Duchess Golden: rls and how long for worst to be over?

Dear Duchess Golden,
I don't post much, and NEVER ask for free advice no matter what, but could you help me with one thing? What is the average time it takes for the WORST part of RLS to back down? Tonight at nine pm makes three days since friend took last t#3's...meaning Fri night. Apparently they started in minor last night, but bearable but tonight, she is going crazy with anxiety/RLS in legs. Any advice? You have helped almost every single one of us here in some way, me included, just from reading your posts! I don't care how much money you have, or how many louis vuitton bags, or whether you were poor as dirt...you are IRREPLACABLE here! You should be proud of your accomplishments and talk about them! I, for one, feel good to hear of others success! You've obviously worked so hard to get to where you are, and to help us all here!! Could I ask you story about addiction? What you took, how much, how often, etc? I am so thankful you are here! Your posts have made this process less scary, knowing youre there to explain what happens to our bodies during w/d. My friend is going through the w/d right now, and I've been clean since dec. but if I was still using, you'd be my savior!!!

[road2recovery]

you are so right about dutchess..There is one thing i know..i have RLS so bad even when i am not going through w/d's...Hot hot baths are great ..but my doctor gave me requip and it works miracles on me.Just my opinoin...if can't get that hot baths all night,are get up and walk ...i know it is miserable..
god bless

[chrosty]

I am so poor i cannot even afford a candy bar but i still love to read all of dutchess goldens posts. She has helped me out alot and she is a great/wonderful asset to this forum. Like i said once before rich poor fat skinny whatever we are all here for support and help with addiction and a little conversation so what i talk about my babies non stop and i love to read about her life luv to all of u ~~Chros

[TXRebecca]

What part of the states are you in?  Just curious.  I'm in Austin TEXAS baby!  Best damn city and state out there!  We Texas folk sure are a proud bunch.  

(I don't really talk like that, but it sounds good written down:)

Rebecca~..~

[grievingwidow]

You are so right about Austin.  I moved there shortly after my husband passed away, but it was too soon and I was trying to rush through my grief. I started having panic attacks then and decided to move back to my hometown.  I still have an older daughter in Austin though and I am seriously considering moving back.  Austin is a great city.  It is safe, beautiful, and full of some wonderful people.  But I do believe a requirement is good credit and above-average income.  Seems like everyone there has money and are living happy productive lifes - I cannot help being a little on the jealous side sometimes.
But it is good to hear from another texan!

Love, Cindy

[emilyanne]

You are only 27? You should be so, so proud of your accomplishments! Good for you!!!! Don't anyone tell you any differently! I have taken my time with college, and took my last final of junior year the day I gave birth in Dec of '04!!! Slowly been finishing senior year, one class left, which I will take in Sept. and graduate in Dec. Then go for a masters. You are such an inspiration to me! A role model! My family have always been role models as far as hard work, status, education, etc. but you have that AND you aren't snobbish, LOL!! You go out of your way to help people, unlike my family who goes out of their way to help their "equals". I did assume you were much older, for two reasons. The first obviously being your credentials, and the second is your wisdom and willingness to put your precious little time aside to help complete strangers!! You don't see that often at our age, lol!
At some point, I would love to exchange email addresses with you to chat in private ( nothing in particular, just get to know you, lol!!) I love the idea of making friends over the internet...it's so neat! I, too, stay up WAY too late on the computer...I get some time on it during the day, but with a two year old, it isnt much! I also belong to a Natalee Holloway forum...I know, wierd, but for some weird reason, that case has drawn me in from the beginning! Don't know if u heard of her, but poor kid disappeared from Aruba few years ago.

[emilyanne]

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond to my question! I can't thank you enough. The things you do for this forum are unbelievable...you help and help without even asking or hinting for as much as a thank you!! People, and/or their insurances ( lol ) pay alot of money for your advice and encouragement, and here you are spending your FREE time helping total strangers. I honestly believe you have probably saved lives here...not kidding, and saved people from falling back into active addiction. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Although I am only 26 and still have one class left for my BA in Psych, I can identify with you on your family situation. DISCLAIMER (LOL): I am not bragging, showing off or trying to make people feel bad. Just letting Dutchess know I know how she feels!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My father is lawyer, mother is superior court judge, grandpa a retired obgyn doctor. Money, prominence and appearances have always been very important to my family...I always bucked that, lol, and even though I haven't even finished college yet, I feel like I'm ten times smarter than them because I am able to accept people for who they are!!
Most of my friends growing up didn't have money, at least not alot of it, and my parents discouraged our friendships big-time! I got comments like " Now wouldn't you love to spend some time with so-and-so, since they have so much in common with you?" My best friend to this day, whom I met when I was six, came from a family where the dad was a garbage man, and the mom was a cashier at a discount store. You know what? They are the most honest, hard-working, loving, gentle and giving souls in the world!! My best friend is now a successful attorney in town, who worked hard to get where she is! I was always called the rich, spoiled girl and the kids used to tease and say that I "bought my friends". You know what Dutchess?? I didn't buy those friends...I lent them money enabling them to eat lunch that day, or go to the movies that their parents couldn't afford to send them to, or buy something, just something, for themselves that they never could have afforded!! I married a wonderful, caring, faithful and honest man...know what he does for work? He's an electrician. Much to my parents dismay, I fell in love and I swear to God, I love him soooo much!!! He's so smart, but never had the resources nor encouragement from his abusive father to go to college! Anyways, enough blabbing about that! But I know how you feel sometimes.
Dutchess, I grieve for the child you lost. I can't imagine the pain. I have a 2.5 yo son, and I'd go through the worst torture in the world for years on end if it meant saving his life. My father once said, and I'll never forget it, " If your child dies, you might as well jump into the grave with them, because a part of you will NEVER recover,". I am just so, so sorry. And on top of the death of your own child, work, addiction, etc., you are still here helping all of us. I have a feeling that even if you made $2.00 an hour and worked 5 jobs, you'd want to help us. I, for one, am so inspired by you and will pray for you always.
I hope you realize how much positive impact you've had on so many total strangers lives! Thank you so much, Dutchess, from the bottom of my heart!

[DutchessGolden]

First I apologize, I spelled it emilylane~ oops! And second: GET OUT OF MY HEAD LOL! I met my best friend when I was six too. My mother is an attorney who worked in private practice with her step father. Her father didn't want anything to do with her and made that clear, he has a degree in engineering and lives in his parent's basement doing odd jobs like janitorial or working at minimarts. Even she doesnt know this about her biological father (sperm donor) My grandmother was an ob/gyn, she delivered me. And my father is the CEO of a pharmaceutical co. I got told the same exat things when I was younger! "wouldn't you rather see this person beause you have so much more in common" or "people like that(that phrase makes me ball my fists to this day) will never be able to understand and be real friends to you, they will just try to take advantage" etc etc. I suppose I got my grandmother's genes, my grandmother is a direct descendant of Queen Victoria, she left the UK to avoid an arranged marriage and marrried a black man from austin texas! Disowned and disinherited, she was happy until the day she died. And my mother being the only female in the family, my grandmother's inheritance went to her. Are we living parallell lives in different dimensions??? You are only a year younger than me. Because of all of the work and the masters and 2 doctorates I know everyone assumes I am much older but I finished high school in 2 years, I was barely 16 when I started college-in psychology! And you are so right, I would give money to friends too if they couldnt affort to go to the movies or buy lunch. It's not pity, like you said, it's just about caring about friends that would probably do the same for you. It's not difficult to see the ones that just want to take advantage. It's nice to have someone here that can really relate! Please keep posting and please don't hesitate to ask any questions or if your friend has any questions about RLS, I am more than happy to give any info. I can. A lot of times I sit up most of the night while everyone is in bed on this forum knowing I should be in bed, but I see all of the people in need and I have never been able to help myself when it comes to that so it really feels good to see the support that I get from so many of you and the way you show your appreciation!

Much Much Love

xoxo- D.

[DutchessGolden]

Thank you very much for your very kind words. You have all been so great to me and so supportive! Money and status are no matter to me when it comes to my friends. My family was not so approving of that but even as a child I wasn't going to bring a friend home just b/c her family had money like mine, that's a bunch of BS! My fam. just had to come to understand that this was my personality no matter how I was raised. I just want to know how wealthy you are on the inside, I'd rather hang in the slums with someone real than the country club with someone fake and I have showed this to be true my entire life. Hung out a lot of places my parents didn't want me to go. A close friend of mine grew up in Watts (in Los Angeles) no one walks through there safely! I still go to hang out with him, he's L.C. no one's gonna touch you when you're with him anywaylol If you've read my posts, as you can see I raaammmblle! I just really wanted to say thank you and that I would never just throw out some post to flaunt anything, I was talking with keri(rbc3) the day before and was just responding to a post she wrote to me the day before. But you know what the drama shows me? Everyone's true colors. I don't need that negative nonsense, don't read it but what I do read are the posts from:

chrosty: a loving wife and mother hard working and the backbone of her family. Strong and wise and not cought up in the nonsense, but recovery and helping people here and everyone here freaks when they don't hear from her for a day or two! Those are true colors.

road2recovery: After every **** **** thing you have been through, almost being killed in the hospital no less losing so much blood then being taken off of benzos. c/t by your own doctor still have the flare and strength to stand up and say that Dutchess saved my life and I'll defend her to the end. That is when my jaw really dropped! And you also have a family of your own-this is the rare type of character that I speak of in some of my posts.

Emily: Reading posts not asking anything of anyone. Being unselfish and so patient and kind still. I just get a sense of peace and care from you. And a sense of real integrity.

So, now that I've rambled as always, about the RLS: This condition is very commonly misdiagnosed and often because the same medication will be given for this condition for something comletely different. RLS is a neurologial disorder, we still do not know the exact cause. research and autopsies of the brain have shown iron deficiencies in the substantia nigra ( a small area of the brain very tightly packed with dopamine producing nerve cells) This makes sense b/c the loss of these neurons in the substantia nigra are a precursor to parkinsons disease. And iron is essential in the production of dopamine.

Very often opiate withdrawal can present with RLS type symptoms. Unfortunately there is no time period for RLS because about 40% of cases are inherited and a study in Iceland has actually marked a gene for RLS, so this means once onset occurs it can be off and on or continuous for we don't know how long and we have no cure b/c we do not know the exact cause just yet. If the symptoms are from opiate withdrawal they should subside as the withdrawal symptoms do (see how long it took me to get to the original question!)  Anyhow, during withdrawal muscle relaxants, NSAID's (motrin, naproxen) and/or over the counter meds like highlands can be very effective. If this is not due to opiate withdrawal or any secondary causes (I can give you a list of some of the things that can agitate or cause rls like symptoms) then I can give you specific diagnostic criteria for RLS and at that point your friend really should look into some treatment options with a doctor.

My addiction: I have been taking liquid hydrocodone 12 hr extended releasex 2 teaspoons/day for over 8 years and xanax .5mgx 2/day for a little over 3 years. This is terribly rare but it is just how by body has always worked: It was over 7 years until I had any withdrawal symptoms from taking hydrocodone and took over 2 years before having w/d from xanax.

There was a period of time (under a year) that I abused my meds severely. Thanks to a newer member Sabrina, I finally had the courage to post on the forum what happened a few years ago when I abused my meds. I have talked with Lady Sundown in private b/c she had a similar experience and she is just one of the most wonderful people I have known. And I didn't know this until the "drama" happened but she actually printed out my posts and took them to her doctor's appointment and said her doctor agreed with everything I said and that it was good that she had someone in the field to speak with outside of the doctor's office. WOW! I didn't see that coming, I knew that we have become pretty close but that was another jaw dropper and like I said, it shows everyone's true colors. So, I lost my daughter. My daughter now, this was her twin. Her liver failed, and I held her as she died. My mother was also supposed to be a twin, her twin died at birth. During that time I was taking about an ounce of pure liquid hydrcodone a day or a little more, and remember every 5ml lasts 12 hours. I was taking a few mg of xanax a day. I was constantly getting early refills. I was getting norcos and vicodin to get more of a high. I'm not sure how many of you have ever tried tussionex, but the high that you get from that, you will never get the same high from any amount of vicodin or norcos or even liquid lortab. The chemical structure is just too different which is why it is more tightly controlled than vicodin, norcos, or lortab. It is a sched. II like morphine and demerol. I have watched a lot of people in my life die that I was very close to, but this I will never get past, never get over, and I will never be the same person again. This is right around the time of year that she died and I really want to abuse my meds but I haven't. At some point in time after she died I went back to using the same amount that I have been prescribed. I have weaned off of other opiates and benzos if I had to take them for a period of time after a procedure or being very ill. I also weaned off of tussionex and another antidepressant when my husband and I decided to get pregnant. I have weaned myself off of quite a few things throughout life. Anyhow, it may not be as dramatic as the things that others have done to get meds (which I have seen in person, and it's not pretty with someone to a gun to their head and young girls being raped by older men over heroin and crack cocaine) but that's my story.

xoxo- D.  

[tomanypills]

how does doing this to people feel ?