My Augmentation Experience

In all my decades of having restless legs syndrome (RLS), I have never fully experienced augmentation until about 2 years ago. I have had meds that kind of worked and then not work which looking back now, I feel was just a placebo effect type situation.

Seeing a new doctor

For those who have followed my articles, you know I started seeing a new general practitioner (GP) some months ago and we’ve been exploring the connection between my chronic asthma and my RLS.

He recently decided to place me back on ropinirole. Yes, back!

My heart skipped a bit and my palms got sweaty. I became really anxious. I’ve been down this road and it wasn’t pretty!

My augmentation back story

After trying so many treatments and medications, my former GP decided it was time to try ropinirole. I was so excited because I’d heard such good things. He had been hesitant to put me on it for the longest time because I was and still am very prone to nausea so he felt it might worsen my nausea and bring on an onslaught of other things that might make my health take a turn for the worse.

His concern was very valid but I was really willing to risk it because my RLS was getting worse by the day and basically inhibiting me from doing my day-to-day activities but I had to agree to stop immediately if I started experiencing any side effects.

After 10 minutes of trying to extract a promise to stop should I start experiencing any side effects later, I was on my way to the pharmacy with my prescription.

My first week on ropinirole

The first week was really tough, I experienced the worse kind of nausea like I was in my first trimester of pregnancy, and sometimes, I would throw up really badly. Other times, I shook uncontrollably and developed a fever at some point.

I was supposed to stop immediately or at least let my doctor know what was going on but I was determined to stick it out rather than inform my doctor. Very poor decision on my part, but you see, even though all of the above was happening, my legs felt the best they had ever! Eventually, the side effect passed and I was living my best life. Alas, it was not meant to be.

3 months later...

Three months in, I woke up in the middle of the night to my legs jerking. Something that had never happened to me. My heart sank and I felt trepidation. I brushed it off as a 1-time thing but oh no! It was about to get worse.

Every single day my symptoms slowly started coming back with other new symptoms like the leg jerking. Even the side effects from the medication were back with a vengeance. I couldn’t sleep, I couldn't eat, I couldn’t concentrate, I couldn’t do anything. I felt like I was slowly losing my mind.

After about a week of feeling this way, I had the idea of maybe increasing my dosage. I played with this idea in my head for some time and came really close a few times but I’ve never been someone who took more medication than necessary. I’ve never wanted to be reliant on medication because I’ve seen firsthand how that can quickly turn to drug abuse and subsequently drug addiction.

It was time to pay my doctor a visit. He was surprised. He had never seen augmentation set in so quickly and in someone so young! He opted to up my dosage but I was not having it. We decided it was best to stop altogether and start me on a non-dopaminergic drug.

Present day

My new doctor thinks it may be a good idea to reintroduce ropinirole into my system. I’m really terrified. We are still going back and forth about it. He is of the opinion that if he monitors me closely and keeps on top of any symptoms that come up, this just might work. Or not.