Restless Legs Syndrome

Just a phrase in my medical word expander. Until a couple of years ago when my mom started complaining about her legs feeling “fidgety” and making it difficult for her to fall asleep. Now it’s all the rage on the television commercials. There’s all kinds of FDA-approved *new* medicines on the market. So far, none of them have worked for her. Randy, a friend from church, bought some kind of oil that he swears did the trick for him. My mom got her some of the stuff. “Snake oil”, she calls it. So far that hasn’t helped either. Sometimes she will fidget for hours before finally falling asleep.

You know that thing they say about the apple never falling far from the tree? Well, thanks a lot mom- I think I have inherited your RLS. It’s not enough that I have inherited your forgetfulness, now this! (Why couldn’t I have inherited your good DNA, like cooking!) Yesterday at the office was wild and crazy. I was pooped when I got home. Last night's hospital work was boring. What I really wanted to be doing was watching the finale to The Bachelorette. But no, I typed and typed until the skin fell off my fingers. Finally went to bed, only to toss and turn, wiggle and squirm. Jimmy Kimmel was a rerun- the NBA finals are painfully boring enough to hear about the first time around. What person could possibly want to hear it again? Once the tv was off and it was quiet and dark in my room, I could still hear something rustling every time my legs moved. …Sigh… it was that darn plastic Wal Mart bag, buried somewhere beneath the clean, unfolded laundry that was piled on my bed. After I dug around and found the offending noisemaker, (with the incidental finding of my tv remote, a book I had been looking for, and various and sundry other items- kind of like looking under the cushions on the sofa), I settled back under the covers hoping for a visit from the sand man. Sometime long after the time when a hard-workin’ girl should be asleep, he finally visited me, and I was able to rest. Is this what I have to look forward to? Hey, if my legs are constantly twitching and fidgeting, do you think they will get skinny? You know, like exercise? Surely it’s gotta burn some calories!! I’ll let you know if my pants start getting too big.