Restless Legs Syndrome is a crappy ailment. Ted has been living with it most of his adult life, but since his multiple strokes in 2017, RLS has gotten worse. We've become very good researchers and are following RLS specialists from various US hospitals, Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins, Stanford. We've made changes to diet because there are known triggers: caffeine, MSG, etc. He's had 3 iron infusions in the past year. RLS researchers have found that folks with this disease need much more ferritin in their brains than the average non-RLS person. He's been prescribed various sleep medications. We belong to a British RLS forum where other sufferers share research and personal experiences with the disease. It's one of those diseases that there is no known cause and no known cure.
So, he has his good days when he gets 4 to 5 hours' sleep and bad days when he gets none. His legs need to keep moving. We are learning to go with the flow. On bad days, sitting in a chair half asleep most of the day is the only option. On good days, he can get downright creative. Like yesterday. We were hoping to celebrate birthdays with our adventure buddies by going to the Owl Woods on Amherst Island today. In anticipation of having a tailgate lunch, Ted's mind started churning. He knew that our adventure buddy, Ruth can get very cold very quickly. She's a tiny lady. We were going to bring our lawn chairs and enjoy an outdoor meal on the island. Ted, being the problem solver fabricated a "chair" to keep Ruth's bum warm. What do you think? Think she'll like it?
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