Restless Legs
In her later years, my mother suffered from a maddening case of Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS). As it turns out, it is hereditary. Both my brother and I have it in lesser degrees. Or so I thought. We rarely talk about it, so I wasn’t aware of his symptoms until very recently.
My symptoms can disappear for years…and then suddenly reappear, always at night, when I’m trying to drift to sleep. At first just one of my feet starts moving, as if by its own volition. I usually try to still it by changing positions, deep breathing, mentally willing it to stop…usually to no avail. In the end, I walk the halls, settle on a couch and massage it, or — if all else fails — take a warm bath and promise myself not to eat sugar or drink caffeine after 3PM.
This weekend, my brother told me that he’s rarely aware of his RLS, because it begins after he’s fallen asleep. His wife, on the other hand, is very aware. She tells him that his legs scissor back and forth throughout the night, or at least when the thrashing wakes her up. Hence his issues are also marital.
Because my brother is a doctor, he turned to pharmaceuticals to resolve the problem. Specifically pramipexole, which is very effective at controlling RLS, as my brother reported to me. He’d taken it for months.
Once a week, my brother treats patients at a neighboring town about 40 minutes from his home. Last Wednesday, he finished dictating his notes at 4:35PM and headed home. He awoke 60 miles away at a hospital, with a concussion and a broken arm, and no recollection of how he got there, or what happened. He learned that he had fallen asleep, but that his BMW had driven across four lanes of traffic and into the side of a farmer’s house.
It’s a miracle that he survived…without collision, death, or other serious injuries. After he called to tell me, I looked up pramipexole and found this:
You should know that pramipexole may make you drowsy or may cause you to fall asleep during your regular activities. You might not feel drowsy before you suddenly fall asleep.
