Restless Legs - driving me crazy!

[YuK]

Any suggestions.  Can't sleep.  Worse after the interferon.  

[Kristina538]

Sorry you can't sleep;  Panadol may help with the legs (Panadol became my magic drug for aches during tx and, despite my liver condition, my specialist said to take up to 6 per day if I needed to for leg pain, which I did but only a couple of times).

I ended up with a script for sleeping pills, but not before trying a lot of other things.  Chamomile tea actually did help (thank you Medhelp), and so did night snacks.   I ate 2 bananas a day throughout tx (which may help in the longer term for restless legs), and panadol and a hot water bottle for leg pain.

Other than that, I just stayed on the net until the early hours, slept in spurts whenever I could manage and crawled around like a shadow of my former self until I started on quarter to half a sleeper to get more than the 90 minutes sleep I had been getting (I celebrated when I first did 3 hours straight!!)    Lack of sleep can be so mentally challenging and taxing so take it easy - if you have to watch TV all night, so be it, and get hold of your doc when you can.  Good luck...  

[Marcia2202]

I find that heat relaxes the muscles and helps tremendously with the leg and body aches. I sleep on a heating under blanket and it has saved me all through tx.

[Xenigma]

RLS is different from leg pain.
Cold (air) on your legs can help a bit, but what really works is a small dose of a pain pill (narcotic)  The only non-narcotic pain med that I found to work is Ultram (Tramadol). It is by rx as well.  There are some meds that are made just  for  Restless Leg Syndrome that you may want to talk to your doc about.  It's horrible as I suffer from it as well.  

[R Glass]

Sleep Deprivation was the main culprit that almost caused me to throw the towel in on tx. Some nights, I would constantly go from one end of the bed to the other because of the nerves in my feet would drive me crazy. It was not painful but extremely annoying. This is not what kept me awake but added to my torment. You already know Interfer/Riba causes this. I was put on Ambian (to put me to sleep), Elavil (to keep me asleep), Hydrocodone (for the pain), and Xanax (for the Panic Attacks). Sure, it was a battle getting off of them after recovering from tx. I still occasionally have to take a Xanax and I still take Lortab (but I was on them before tx). Yoga, Candles, Tea, etc. may work for some people but I had to “fight fire with fire” and would not have made it if I didn’t. Good Luck and Best Wishes, R Glass.

[sunqueen]

I can't live without Requip for RLS. It is way worse after treatment than it was before. I used to be able to get to 7 pm before the crawling and twitching began. Now it's hitting around 4:30 - 5 pm, just as I'm finishing work.

I found that making sure my feet are warm helps a lot until the Requip kicks in. Someone (an old nurse who favors homeopathics) also suggested unfiltered organic apple cider vinegar in water 2x a day for restless leg. I've shied away from that one because I already make enough acid in my stomach ...  

[dmhrdh]

I have RLS and it got really bad on treatment.  I did find something that helped though...
I got myself a full length body massager and would lay on it in bed on really bad nights. I also have a chair massager that sometimes I would just put under my legs in bed. It was almost as if as long as it moved, I didn't have to......  I know it sounds crazy, but, it was the answer for me :-)
Denise

[Tippyclubb]

dmhrdh is right about the massage.  I use to be a massage therapist and had many customers with RLS and a massage would give them relief from the pain.  They would say it relieved the sx for a few days.  Some of them would come twice a week and swore it was the only thing that helped.  Maybe you could try getting a massage and see if it helps.  

I'm not sure if the massaging machine would help but that too is worth a try.  Sounds like it would, and definitely is cheaper.

[jankar]

I get it when my stress levels increase and I cannot sleep.  What comes first?  Sleeping pills with muscle relaxant help me the most.  Just a half takes the edge off enough to get me to sleep.

[YuK]

a lot of good suggestions.  It is extremely annoying.  I did have RLS b4 tx but geez I'm like totally insane with it now.  It is not consistant.  So, sometimes it is too late to take a sleeping pill - i'm a lightweight and I won't be able to get up in the AM.  I'll try the massage and look into the requip.  Thanks

[Cheesegrater]

Try Vitamin D supliments and Calcium/Magnesium.

It doesn't cost much and it might help.

[charm27]

I had the same thing during tx. Restless legs and NO sleep. Nothing helped me but time. Im post tx now and my legs still feel strange but not as restless.