muscle spasms

[retiredfg5]

It's been a while since I joined in on this forum, but the last week has led me back to you. I have been having muscle spasms in my right leg and occasionally my right shoulder. At really bad times I sit hunched over cursing and crying. I am taking pramipexole 0.25 mg in the afternoon and 0.125 mg at bedtime and went through augmentation nightmare about 2 years ago. The muscle spasms in my right leg are in the knee and thigh and are the result of limping for a long time and both the knee and hip needing replacement surgery. For the muscle spasms I take baclofen 10 mg.
My problem is the severity of the painful spasms, about a 12 on a scale of 0-10. They're especially bad in the afternoon when I'm a little late taking my pramipexole. This is what I am questioning the group: is there a connection of restless leg and muscle spasms? The increased severity of the muscle spasms when the level of pramipexole is lowest makes me wonder and ask if the 2 are definitely connected or just a coincidence.

[Rustsmith]

Muscle spasms are not something that is generally associated with RLS. It has been my understanding that spasms are often due to electrolyte imbalances whereas RLS is a neurological condition. However, since the pain is so severe, this is something to take up with your doctor as soon as you can get an appointment. Explain that you are in extreme pain. If the give you the typical "the first available appointment is two months from now", try going to an Urgent Care Clinic.

[retiredfg5]

Thanks for the quick reply. I wasn't sure if they were closely connected or not. I was wondering if the presence of RLS could be intensifying the spasms. And I already have an appointment for Monday. The appointment is not for this problem, but believe me this will be brought up. The appointment is for the fact that both my hands developed full-blown neuropathy on Monday. I can't feel a thing, I can't hold anything without dropping it, my penmanship is indecipherable, and typing is hunt-and-peck-and-delete-and hunt-and-peck.

[retiredfg5]

Update: I am starting to notice a pattern. Every day about 2pm the muscle spasms in the back of my right thigh begin and get progressively stronger until I am bent over grasping my leg. But if I take 10 mg of baclofen at 2pm the spasms appear but last only about a half hour. I also take my usual diose of .25 mg pramipexole anywhere from 3pm to 5pm.Therefore my first question: are the spasms another form of the restless leg syndrome or:
is the rls making the muscle spasms stronger and: is baclofen used in treating rls?

[Rustsmith]

Muscle spasms are not usually a symptom of RLS.

As for baclofen, it is a muscle relxant that is usually used to treat spasticity. It is not used to treat RLS.

[retiredfg5]

Thanks for your quick answer. I was suspicious that these are two different symptoms of different comorbidities.(I learned the meaning of that word after I Googled it because it kept cropping up in the after-visit summaries written by my various doctors).
Things are looking up finally. I had my right knee injected today, I'm having an EMG tomorrow to check out my numb hands, and in two weeks I'm having my right hip injected. My hands - Even though I had carpal tunnel surgery on both many years ago, it's possible to happen again (it's my rotten luck, "if it is going to happen, it'll happen to me", as proof of this, did you know you can have cataracts twice and have to have them removed twice - that's what happened to me. My hip - the last time I had my hip injected, I think about June, it was at the clinic I had always gone to, and worked for 25 years. Because of this I have switched to the other large clinic system in town, they are rivals. The doctor was insulting to me twice, it hurt so bad I screamed, and it lasted only about a week. For the first time ever, I wrote a letter of complaint. That doctor is no longer employed by the clinic.
And now for my last comment. I heard this on TV and it is something that has helped me cope, in some ways, with everything happening to me.
"You can't wait until life isn't hard any more before you decide to be happy". If anyone can guess correctly where this quote came from I will send them an advance copy of some of the stories I have ready for my second book, including "In Search of Svelte" , the story of my sleeve gastrectomy surgery.