Thank you once again Cyclolops for your wealth of information... I was a bit confused about dopamine AGonists and ANTagonists. You clarified that beautifully. Fortunately, I do not have the rls (or, what ever that is) frequently. Fortunate and strange.

I see your point about weighing the benefits versus the risks of taking prescription medications with dysautonomia. I still have a lot to learn.

And, I can understand how difficult it must be for you to not take stronger analgesics. I am sure you must have lots of discomfort and pain with the Scleroderma, AN and PN... I used to take more narcotics but stopped them due to various reasons, one being excessive sleepiness. I still take a very low dose of narcotic med. at night because I have alot of pain from my arthritis - mostly large joint. Also take ambien at night, Verapamil for tachycardia, Humira (arthritis) and 3 mg of prednisone.

This is the prescription meds that I take.

I do suffer a whole lot of other pain from the neuropathies and have other pain meds I can take, but don't. It does definitely impact my stomach and the GP. I may need to cut the nighttime narcotic. It is my understanding that Verapamil also impacts GP but I cannot even imagine not taking that drug. Neurologist is okay with it for now but perhaps there is a better way to control the tachycardia.

I also feel the way you describe - worse upright. I have palpitations and tachycardia (even with the Verapamil), migraine headaches, variations in BP, variations in body temp., trouble with my bladder, flushing, trouble breathing, chest pains, near syncope, extreme tiredness etc., etc., I seem to have 'flares' of the 'dysautonomia'. Concurrrently, the sensory neuropathy flares. There is some degree of it with me all of the time but I definitely have some rough patches. Two tough ones last year, one hospitallization.

I certainly appreciate your information and I hope you are still feeling the positive effects of your last IVig treatment. Mere