As for who I am, my husband and I are musical performers under the name "Mallory & McCall" and the "Skeleton Crew Pirate Band."  We also perform as Queen Victoria and her Equerry, Calamity and Baratone Bill, Civil War Balladeers, Irish Pub Singers, Renassance Faires, turn of the 20th Century songsters and lots of other characters (see some of them on MalloryandMcCall.com). Health issues like the one below have sidelined us for now, but hopefully we can get back to it as we love the work.

But I am here to address:

An Ignored problem

No one--even many doctors--seems to take "restless leg syndrome" seriously, I suspect because of the rather flippant sounding name.  Apparently it is genetic (my mother and grand mother suffered severely from it) and gets worse as one ages.  My sleep is seriously disrupted--when I am sleepy, my legs will cramp up, leaving me wide awake and thrashing about trying to get relief.  Sitting up or walking on a hard floor helps, but doesn't provide much needed rest.  It often wakes me during the night. I have tried Requip without luck.  When an attack comes, I take Norco, wait an hour, and then, hopefully, my muscles will relax.  Unfortunately, when the drug wears off, my cramping wakes me.  I am 72 years old, but have had "restless leg syndrome" for most of my life.  It is more common than people realise, and rarely taken seriously.  Even our doctor suffers from it!  BTW there is nothing in my blood work showing that I am low on any vitamin or minerals.  Can you help?  Maybe if geneticists were to locate the gene, many like me would be spared this terrible condition.