Quick question

[Brightsky69]

Hello.....
I use the Baxter cycler machine at night. I've been having this issue with tossing and turning...I get this gotta move feeling all over. Restless leg syndrome? It's a feeling all over and not just my legs. I usually get 5 to 6 hours of sleep then I start getting that feeling of got to move. Which makes me toss and turn.
Could I be getting too much sleep? Maybe my phosphorous is too high??? At last check it was 6.1 and I've been working on getting it back down.
Now if I go to bed really tired...I sleep right thru the night. I told my doc about it and all he did was perscribe me a narcotic. And I don't like to take narcotics.
What's the deal?? Anyone else have this problem?

[KICKSTART]

Firstly RLS can be all over your body , not just your legs. I get it all over , you feel restless and anxious with it , i also get it bad in my arms. I would consider 5-6 hours sleep GOOD ! as i havent slept for days now!  But you also say ..if you go to bed tired, you sleep right through? and thats a problem? 

[Restorer]

I got restless arms/legs/body the one time I was on hemo. I tend to associate it with pulling off fluid or toxins faster than my body's used to. The other night I upped my cycler fill volume by 100 ml, and lucky me, on one drain I must have been lying on my line, and I didn't drain fully. Over the next dwell, the leftover fluid plus the fill plus the ultrafiltration made me extra full, and I got really restless in the middle of the night - couldn't lie in one position for more than a minute. I felt better after I drained.

Maybe you're somehow dialyzing or ultrafiltrating faster than you used to? Or have you changed your cycler settings recently? I tend to sleep better if I take an antihistamine before I go to sleep, but then I'm groggier in the morning.

[Brightsky69]

Don't get me wrong...I am grateful for any sleep I get. Usually on the weekends I can sleep for 12 hours no problem.    Just here lately I have been tossing and turning. And I hate it. 

Recently they put me on an extra cycle. I was doing 5 exchanges during the night and now they upped me to 6.
I did take a Benadril last night. That helped get me to sleep then i woke up around 11pm tossing ans turning till 4am. The I got up at 5am.
I do recall lieing back down this morning after I had already got of the machine. I could have went back to sleep no problem....no jump feeling at all. Restorer..maybe your right.







EDITED: Fixed smiley tag error-kitkatz,Moderator

[Hanify]

I think Restorer is right.  Try taking a normal painkiller before you go to bed - like a panadol or some thng.  I think that helps.  And then take another couple if you wake up.  It may be just your body adjusting to the new cycle.  Also, this might sound really weird, but try a positive mantra.  You're already nearly there cos you are saying you usually sleep well.  "I always sleep through the night" is a good one.  I believe if you repeat it over and over that you somehow trick your brain into making it happen.   You mustn't have any negative words in the mantra.  Sorry if I sound like a wierdo but it really does work.  But you have to do it for a while.

[Brightsky69]

Thats a good idea..Hanify. My doc gave me a narcotic....blah. Don't want to take that.
Sleep is my hobby! So to be all jumpy at night is not normal for me. I really think it's that new cycle. When I was on vacation  I didn't get jumpy. Maybe because I was staing up late and sleeping late. 
I am gonna try the mantra tonight " I will sleep all night long"   
I will keep a Benedril on my night stand just in case. 

[Brightsky69]

You know...I just got a brand new mattress. Maybe I am still getting use to it. I don't know...it is really, really snuggly comfortable.

[peleroja]

lol, a "good" night's sleep for me is staying in my own bed all night long.  Many nights I move from bed to  couch, and on "bad" nights I move from bed to living room to den to sleep (my tether just makes it to each location).  I take an Ambien nearly every night.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.  I would love to find out what exactly makes it work.  I get between 4-6 hours sleep a night, never in one chunk, always broken up.  I think it comes with the kidney failure <sigh>.

[Brightsky69]

I was tossing and turning last night. I woke up around 3am and took a benedril. I think i slept after that and got up around 7:30am.
I think it is the dialysis. I never get the jumpy feeling during the day. And when my cycles are all done I can sleep like a baby. I hardly had a problem before they put me on an extra cycle.

[Restorer]

Actually, right now I wouldn't mind not being able to sleep so much, because I could just be on my computer being productive at night - except that it's so hot! Once the AC's off for the night and my computer equipment has heated up my room, I can only get relief by lying in bed with the fan blowing on me.

I'm going to try a bigger box fan in my window tonight.

[Brightsky69]

Restprer...you've got to get some AC. Whew!

[angellady07]

I have restless leg. My nephrologist prescribed Mirapex and the results have been great. Before I started Mirapex I was lucky to get 3 hours sleep. My body would be exhausted but my legs moved non stop. I'm so grateful that I'm able to sleep now.

[Restorer]

I've got central AC, but we turn it off at night when it gets cooler. The problem is that the rest of the house is cool enough (at least for my mother), but when I set up in my room, connected to the cycler, with the door closed and the computers running, the heat builds up in the room. It's just barely cool enough outside, but I can't get the air circulating well enough. Hence the big box fan.

[Brightsky69]

I see....I'd be lost without AC in the summer. Here in VA it gets really humid.

Angellady...I am gonna ask my neph. about that drug. I am totally fine once they cycles are all done. It might be during the fill that I get all jumpy. Seems like once I am in dwell...no problems with jumpy legs or arms.

[lucyskid18]

Yes that has happened to me, I'm lucky if I get 5hours of sleep, it sucks I try to keep and stay cool, but it just doesn't help as much as it used to so I just have to wait till I get done!!!! Hope yours has gotten better than mine!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[billybags]

Thousends of people all over the world suffer with RLS. Not just kidney patients, it can touch any one. My husband sufferes with this and it has got worse since being on dialysis. Doctors seem to poo poo it, I think because they do not know much about it and basicly not a lot is known about it, something to do with nerve ends,but why does it only happen at night thats what I find funny. I have read that it is inherited, but non of our families have had it. Even when you mention it to our neph nothing is done, and there are  drugs out there that may or may not work. My husband was on the cycler for 7 hours a night and it was a nightmare. He tossed about all night, I had to unravel him in a morning, besides him not sleeping I did'nt, I felt every jurk he made and I felt so sorry for him. We have tried every thing, muscal rub, ice packs, at the moment we are trying a freeze spray. He is on hemo at the moment and he still suffers with it. Last night was the first good nights sleep he has had in ages. If you are getting 5 hours sleep trust me you are doing well. Keep checking the web and find out as much as you can.

[Brightsky69]

Well....last night I slept without Ambien and all the other drugs. Well....I took my usual BP medication but no sleep medication....so far so good. I felt like I slept good. I did have weird dreams.

I kept dreaming about my dog that my ex- husband got in the divorce. That was over 8 years ago. It's a reoccurring dream where she (dog) is neglected out in the back yard. This time she had a full size house as a dog house and she jumped off the 2nd story. But lived. Weird. She just looks so sad alone in the back yard. Makes me miss her...although she would be an old lady now as she was born in 98.

Then I dreamed that my BF was going out to play poker with Pamela Anderson and a bunch of other buddies of his?? weird again!

Maybe I should go back on the sleep drugs??     

[billybags]

Try not to do this, the drugs you have been taking will take a while to get out of your system, may be weeks. My husband tried taking half a sleeping pill and he was waking up after 3 hours with hallucinations, that really scared the sh*t out of me. Some nights will be good, some nights will be crap. Go with the flow.