Even mid Day- really?

So I thought that these symptoms were supposed to be when you were tired, at night when you lay down and are ready to go to bed. Well, today, during the mid day my arms started hurting like crazy! The same annoying feeling. Very intense full of energy just annoying feeling. It had me in tears :( UGH!!! I did call and try and schedule an appointment with my new doctor but since I'm a new patient the nurse has to call me back and schedule it. ( My new doctor is a Military doctor at a Military Hospital, not sure if that will be a good or a bad thing). I'm hoping she calls back soon. I don't know how much more of this I can take. I know I must sound crazy. If you have never been through this before you are probably thinking how bad can RLS be? How can a feeling of extra energy or an annoying feeling have you in tears? It's awful, I promise. I've read that there is a secondary Rls which is caused from underlying causes which is what I think my problem may be if it's not the Tramadol or even as well as. Secondary causes can be because of another illness in the body such as Anemia, Kidney failure, Low levels of iron,Thyroid problems, Folate deficiency, Diabetes, and  Peripheral neuropathy.  I've read up on Peripheral neuropathy some and it really has me worried because I experience a lot of the symtoms. If you haven't heard of it before or aren't sure exactly what it is let me help you. The term "peripheral" refers to all nerve tissues outside the brain and spinal cord. These nerves relay messages from the central nervous system to all other parts of the body, including the skin, muscles, joints and vital organs. Neuropathy may affect motor nerves (serving the muscles), sensory nerves (dictating sensations such as temperature, pressure and pain), or autonomic nerves (regulating involuntary functions of the body.) Common forms of peripheral neuropathy include diabetic neuropathy, fiber neuropathy and alcoholic neuropathy. Other forms include ischemic neuropathy (caused by lack of blood supply to a peripheral nerve), demyelinating neuropathies (which are chronic and degenerative) and peroneal neuropathy (affecting an important nerve in the leg.) When nerves are damaged due to peripheral neuropathy, it interferes with communication between the brain and the rest of the body, resulting in pain, numbness, weakness, abnormal sensations, or loss of mobility. Over time, these symptoms may worsen and lead to balance problems or even loss of limbs. In many cases there is an inability to feel sensations such as touch or pain, which can be very dangerous if unnoticed wounds or sores become infected. Peripheral neuropathy typically manifests on both sides of the body, and is most common in the lower limbs. When peripheral neuropathy begins to develop, patients typically feel foot pain, numb toes, a burning sensation in the feet, or simply a sore foot. As the nerve disease spreads, other areas of the body are affected. I've read that Peripheral neuropathy pain can be quite devastating to those who live with it everyday, particularly if friends and family don't understand what they are going through which reminds me of myself because I imagine it must be hard for others to understand what I am going through because if I wasn't dealing with it myself I wouldn't quite "get it". I am also sure that my iron levels are low and I'm possibly anemic. I know I have been bruising really easy and last time I had blood work done (over a year ago) my Vitamin D was severely low so I was prescribed Vitamin D which I have stopped taking a few months ago. I can't remember what all my labs said, that was the only one that was really bad, I know there were some that were borderline. I am hoping the new doctor will do some blood work and check all this out. I guess the good thing about if it's secondary is that the problem can be found and it can be fixed. If it's the Tramadol thing and that alone then I'm not sure how they will approach the situation. I have to have pain medicine so I guess maybe they would just switch me to a different type of pain medicine. It's all weird because the reason I stayed on Tramadol so long was to not risk getting addicted to a stronger medication since I need a long term pain medicine. I could of easily been on Lortab or Percocet but I thought Tramadol was the safe way to go. I wonder if that was the right decision after all.

Tramadol withdrawal and RLS

I'm wondering if there's a link between Tramadol withdrawal and RLS or if suddenly decreasing my intake of Tramadol could be linked to this new problem I've acquired. It could be just a mere coincidence, but it's on my mind.

I've been taking Tramadol for 3 1/2  years now. I know it's not a strong pain pill and honestly I don't think I'm addicted. I do however have to take 2 to even help with the pain and I have to take them more often but I believe that's because I've been on them for so long. I was prescribed them for Endometriosis ( which we will discuss later, it's not proven I have it they just "think" I do without doing an invasive procedure to find out) when we lived in Virginia and been on then since. At first one pill worked for the pain, they made me feel tired and kind of weird. Over the years I've had to increase the dose and sometimes even take ibuprofen with it. Before my doctor went Mia I had a prescription for 10 Lortab a month also just to use for breakthrough pain in case the Tramadol didn't work. The Tramadol usually works good enough to take the edge off so the pain isn't unbearable. I did try Cymbalta instead but then realized that I liked Tramadol better if for nothing more then it highly decreased my appetite so I switched back since the Cymbalta did not seem to help at all. If Tramadol has any addiction affect on me I'd have to say if I had an unlimited supply of them I probably would take them on a daily basis to decrease my appetite. I don't have an unlimited supply however therefore I only take them when I feel like I need them.  So anyway, I used to take them a lot more often . I used to take a lot more medications more often. I've been trying to not take so many things. If for no other reason then I don't know how much longer I'll have medical insurance. My husbands been having issues with his knee. Hopefully he will be able to finish out the last two years of his contract but regardless I think re-listing is out. Anyway I have been trying to figure out what I absolutely need and what I don't and stick to what I believe I do. These RLS I've been having only started a couple of months ago and I've read online that people have really bad RLS when having withdrawal from pills. I really didn't think Tramadol would be included in this but I've search and apparently some people become addicted to tramadol. The only thing I guess that worries me or that really makes me want to compare the two is that the last two nights when I couldn't sleep b/c of the RLS  I took tramadol for the pain and then when it finally kicked in it helped and all was okay! Guess that's about all for now. I have a lot of stuff to get done. I just wanted to make a note of all of this while it was on my mind. If anyone has ever had any adverse experiences after decreasing their Tramadol intake, or know someone who has, I would love to hear from you.

RLS (Restless leg Syndrome) -the beginning

I basically am starting this blog just for myself so I can keep track of these crazy very annoying symptoms I am having. If anyone else happens to read and wants to comment that's cool. I'm not a professional blogger though. This is actually the first time I have ever blogged so it will probably be super lame . Anyway here goes nothing. I started having these RLS ( restless leg syndrome) symptoms about 2 months ago. I didn't even know what it was. At first it started out as occasional numbness in my thighs, legs, feet, hands, etc. you know like when your foot falls asleep. I figured it was pretty normal. Next I started to notice an occasional twitch here and there. It only happened when I was tired, lying down watching tv or trying to sleep. All of a sudden my foot or leg would twitch. I was like WTF!! Yeah I thought it was weird but it only happened a few times and not often so I was like whatever. Okay, we'll after a couple weeks the twitching progressed. It was doing it more often and I noticed my arms did it and even my stomach. It was like a big fast jerk! Uncontrollable, I didn't even know it was going to happen until it was over. Well, I mentioned it to my doctor ( not my doctor, because my doctor is MIA, not literally but he left so I had to see some random doctor, but that's another story I'll get into at a later time) and the doctor said it was RLS. I didn't even know you could have RLS in your arms but apparently so. She didn't seem worried and didn't say anything about it other then "oh sounds like restless leg syndrome, blah blah blah, yes you have RLS" it wasn't bothering me at the time so I didn't care. I just mentioned it b/c I wanted to make sure it wasn't anything important. Okay well since then things have gotten even worse! I did have a break with no symptoms but thinking back I think it's while I was taking my tramadol for pain. Hopefully these blogs will help me figure all that out as well. Anyway I've been getting these insane, crazy, weird, horrible, hard to describe feelings in my arms. It feels like a bunch of stored energy that needs to come out but can't. Like a HUGE twitch that can't twitch but if it would twitch or could twitch and did twitch then everything would be fine. Wow, that was a tongue twister!  The twitches don't bother me at all but this crap, OMGosh it's horrid! I actually cried last night it was so bad. I wonder why most people have problems with their legs and mine is mainly my arms? Well when the twitching happens it's mainly my legs but this annoying feeling that I can't stand is in my arms. I also wonder if this is the feeling people describe as creepy crawly. Well, I guess that about sums this first blog up. Yeah pretty boring huh? Like I said it's basically just for me, myself and I, but if you happen to stumble across it then I don't mind if you read or share your thoughts. If I can't sleep I may start another blog tonight. I've been just typing stuff in the notepad in my phone but I think I will like this much better. Here's to hoping I can sleep and my arms stop hurting . RLS sucks, by the way!