requip & Erectile Dysfunction???" area. WOW, nothing about the latter BUT quite a bit about your awful journey trying to withdraw from Requip.

I'm on that .... as well as Gabapentin, but lately I have a night or two where it seems nothing was absorbed? I started a Diary to keep track of my evening meals (what they contained) as well as whether I exercised too vigorously late in the afternoon... then made note of how I slept or didn't sleep. Can't see a pattern yet. I could swear that really heavy meals or fatty ones gave me trouble, but need to do this diary much longer to "see" anything.

You have certainly been through a lot this week and I read it all with much concern as well as with a need to know how bad it can be (since I just don't know when I might have to make the same journey some day)! I hope you ARE at the turning point and wish you well!

[rvjimzhr1]

Thanks Sleepy! I hope I'm on the downhill slope as well! Up til now my RLS legs and arms have raged from approx. 2200 nightly and have quieted every morning between 05-0830 returning again the next night. Day time has been movement free. That changed today with movements which drove me out of bed after trying to sleep at 1100. Then again at 1530 legs went nuts while in my recliner and then they began again at 1700 and continue unchecked now, 2130. I hesitate to comment, but will in as little detail as possible, but the only difference today from 8 previous days is a couple of rounds of morning sex. The fact that sex was even possible is good evidence that I am purging the Requip from my system. Does it follow that better sleep is just around the corner? Is the physical exertion of sex causing RLS symptoms as does running or otherwise exercising before bed? Hopefully not! If so, how do we deal with that? Yikes!

Jim

[legsbestill]

Am female so not sure how useful it is for me to comment on the possibility of a sex/rls link so far as you are concerned, but I have never found that sex induces rls symptoms - if anything orgasm has the opposite effect - albeit temporarily.

More generally, I found that the improvements in the post d/a period were erratic and difficult to anticipate. At one stage I had a complete collapse when all rls symptoms ceased and I slept almost constantly for more than 3 days - it was quite scary as I just couldn't wake up. Then, just as I was starting to feel almost normal, the ghastly old urge to move came surging back. Apart from that 3 day period, I had 24 hour symptoms for quite a long time after withdrawing from d/a but was on a high dose of d/a and for a long number of years.

[SLEEPY ANGEL]

Jim---

Though I'm a woman, I would tend to think sex wouldn't bring on bad RLS... but not sure. Have been divorced for 8 years but sex wasn't in the pictue for a few years prior to the divorce--- nor have I been looking for a man/companion, just want to be alone now.

I wondered about HOW you can tolerate being in a recliner-- but each of us is different and FOR ME it would drive me nuts after a while. On the couch or in a chair, I start getting antsy and have to be up on my feet. I read that someone said they can't even get relief by walking around their rooms--- maybe it was you, maybe someone else... A few years ago I gave up a tap dancing class that was at 4 PM because the "pounding" on the floor was NO good for me as well as the time of day. Now I am experimenting with Ballroom dancng on Sunday nights and since it is fairly slow & graceful, it hasn't bugged my legs (YET)!

Keep up the sex unless you can really prove that it's detrimental!

[ViewsAskew]

Both Beth and I have had sex cause RLS.

In the last year, husband and I have an intimate date once a week so in case life, lack of sleep, work, whatever has gotten in the way, there is at least one night we are intimate. For the last couple months, I have had several times I have not gone to sleep until 6-8 AM because of RLS after our date. I am not sure if I get off kilter with meds or if there is something about the hormones related to sex that changes things. I decided to set a timer for the next month to make SURE I take meds on time. I can say that it seems worse when I am taking only methadone than when I am taking it and pramipexole together.

[badnights]

I have problems related to sex and medication (trying to have an orgasm is a big ordeal) and I have used sexual stimulation to quell WED/RLS and I have felt brief relief after orgasm - but I don't think I've ever had sex trigger a bout of RLS/WED. You must be thinking of the other Beth.

[ViewsAskew]

I have problems related to sex and medication (trying to have an orgasm is a big ordeal) and I have used sexual stimulation to quell WED/RLS and I have felt brief relief after orgasm - but I don't think I've ever had sex trigger a bout of RLS/WED. You must be thinking of the other Beth.

Well, that it what I get for relying on my memory and NOT saying that my memory sucks, lol. I truly could have sworn that a few years ago you had one experience where it was worse after orgasm...now I have to go find out who it was...

[ViewsAskew]

Bess and Josh .

[badnights]

Well MY memory is like a sieve, I even had a mammogram once and forgot that I had had it (how can you forget THAT?). So maybe this really did happen to me and I don't remember!

Oh, another thing I have had is GADS - genital arousal I forget what it stands for but it means RLS of the genitals. Not often, thank God. You could pretend you were enjoying it and go take care of business but it would come right back as soon as you were finished. I mean, it's not fun, in case anyone thinks it sounds fun.

Since I started I had to finish - that is, compiling a list of all the RLS/WED and sex issues I know of.

[badnights]

Ah - well - there you go
not me
I'm only half decrepit