Hi daniella.
I have full body RSD-13 years. Not sleeping has been a huge issue for me. My Dr. is a psychiatrist, neurologist, and pharmacologist. His Dad a Dr. his sister a Dr. He works with a couple of pharmaceutical companies and does studies and teaches on the west coast. He just is finishing a study for sleep for seroquel. This drug, is usually for bipolar and scitzoiphrenia-spelled wrong. Any way his drug study was for using this drug for sleeping. He is just finishing it up and will write a report on it. I had been taking
Ambien Cr. 25 mg. Vicodin 6 pills a day, Antivan or lorazepam, 2 high blood pressure meds.and 120 mg. cymbalta. I had been on 3200 mg of neurotin, but asked to go off it- it caused so much weight gain,, but it kept from having my dailey and nightly electric jolts, jerks, spasms. I went off last October and no bad symptoms. Lost 30 lbs so far and trying on my last 30lbs. I have had a couple jerks , but nothing like I used to.
I told my Dr. that Loreazepam helped me so much, I would rather drop a vicodin than drop the anxiety med.
A couple of months or 3 ago, my sleep med stopped working. I went 6 weeks to 2 months of not getting to sleep till about 5-6 a.m. one night I didn't get to sleep till 9 a.m.
It was awful. So we decided to try seroqouel 300 mg. The dosage for bipolar and S is 400-800. He told me to stay in bed=don't drive etc. So a month ago I started seroquel. 300 mg. The first night, it packed a punch, My husband had to help me to the bathroom,
Next night i onlhy took 150 mg. slept good. Dr. told me to go back to 300 mg. so I did. I forgot to say, when he started me on seroquel, he cut my anxiety med in half. He left it up to me to regulate my pain med.I can't tell you how well I'm sleeping. I take the med at 7 pm no food. an hour before or after. I am sleeping so well, it's a miracle. I have been only taking 3 vicodin the last 5 days instead of 6. I used to take 1 lorazepam 2 mg. 3 times a day. When I started seroquel, he cut it to 1 lorazepm 1 mg. 3 times a day. But I've only been taking 1 lorazepam 1 mg. twice a day.
I see this Dr. once a month and pay out of pocket. He doesn't take insurance. His practice is mainly difficult cases, teaching, and drug studies and writing. He just built two clinics, both are about 5 minutes from our home. He has a HBOT in both of them. I'm going to try the HBOT. I believe they are the only ones outside a hospital in Arizona.
In my opinion antivan, or lorazepam is a very important compotent for managing RSD. Reducing the anxiety, calms the sympathetic nervous system down. I can't hardly believe how much better I feel with the restorative sleep, my Dr. calls it. I feel like I'm getting part of my life back. I'm back doing some errands in the afternoon.
Seroquel does have a comment on weight gain. I was holding the 30 lbs. real good until I took seroquel. It put 5 lbs instantly on, and I've taken it off this past 5 weeks.
Well, that is my thoughts from my personal experience. I really hope you get some peaceful sleep soon. Everything looks so different with a good nights sleep. Take care, loretta