Crazy/Restless Legs
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TV ClubHouse: GD Archives: Crazy/Restless Legs

Whoami

Monday, June 23, 2003 - 02:56 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
My legs suffer from what I've heard is an actual syndrome.

Sometimes, mostly when I'm very tired (or cooped up in a car), my legs have this screaming NEED to be stretched. It's hard to describe the feeling. It originates at the back of the knee. If I don't get up and stretch the heck out of those muscles/tendons in the area, I go completly nuts. It's like every muscle in my body will go beserk if I dont' stretch my legs. Sometimes I feel like if I let it go too far, I'll end up not being able to breath. It's almost like a clastrophobia feeling.

It used to be, when I got real tired, sitting in my chair or whatever, and my legs got like that, all I'd have to do is go to bed, and they'd be happy. Now, its when I go to bed, they get that way. I can be SO tired, but I lay down in bed and my legs go so nuts I end up having to get up. I even lie in bed hanging each leg off either side of the bed in an effort to stretch them to/past their drastic need.

For the last couple of weeks, it's been this way. Due to the schedule my mom insists on keeping, I'm often not able to get to bed till after 4:00 am (lately, I'm lucky if I get to bed around then). I get to bed, and my legs go so nuts, I'm still awake at 8:00am. It makes for such a wasted day if I end up sleeping till noon. I just can't get my errands done if I sleep that late. Not to mention I'm not really getting many hours of sleep.

Does anyone have this problem? Do you have a way to control it? I end up having to get back up. Stretch, then sit in bed with my legs folded/tensed while I read for a bit. Then they seem to be relieved when I relax the muscles again, and I finally get some sleep. This is driving me crazy!

Texannie

Monday, June 23, 2003 - 03:08 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
You might want to up your potassium intake.

Ophiliasgrandma

Monday, June 23, 2003 - 03:15 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I had this problem in 'spades' a few years ago when after major surgery I wasn't eating right. Doc put me on mega doses of vitamins for a period of time. Voila! That did the trick. I'm convinced it's a deficiency of one or more nutrients. I'll be praying you find your answer quickly as I know firsthand what a nightmare you are going through.

Keep us posted.

Tabbyking

Monday, June 23, 2003 - 03:27 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
my husband has restless leg or dancing leg syndrome where they just flex and stretch and jump and kick out on their own. when it comes on, he kicks me in my calf all night!
that is different from what i have. terrible, achey pain starting around the knees if i sit at all, intense pain at night that feels like electric wires are coursing through them. it helps when i am on the treadmill. the more i move them, the better they feel. when i relax, they hurt like hell. i thought maybe it was related to perimenopause. between what my docs suggested and what i read i tried many, many things for the pain. i am finally on neurontin, which cuts the pain down to where i can sleep at night. i used to lie there in pain for hours and hours. it is a cross between throbbing, hot pain and wanting to scream because i can't describe it! driving or sitting for a long time makes it worse. i have to sleep with one leg on a pillow, because it hurts to even have my legs next to each other!the doctor finally said 'some type of neuralgia'...

Tagurit

Monday, June 23, 2003 - 03:28 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Whoami - I go through this periodically (most times during PMS). Drives me nuts. I feel like I need to tie my feet to something and just stretch the heck out of my legs. There are times I need to get out of bed and walk a little and then I feel better or I just hope I fall asleep fast enough so it doesn't bother me. This happens maybe every other month or so. Thankfully for me it doesn't last long. I think I will look into the suggestions here for extra vitamins and such though!

Thanks for starting this post Whoami! I thought no one else dealt with this weird feeling. I can definitely understand your frustration in dealing with it!

Tabbyking

Monday, June 23, 2003 - 03:32 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
also, for me, this started about 18 months ago, first just around the knee areas. and the bones felt like they were either on fire or so cold they felt like they were hot. the muscles, tendons, bones...all of them ached and everyone thought i was nuts because i couldn't quite describe it or exactly where it hurt. it moves around! and it has been ongoing for those 18 months...they hurt all the time, but i can manage the pain. i was just relieved to hear i didn't have some disease.

Ginger1218

Monday, June 23, 2003 - 03:35 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I have had this problem for years. I only get it in bed though. I don't know what causes it or what makes it stop.
Texannie I know that increasing potassium is for leg cramps, I am not sure it will help in this regard.

Ophiliasgrandma

Monday, June 23, 2003 - 03:46 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Tabby, mine wasn't the uncontrollable jerking known as 'restless leg syndrome', but the awful need to stretch and stretch until you are worn to a frazzle, and still you get no relief. I know the two are very different and people who haven't gone through it don't understand the difference. I'm not sure if they've ever put a name to what you are suffering with, but it's probably out there somewhere with the resolution.

Texasdeb

Monday, June 23, 2003 - 03:50 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
A warm (hot as you can stand) bath & then some sports cream on the knees might help. I use this method for any part of me that gets achey.

Ophiliasgrandma

Monday, June 23, 2003 - 03:50 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Mea culpa, it is the 'restless leg syndrome' you are suffering from. I typed it into the 'engine' and came up with lots of info. The other is the rhythmic kicking about every twenty seconds or so during sleep, which my husband does. That's why he now has to sleep in a separate bed.

Whoami

Monday, June 23, 2003 - 03:52 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
That's how mine is OG. The intense need to stretch. I think my sister my have the restless leg thing, where her's involuntarily jerks.

I've gotten up and placed my hands on the wall, then gone into deep lunges to stretch the back part of the knee area. It works for about 5 minutes. I'm sure some of it ends up getting to be mental.

One time I was in my sister's rental car, in the back seat. Her legs are long, so she had her seat pushed way back, which ended up with the back of her seat smack dab pressed up against my knees. We then drove 45 minutes to my other sister's house. My legs went nuts almost as soon as I got into the car. I laid my head back, did deep breathing, and tried to sing songs to myself just to take my mind off of it. I was SOOOO wanting to have sis pull over so I could get out and stretch. That was one incident where I really do think I was close to not being able to breathe.

Tabbyking

Monday, June 23, 2003 - 04:00 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
gosh, somewhere it looks from recent posts as if i said OG had restless leg syndrome, or that i did! i said my husband had restless leg syndrome! i do think that who has what i have....in the back seat of some friends' car when we went to a concert about 90 miles away, i was ready to kick in the driver's seat in front of me! i was massaging my knees and thighs and calves. luckily, we had to walk several blocks...and sitting for 2 hours, even for neil diamond, i wanted to get up and move around and get my legs some freedom!

Ophiliasgrandma

Monday, June 23, 2003 - 04:11 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I truly think it is something chemically off balance that causes it. Trying to psche yourself out of it would be about like trying to talk yourself out of diabetes.

Tagurit

Monday, June 23, 2003 - 04:18 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I don't suffer from the burning feeling. Just the need to stretch. Like Ginger, I only deal with it in bed. I have also gotten up and stretched as you have Whoami.

I also have to be able to move my legs while in bed. No one can impede that or I feel like I will go nuts. I have literally thrown many an animal off to be able to move them. The rest of my body doesn't need to move, just my legs. And this is even if I am not dealing with the sensation of having to stretch them.

Whoami

Monday, June 23, 2003 - 04:30 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Hmmm....looking up the "restless leg syndrom" on Google. Looks like most of the info talks about creeping, crawling type feelings. I don't have any of the burning, aches, creepy etc feelings. I just plain have the need to stretch. Maybe I do end up with some sort of "feeling" that inspires the need to stretch, and I just can't describe it.

I don't wish this on anyone. But I must admit its sort of "nice" to know I'm not just plain wierd! Well, about my legs that is. The rest of me is still pretty wierd!

Cathie

Monday, June 23, 2003 - 05:12 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
I have had this for years--I had a sleep study done in 1990, expecting to find narcolepsy, because my main symptoms were sleepiness during the day. I worked for the state back then and would sometimes make a round-trip (3 hours each way) to Austin in one day. I would have to turn the radio up as loud as I could and slap myself (literally) to keep awake on the trip back home.

The sleep study (where you attempt to get a normal night's sleep while your entire body is hooked up to electrodes) revealed sleep apnea and restless legs. I was surprised by both, but after reading about them it explained alot, like why I would have a recurring dream of being paralized, not able to move or even breathe. I found out that this happened when I would wake up during an apnea attack.

The restless legs were treated by medication, and it made a world of difference. It was a medication usually used for depression, but one of the positive (for me) side effects was a decrease in leg movements/restlessness .

I also had the painful kind of leg cramps, burning for a year or so before I had thyroid surgery. The removal of a benign thyroid nodule was the end of the pain--not sure what the relation was, but it was definately related for me!

Sisalou

Thursday, July 03, 2003 - 07:42 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Who - Getting here late as usual. I too went and had a sleep study because I was having the same problems you described. I was diagnosed with RLS and prescribed some meds for it. (can't remember the name right now)

Right after I had the study the New York Times had an article about it and mentioned that iron deficiency/anemia could be a cause of it. Come to find out I was profoundly anemic. Once I got my iron levels up I never had the problem again.

It might be worth your time having your hemoglobin level checked. I hope your find some relief soon. It is really a maddening condition.

( I believe Kramer from Seinfeld had a girlfriend with it and he called it the "jimmy legs" ) :)

Suek

Sunday, July 27, 2003 - 09:28 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
WHOAMI - I have had this problem since I was 21. I always called it "nervous knees" ROFL! And now that I am old I really have it bad. HOWEVER there is a solution for it.

In being diagnosed with depression and anxiety because of my missing daughter I was prescribed with clonopin (anti-anxiety pill). I was reading about the restless legs syndrome on the internet and discovered that they use this drug to control restless legs syndrome.

I take it at night and I sleep well. And I used to take it in the morning but I don't need it anymore. The night one seems to keep it under control.

I also tend to be anemic and a lack of potassium can cause leg cramps also, so I just try to make sure that I stay well nourished.

A low dose of clonopin may be all you need at night. I know exactly how horrible this feeling is. So I hope you can find a resolution that works for you.

Take care. {{{{{HUGS}}}}}

Redstar

Monday, July 28, 2003 - 06:09 pm EditMoveDeleteIP
Whoami, some medications can cause RLS. Mine started when I began taking Prozac. I told my doctor that I thought it was related, but at the time it wasn't recognized as a side effect. I encouraged her to report it, and I guess enough people did so that now it is listed as a rare side effect. If you started any long-term meds just before you started getting RLS, you might want to do some research on all known or suspected side effects.

Like you, my RLS isn't the creeping, crawling sensation, but an overwhelming need to stretch/flex them. It's almost spasm-like at times and most frequently strikes when I go to bed. It can be totally maddening as it sometimes goes on for one to two hours (usually around a half-hour, though).

I've tried a number of "cures" - more potassium, hot baths, walking, massage therapy, etc. - to no avail.

Since the Prozac has done so much to help me (my depression was due to chemical imbalance), I live with this side effect and only occasionally feel like screaming in frustration! LOL