Has anyone else experienced both RLS and SD? Anyone else taking Ropinirole? Does anyone know of research related to S.D. and R.L.S. (or myoclonus: frequent or involuntary muscle spasms)? Any research showing that Ropinirole might also help S.D.?

Thanks and greetings from COLD Colorado.

Spasmodic Dysphonia and Restless Leg Syndrome are both *Movement Disorders,* thus are related in the same "disorder/disease" (neurological) family. Check out "www.wemove.org" if you haven't already.

I feel for you on the "high heels" also. Sounds like the 70's and 80's! I wore a business suit and 3-4" heels 12-14 hours a day each day for many years (even walking back and forth on San Francisco streets, from the commuter van parked a mile away) until I developed a huge, painful tissue cyst on my right shin and started chiropractic in 1982, when the medical doctors could not figure it out. My whole family thought I was dying of undiagnosed bone cancer. (BTW...the same incompetent medical doctors who couldn't dx my SD ten years later!). Turned out my ligaments had been ripped off my shin bone, due to the high heels. I can see how something like what you and I have been through (years of physical trauma to our legs) could result in RLS.

Good luck on this, Sherry. Have you located a support group for RLS? If not, please check out this website and also join us some Tuesday at 7pm your time, on the WeMove Chat for SD'ers.

Take care......snow there?

It is COLD and snowy here...:-(

Sorry about the cold and snow, unless you really like it. I used to years ago when I skiied in the Sierras every week-end but not now.

Re cold and snow, make sure you and others write us between November 7th and 10th, when the computer should be set up at the Sheraton Biscayne Bay in Miami (at the patient Worldwide Dystonia Symposium). It will not be cold and snowy there! ;-).

One of the reasons they set the computer up there is to train patients on how to use available online resources, such as the Spasmodic Dysphonia and Dystonia Bulletin Boards. There may be several folks on, during that time, who are new to the online world so I hope all the experienced folks on this BB will write them back and welcome them, so they know they are part of the BB community. We can give you a Florida weather report also!

Thanks Sherry...and good luck.

My gut instinct, however, tells me that when I was in a head-on car crash and got the big "airbag whack", six years ago, I had a significant closed head injury....and my body rewired things incorrectly, as I began healing. I have had five concussions, total, since I was a kid... a history of familial neurological disorders....and asthma since childhood. I just think of myself as "very special" and probably fit the high risk taker profile...lucky to be still alive! :-)

Last year I turned 50 and celebrated by ski-diving for the first time. What fun. I'm amazingly functional, and refuse to let anything keep me from doing the things I want to do... unless my handicaps cause me too much pain(like dancing in high heels and then going home to a night of terrible leg/foot/toe spasms). Interestingly enough, I already feel like the medication changes are helping... but need a good six weeks to know for sure. The voice is in full Botox effect right now and muscle spasms in the rest of my body seem better. I am experiencing some headaches and lack of appetite(to be expected)during these powerful chemicals that are being altered and added. The neurologist ordered a very complete blood tests of all kinds of things... and so far all functions have come back normal...so that is good! Overall, I feel "more normal" than I have in many years.