Use this section to discuss your experiences with prescription drugs, iron injections, and other medical interventions that involve the introduction of a drug or medicine into the body. Discuss side effects, successes, failures, published research, information about drug trials, and information about new medications being developed.
Important: Posts and information in this section are based on personal experiences and recommendations; they should not be considered a substitute for the advice of a healthcare provider.
First, I would like to state that I am new to this website but definitely not new to RLS. I have had RLS since I was a small child, and like many parents, mine just thought it was a different form of growing pains. This was believed until my grandfather witnessed an episode himself and realized I had the same thing he did (which led him to years of serious insomnia because of his inability to sleep because of his episodes.)
Through the years my RLS has progressively gotton worse and at 24 I do not want it to get any worse than it already is!
I started taking Requip after taking many other medications prior to this point and it is the only one that seems to work, my only problems are:
1.) the "jerking" has seemed to move to my arms on the odd occasion... this has never happened prior to my taking reqiup.
2.) My feet have started to tingle
3.) If I miss a dose it seems as though all the nights that I did not have an episode (because of taking the dose) build up and "release" on the night when I miss the dose.
I was wondering if anyone else has similar side effects? I am not sure if they are serious enough to stop taking the requip because overall i am pretty happy with it other than the aforementioned problems.
I am on a low dose of Requip, I try to keep it to .5 and below because of augmentation problems. However, as I've gotten older, the rls affects my arms at the odd time, not real frequently. It has done that since before I started Requip.
If I don't take any Requip at night, my legs go nuts. I tried not taking it last night and was up for hours pacing the floor. I finally took .125 mg and in an hour I was sleeping peacefully.
Opinions presented by Discussion Board Moderators are personal in nature and do not, in any way, represent the opinion of the RLS Foundation, and are not medical advice.
Are you sure that you're right, Ann, that the jerking is common with people who have had experiences of augmentation? I thought it is just one of the variations of RLS. In my own case: I have extreme PLMW, but I had them before I took meds for RLS.
Thanks for reminding me that I didn't type enough in that response - I should have come back and explained what I meant. Also want to remind everyone that this is just an oberservation from what people have indicated here on this board - I don't know that it's medical fact - I just see people tell us that this happens.
Many people have NO PLM while awake originally, yet do get it after they take the dopamine agonists. You're right, though, that you can have it before. I didn't think that IL, the original poster, was saying s/he had it to start with, though. If I read it correctly, s/he only got the jerking and the RLS moving to the arm after starting Requip.
To me, that's very similar to what many of us experienced - the RLS got worse and the jerking started. A lot of us had PLMs while sleeping, but not awake. Once we augmented on a dopamine agonists, we ended up with much more severe RLS along with PLMs while awake, often experienced as jerking.
If that is not what IL meant, I am sorry I misunderstood.
Opinions presented by Discussion Board Moderators are personal in nature and do not, in any way, represent the opinion of the RLS Foundation, and are not medical advice.
I misunderstood the post, Ann. Still I would like to know if PLMW is (almost) always from augmentation of a DA or can you get it because of say Neurontin or an opioid or is it natural RLS progression? Anyone?
Just interested.
My guess it's both. Just like RLS - maybe it's primary and secondary, too, lol. But I have no real knowledge, just a guess. I would wonder if they have studied it enough to know. . .
Opinions presented by Discussion Board Moderators are personal in nature and do not, in any way, represent the opinion of the RLS Foundation, and are not medical advice.
IL- I'm curious, how long have you been taking Requip and at what dose? Many people report that Requip works great a first but then they develop problems with it over time. Some people have problems with it from day one.
I'm interested in more info about the Requip experience. I know some people stop it almost immediately because of nausea, vomiting, or other intolerable side effects. Others have had it work for a period of time before augmentation/rebound become a problem, and apparently there are others that have used it for extended periods with no problems (we don't hear from them much around here).
I've been off Requip for two nights now, switched directly to .125 Mirapex. The augmentation seems to be gone, nothing in the morning or afternoon yesterday anyway. I took a hydrocodone for the commute home last night just as a precaution. Last night I laid in bed feeling like the rls was just about to kick in but it didn't, a bit hyper but not falling over the edge with leg movements. For me (as a scientist) I describe it as hyper Brownian movement, like my molecules are zooming around bumping into each other.
But it's so nice for the side effects to be gone, the nausea which made me feel like I was going to loose my dinner every night and the hot flashes that had me turning the temp down at bedtime to the point my husband was freezing.
The very very pleasant factor in going off Requip was a 75% reduction in hand pain. I've been to 3 doctors about that and no one of them thought about medication as the cause, just carpal tunnel and pheripheral neuropathy (To give them credit, I didn't think of it either). It didn't affect the occassional numbness or tingling in my neck, so I may have mild cases of both of those, but apparently not the major effects everyone was thinking.. They were talking about more surgery, which I didn't want! The other 25% of pain is probably just what it felt like, arthritis. I never thought I'd say it's such a relief to only have arthritis.
I am going to try going off the Mirapex this weekend and see if I can just make it a couple of days on a few Hyrodrocodone just to clean my system out. I've got an 8 hour drive and return by myself this weekend and was a bit worried about the new warnings about sudden sleepiness. Without the augmentation in the morning and afternoon, I can probably make it with just evening doses.
I've been on Requip for over a year and have good results--no problems. I have noticed that anytime I get too sleepy or fall asleep during the day, the RLS and PLMD act like it's night time, and "where's our Requip?" Still, the Sinemet I had been using for 10 yrs. gave up one night and I spent a nearly sleepless week, waiting to see my doctor. I do take a daytime dose of Requip, usually at 4pm as prescribed, but if I get sleepy and creepy at 2 or 3, I don't quibble over an hour or two.
