Hey, Kicky...

Hey, Kicky...

I decided to do some blogging about the meds I take and why I take them.
I will try to be as transparent as possible, but there are things I will not discuss.

In a future post, I will explain exactly what prompted me to want to do this series. But for now, let's start with my most recent revelation.

I take a prescription medication I will call S. I take S before bed, as instructed on the bottle. To my knowledge, S is almost always generally instructed to be a before bed medication. Not because it works better at night, but because it "may cause drowsiness."
Now, on the spectrum of sleepiness warnings, "may cause drowsiness" is pretty damn low. (As opposed to the sedative-hypnotics class of drugs, wherein you (if you are like me), will be basically in a coma for the next 48 hours).

🙜

Now. I also struggle with RLS. I have for years. I also take medicine W. I would take 1 dose of W in the AM and one dose in the PM. (I have been taking W for far longer than S.) Eventually, the prescribing doctor, Dr. SoftSpoken, was like "well, stop taking the evening dose of pill W. That should help." (Incidentally, W is an antidepressent, so we were essentially cutting that dose in half, which brings its own list of side effects.) 
So I stopped taking the evening dose of W, because it can be known to cause wakefulness. And my RLS continued getting worse. And worse. 
It got so bad that I made a Dr. appointment literally for no other reason than "dear god, someone please help me with my restless legs!" 

 ^Actually pretty accurate idea of how bad my RLS had gotten.^

The appointment was not fruitful. There are only a handful of medications that can be used to treat restless leg syndrome, and most of them cause lingering drowsiness, which I am highly sensitive to, or have interactions with drugs I already take. There was literally one medicine that Dr. SoftSpoken thought might be a good fit. And insurance (at least mine) doesn't cover it. It's around $90/month. 

Yeah, I'll kick all night long, thanks. 

But Becky, aren't there natural remedies to ease restless leg syndrome? Pinterest alone has two-hundred gajillion recommendations!
Yes, there are natural remedies. And I have done them and continue to do them.
Walking, stretching, taking certain vitamins, magnesium lotion, regular baths, salt baths, massage, eating certain foods, drinking more water....there is a laundry list of things. I'm sure somewhere out there, someone will try to cure RLS by drinking vinegar - because the internet loves vinegar.

🙜

My point is, I have come to accept restless legs as part of my life that I can treat a bit, but will always be there.

And then I got sick.
I missed a week of work due to a nasty case of strep throat. (Boo, hiss!)
During that time, I took my antidepressants (most days), my antibiotic for treatment, and cold medicine to alleviate symptoms so I could sleep. I wasn't taking any vitamins and I didn't bother with S. (Who gives a shit about S when you can't stay awake for more than two hours at a stretch and you wish the misery would just end already?) But aside from being sick, I was sleeping quite well for once.

Then I got better, and finished my antibiotic, and started taking vitamins in the AM again, and took S again at night. 
And guess what? That first night? 

 

So I did some googling.And literally every single medical/reference type website I found listed "may cause drowsiness" as a side effect of S.Not a single one mentioned restless legs, excitability, wakefulness, etc.

But you know what the rest of the internet had to say?

The consensus seemed to be "Holy shit this stuff keeps me up at night! Oh my god, I haven't slept in three days because my restless legs are so bad!"

So I waited a day.

And then I took S in the AM as an experiment because I have a very hard time waking up in the morning.
And wouldn't you know it? I was wide-fucking-awake that day.  👀

So now I take it in the morning.

🙜

Here is what I would say is the lesson is, if you want there to be one:

Research.
Ask your doctor, ask your pharmacist, read the information pamphlet. Those are all obvious.

But also look it up on the internet. Don't rely on one website. Check multiple medical reference sites. Look it up on pinterest, instagram, reddit, because that's where people are most likely to give #realtalk about what it's like to be on that medicine. Of course it's going to be different for everyone. Every human body will respond differently to a medication. Read the good and the bad, take it with a grain of salt, and take note of your own experiences. It can help your doctor know you better and more importantly, help you know your own body better.