RLS or something else? Help, please, confused
 

I have been living with these strange symptoms for 5 years now. I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's hypothyroidism in 2005 and I had the disease undiagnosed for 10 years. I did have trouble sleeping from 2001 to 2006. My thyroid levels were better, and all of 2006 I slept like a baby. I had a new mattress, good thyroid levels, and I was my old spry self again. I threw myself back into an exercise routine and lost 30 pounds.

In 2007 I moved back to Chicago and began having strange symptoms. My legs will feel very warm at night. Not hot to the touch, they have a normal body temp, but they feel warm from the inside. I move them around to a different part of the sheets to cool them off. That lasts about 15 seconds and I have to move them again.

I also feel like I have the weebie-geebies in my calves and I need to shake them about or tense/relax the muscles to try to get relief. I sometimes feel this during the day if my clothing is tight/uncomfortable or if I've been sitting in a weird position.

Within the past 3 years I've developed some new "fun" symptoms including paransthesis in my feet (buzzing feeling), hot poker stabbing pains (various places--mostly legs), my calves ITCH LIKE CRAZY before bed.

I've been taking gabapentin since 2007 and it does help me to sleep 7.5 hours a night, 90% of the time.

Hi lightsleeper, :welcome_sign:

It sounds like peripheral neuropathy (or at least part of it does) but I see you mentioned that in your other post.

I'm having dramatic results with PN symptoms taking R-Lipoic acid (100 mg. once/day). It's virtually eliminated the burning, stabbing, & zaps.

There are a number of supplements that can help symptoms of both PN (some will vary depending on the cause/reason for PN if known) and RLS. You can find more in various places around NT or via google.

Doc

Thanks Doc
 

I'm thankful that the stabbing pain has been infrequent so I tolerate it. But if it gets worse, I'll definately be looking around for drugs. I'm a baby when it comes to pain.

I failed to mention what is probably the most important new symptom. I have a tremor in my thumb now. But my neuro doc assured me that it doesn't look like its related at all to Parkinson's. He wants another EMG though...go figure. Yippee!

Thanks for the feedback.

You're already on one of the first line drugs for peripheral neuropathy pain - gabapentin. The R-Lipoic acid I mentioned is a supplement - naturally occuring in the body.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipoic_acid
and
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread130991.html

Doc