If you have never experienced the torture of Restless Leg Syndrome, I pray you never do. The most accurate way for me to describe it is to imagine every time you were just ready to doze off to sleep, a sudden, hot, burning, electrical shock suddenly shot through your foot or the side of your leg, sometimes jolting you right out of bed. Some nights, this can continue several times and for several hours. I might mention, this is no picnic for a husband or partner trying to sleep in that same bed.
Often, the best solution in saving one of us a good night’s sleep is to leave the bedroom and find another place to make these attempts, be it a recliner or a guest room.
After trying many prescriptive drugs, I thought I had found the perfect mix. It lasted a couple of glorious weeks and then were no longer effective. I was so disappointed and decided to see a neurologist. He was wonderful and tweaked what I was already taking, and it seemed to work. I was waking up feeling rested as opposed to over-medicated, and again, holding my breath that it would last.
I began to notice that my eyes were beginning to feel cloudy and blurry, especially when I first woke up. I even tried rinsing them with saline to no avail. However, the blurriness would clear up later in the day.
Then, last week, I had an early appointment and as I was driving, I kept blinking trying to clear my blurry vision. I even washed my windshield and my glasses, which didn’t help at all. I was becoming more concerned as I drove. I never had blurry vision in my life!
My peripheral vision wasn’t comfortably clear, either. I stopped for a red light, but when I saw green through the blur, I accelerated and suddenly saw a white SUV heading straight at me, head-on. I saw the woman’s face, and she was braking but frightened. I waved a desperate apology to her when I realized I mistakenly saw the green arrow for a left turn and headed into the intersection.
I was so shaken and I know she was, as well. We all know that feeling! I was thanking God for saving both this innocent woman and me and God knows who else could have been involved or injured.
After my appointment, I stopped for Visine Allergy drops. They helped quite a bit and I made it home safely and ran to my computer. The first side-effect of this new medication was BLURRY VISION! I would think a conversation with the doctor about this would have been in order. I stared at this, stunned and disbelieved.
This is not typical of me. I read every piece of information about every medication and even the vitamins I take. This was so close to the previous medication, I had sloughed it off. And it was working! I was sleeping through the night, actually able to remain in the same bed as my husband all night. I was thrilled! However, I had never encountered any drug that affected my vision, like this. Never! Needless to say, I never took another one.
I may return to spending many nights in a recliner or on the sofa, so I don’t disturb my husband, but I will never put anyone or myself at risk again by taking a medication with these gross side effects. Any new medication will be scrutinized by me to insure there are none.
How is it, we can send men to the moon but haven’t figured out how to develop a safe drug that allows people to sleep?
Top photo: Bigstock
