Saw the sleep specialist again yesterday. He scolded me for using sleep meds in the last two weeks, and was very unhappy I’d misspelled his name in an email (autocorrect, but who cares). He also adjusted the projected timeline for finding a workable approach for the RLS to “end of year.” I cried.
He prescribed me new meds for it, and I’m supposed to get tested for a potential medication allergy because of my reaction to the recent meds (side note: I have no idea where and how to get that done, regular allergy specialists don’t do that) and see him again in 10 days.
Took the meds for the first time last night, neutral impressions so far. This morning, I followed a discussion in the RLS subreddit to the treatment guidelines and, a few threads pulled later, learned that these meds lead to “food, shopping, gambling, sex” excesses or addiction in almost 13% of patients, and that doctors are required to inform patients about this before prescribing them. Mine did not. Oh and, there’s a risk with these dopamine agonists that over time symptoms worsen regardless which can become, in scientific terms, a shit show.
Am I annoyed about it? 100%.
Would I like to yell, complain, or at least calmly provide feedback about how that sucked? Also yes.
Will I do any of that? 100% no.