Soap for RLS

Written by Amanda Stout.. I think this is the original: https://www.simplemost.com/bizarre-reason-people-sleeping-bar-soap-sheets/

i never tried this, but I think it’ll try it next time my rls flares up.

The Bizarre Reason People Are Sleeping With A Bar Of Soap Under Their Sheets

It sounds wacky, but you might want to give it a try!

When I was pregnant with my daughter, I’d often awaken in the middle of the night with terrible leg cramps. I was already low on sleep, so these painful wake-up calls really got to me. That is, until my mother-in-law suggested I try putting a bar of Ivory soap under my fitted sheet.

I approached this suggestion with a healthy amount of skepticism, but as for everything else while pregnant, I did some research. What I found was post after post from people with restless leg syndrome (RLS) or leg cramps singing the praises of soap under their bed sheets.

According to a Twitter poll conducted by the TV show “The Doctors,” 42 percent of respondents found relief using the soap remedy. All evidence of using soap to relieve leg cramps is anecdotal and not backed by scientific research, but it is cheap and drug-free, so I decided to give it a try.

And guess what? It worked, I never had another leg cramp!

Reasons Why Soap May Help Prevent Leg Cramps

So, why do people think soap works? Like many home remedies, there are lots of theories about what to use and why it’s effective.

• There’s no consensus on what type of soap is best. Some have said Dial and Dove don’t work, but others swear by it. For RLS, Dr. Mehmet Oz suggests the use of lavender soap or other soaps with natural essential oils for the potential calming effect. Others use Ivory or Irish Spring.
• Some believe that the soap must emit something into the air that relieves the cramps. Many advise placing the soap under the sheet near the area where cramping is an issue and changing the soap out every three months or so to make sure it’s fresh.
• Soap can contain magnesium, so another theory is that it may help with leg cramps caused by magnesium deficiency.
• Still others believe it’s simply a placebo effect.

More Tips For Relieving Leg Cramps

Muscle cramps have many possible causes. According to the Mayo Clinic, these can include: dehydration, mineral depletion (calcium, magnesium, potassium), muscle fatigue, age, pregnancy and other medical conditions. If soap doesn’t work for you or you’d like to try other inexpensive home remedies there are a range of options:

• Stretch calf muscles before and after exercise and before going to bed.
• Drink plenty of water, especially while exercising or being active. Good hydration helps your muscles relax and feel less irritable.
• Take a warm shower before bed to relax muscles.
• Try eating a banana, avocado or other potassium-rich foods.
• Drink pickle juice. The salt, sugar and vinegar may help provide a quick replenishment of minerals lost when sweating.

As with anything, make sure to seek the help of a doctor if you experience extra painful or prolonged issues with leg cramps.

When it’s Not Fibro Pain

Over the years I’ve dealt with a lot of different kinds of pain. I’ve had broken bones, pulled muscles, sprained ankles, torn muscles, chronic Charlie Horses/nasty muscle spasms, concussions & even thrown out my back. Each of those feels different from each other, right? Before a Fibro diagnosis, they are dealt with appropriately.

I’ve also dealt with pain due to endometriosis, irritable bowel syndrome, CFS/ME, fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, regular arthritis, kidney stones, gallstones… And each of those feels different from each other. I can even differentiate between IBS pain & Endo on my bowel pain.

I’ve dealth with all sorts of different types of pain..

But once you hit that one diagnosis, many doctors don’t bother looking past it. This happens way to often for those of us with Fibromyalgia & even ME/CFS.. When you go to the ER or even just to your family doctor with a new pain issue, many of us are spoken down to and even dismissed saying the pain is due to fibromyalgia. The one time I’ve have a pain that I said wasn’t fibromyalgia but it actually was happened when I had chest pain. It was costochondritis & while this is a Fibro issue, it’s understandable the first time or three that I freak out & head to the ER thinking heart attack.

Now, I’m lucky. I have had a great support system & have over recent years learned to be my own advocate without being a bitch about it.. I have not experienced this problem much with fibromyalgia. I did however experience this at the beginning of my medical journey in my 20s.

I kept having abdominal pain.. After being put off by my GP once or twice, him thinking it was just gas, he sent me after a 4 month wait, to a gynecologist. She did an exam & sent me back to my GP telling him to send me to a GI doc.

So, GP sends me to a gastroenterologist.. After a 6 month wait there, I was scheduled for a colonoscopy (that was fun..not) and was determined to have Irritable Bowel Syndrome.. After getting it settled down by diet & medication, I was still having abdominal pain. GI tells my GP to send me back to the gynecologist.

I had another 2 month wait to she her agai,n over a year after my previous appointment. She tells me, “you don’t have endometriosis”, because my symptoms were atypical, despite still being consistent with Endo. She did agree to do an investigative laparoscope to shut me up & “just in case” she was wrong. She Was Wrong. I had Stage 3 Endo across my abdomen. So the investigative laparoscoped turned into a treatment laparoscope where she tried to in size and burn off any visual endometriosis cells. She has to go back in 6 months later to get the remaining endometrial cells higher in my abdomen that she missed the first time because she “didn’t have long my enough tools”.

So I learned early on to be an advocate for myself, with support from friends & family. If you feel your are being dismissed, say so. Cuz yes, your pain *could’ be from your fibromyalgia, but it ‘could’ also be something else.

So, my doctor’s know that if something’s not right, I will stand up and say so, not taking no for an answer.

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Those who know me personally, would probably say to me, yeah, but what about that issue with your shoulder? To be honest, that is still a work in progress. Now that physio is back available, I’ll be asking my GP for a prescription & get that set up. Yes, it started in March, and I’m just getting to treatment now. But remember, alot of things closed here in Canada for quite awhile, so yeah, it’s taking a little longer to get things dealt with in this issue.

He doesn’t get it

Today, or rather the wee hours of the morning of today, he Didn’t get it.

So, we get in from a walk with my puppy, & I do our bedtime routine.. I crawl into bed, and at about 1:30am- 2am … my leggs seize! From hip to the very last muscle at the very bottom on my feet.. Not a charlie horse where it cramps but everything, both leggs, seized up.. Normally it’s just one legg & it’s not hugely nasty like this.. But it was hugely nasty in both limbs.. They’re like charlie horses in that I have to gain control over the muscles however a charlie horse requires a short, but hugely nasty controlled clenching almost like creating a controlled, but more intense spasm then its over. But not with this. It doesn’t need as much force, but it does require a nice chunk of time in the clenched state, significantly more time. Unfortunately that means a longer duration of pain.. But I can handle that.

All I could think was ‘Thank God I am in bed’..

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A little later at about 3am, the dog goes nuts cuz she’s gotta go bathroom.. One of us needs to take her out or she goes in the apartment. But he’s too tired, has “no energy”. Even after I explain what happened, he still expects me to go.. So almost 15 minutes to dress into jammie pants & a tee beside me that I have for when I need to take puppy out at night. And another 45 min to walk from the back-side to the front door. An hour to do a 5 minute potty break.

You’d think knowing how much knowing my pain can impact me.. and the intense fatigue to goes along with it that he’d be more understanding.. So, today I you’d think he’d have more understanding & empathy.. Nope, this time he Don’t get it. *sigh*

What do I do?

For my fibromyalgia, I currently take the following Medications/supplements

• Multi-vitamin – Naturapathy Dr does not recommend Centrum or most pharmacy brand multi’s
• Calcium & Magnesium with vitamin D – Calcium cuz Women with Endo are more susceptible to Osteoporosis. Mg & D to help absorb the Calcium. The Magnesium also to help with muscle spasms & charlie horses. I have found that it has helped.
• Fish oils – Generic fish oils, minimum 1000mg a day .. Well, I try to. Naturapathy Dr recommended 1000mg-3000mg daily of the EPA+DHA to help with mental acuity. I’m still waiting for the fog to lift, but I’m not usually getting enough to impact because I fog up & forget.. Lovely catch 22 there.
• B complex to help with stress and ensure that I get enough B’s. No, I don’t take a stress formula. Just a normal B complex.. either 50mg or 100mg
• Codeine Contin for maintenance pain.
• Tylenol #3 for breakthrough pain
• Oxycodone for severe breakthrough pain
• Flexeril (Cyclobenzaprine) as a muscle relaxer. I find it better than anything OTC..
• Probiotics to help regulate my digestive track – it works, ‘cept when I have an IBS flare or food sensitivity
• NSAID, but it’s for my Endometriosis, so I don’t really know if it does impact my FMS or not.

For my fibromyalgia, I currently participate in the following exercise:

• Aqua-fit, really carefully – I’m just getting back into exercise, so I am trying to get to the gentle classes. My local YMCA gym has a class or arthritics and for osteoporosis. Aqua-fit is a good choice because of the buoyancy of the water, it doesn’t impact my knees, and it’s a gentle cardio
• Seriously, right now that’s it. I need access to a hot tub to do further exercise to keep my body warm.

For my fibromyalgia, I intend to return to the following exercises:

• Yoga with the hot tub – Yoga provides gentle stretching while working on core strength and balance. The hot tub helps to keep muscles relaxed afterward.
• Keeping up with Aqua-fit – see above 🙂
• Walking the track to music with the hot tub – I got into walking when my nieces were born, walking with my sister. After I joined the Y and my nephew was born, I would take him in his stroller to walk him around the track. He’s too old now, but I have found it enjoyable with my MP3 player (or CD player back then). I sometimes dance a little bit and my pace changes with the music I’m listening to. It’s hard to overexert myself. 🙂 The hot tub helps to keep muscles relaxed afterward.

A benefit from the exercise is that I tend to be tired out afterward and relaxed. This makes evening workouts ideal in that I go home, go straight to bed and will sleep well, with a decent amount of healing rest. This improves me, physically, emotionally and mentally for the next day.

For my fibromyalgia. my spiritual side is limited. I don’t go to church often, however I do find solace in my home church’s sanctuary. I’ve moved away from my home church and have yet to try out the sanctuary here. I also find the same ‘state of grace’ from music, especially my churchy music 🙂

For my fibromyalgia, because of my physical limitation, I am limited socially. Most of my social interaction is via the internet on Twitter, Facebook, Email, etc.. The alternative to that in real life is with my SO and his friends. Most of my friends no longer talk to me, or are too far away for more than email. The classes as the Y present a new socialization source, which I hope to be helpful. With the improvement of my health I would like to return to scouting in some sort of part-time or limited capacity.

For my fibromyalgia and my cognitive abilities, I am starting this blog. It will help keep me thinking and requires research. It also provides a creative outlet. I also enjoy doing word searches and have, on recommendation on my therapist, started to colour and have other crafts options available to me.

For my fibromyalgia and an emotional aspect, I have a councilor and have been placed on anti-depressants. While my time with her is limited I do find that I feel better after I speak with her. Additionally I have the support with my SO. While sometimes he can not understand and becomes frustrated, I know he only has best intentions where I am concerned.

How do I cope? Not well. Other than the limited exercise mentioned above, the odd screaming match and the rarer still church visit, I have no real outlets.. Which sucks. Before I got sick, my outlets for frustration and anger and stress were physical. With the fibro, I have lost that. Any suggestions are welcome 🙂