MS and Restless Legs, Muscle Relaxant Problems

Well the doctor told me to take a muscle relaxant drug to help me cope with the restless legs and tight hips I have developed, well I did have the restless legs before the MS, to help me cope with the aches.

Now I am a tea drinker. I mean I can drink one cup after the other all day, without counting. I do not really drink coffee as I do not like it much, with sugar it is passable though.

I took Tizanidine, from 1 mg increasing up to 18 mg a day, so not the highest dose that you are allowed to take but I found the more I took the more my legs seemed to play up.

After a time of reading up the medicine side effects information online, bearing in mind this is the 5th drug I have tried, and so far this one that has not made me depressed or given me mood swings, I stuck with it. I increased the dose over the weeks until I got to 12 mg, and then finally after seeing my doctor I went up to 18mg a day, the maximum dose according the packet is 36 mg a day; it made me very tired but still my legs ached.

I started to sleep more in the day, so much that I was becoming nocturnal. So time with my family was compromised, and intimate time with my husband was almost non existent.

So I read up and prayed over what to do. I felt a strong need in my mind to read about the effects of caffeine. Withdrawal includes some headaches. So after reading that caffeine is a stimulant, not so good for my legs; I felt in prayer that I needed to reduce my tea intake, I have.

Now for two days I have taken one 4 mg Tizanidine pill in the morning, and reduced my tea intake to two cups a day. I do have a headache, but that is not surprising is it after all the tea I was drinking. I do use Co-codomal if I am in pain with my neck or legs but I very rarily take more than 4 pills a day; which is half the maximum dose but I feel well. I am not falling asleep all the time and my legs are feeling less restless. I have cervical spondylitis in my neck, from an injury years ago.

So the moral of the story is doctors do not know everything, but God does. So seek Him in your illness and you will find He is willing to assist you in your condition and treatment.