In the interest of helping my friends and family understand some of what living with MS is like, I'm going to be honest in explaining the symptoms and how they affect me. My apologies if this is TMI (too much information), but I'm letting you know what's in store so you can opt out now :)
Visual Disturbances (blurred vision, color distortions, loss of vision in one eye, eye pain)
I feel fortunate that I haven't had many issues with my vision, other than my initial diagnosis. In my first or second exaberation (the ones that helped to diagnose me), I had something called nystagmus:
Nystagmus most commonly causes the eyes to look involuntarily from side to side in a rapid swinging motion rather that staying fixed on an an object of person. Some nystagmuses, however, cause the eyes to jerk sideways or up and down.
Acquired nystagmus can be caused by a disease (multiple sclerosis, brain tumor, diabetic neuropathy), and accident (head injury), or a neurological problem (side effect of a medication).
http://www.allaboutvision.com/conditions/nystagmus.htm#ixzz1GiKvIAZn
I have had some other issues, but they have been infrequent. At one point, around the time of a relapse, I was having some symptoms where I was seeing wavy lines in front of one of my eyes. In a way, it looked kind of like a static-y tv set. The episode was brief and has only happened one other time.
Limb weakness, loss of coordination and balance
Usually, when my walking starts to be affected, I'm about to head into a relapse. I start to limp, caused by my right hip buckling. This is actually the main symptom that spurred my first visit to the neurologist. It was strange...I almost felt like I was walking that way intentionally...I can't really explain it. I knew that I couldn't help my distorted gait...perhaps I felt this way because it didn't feel like it was my leg. It kind of felt dettached from my body. For the past two years, my feet have been numb so I have become more familiar with the feeling when my leg starts to get 'wonky' and it doesn't feel quite so much like it's someone else's leg.
As for loss of coordination, I'm not sure that I lost any coordination, or it just got worse. I am constantly misjudging doorways and thinking that either I'm thinner than I am, or that the doorframe is wider than it is. I find bruises on my arms and legs from where I have cut a corner too sharply, resulting in running into a doorjamb, catching my thigh on the corner of a desk, etc. I used to be more concerned when I coudn't place how I'd gotten bruised. However, that is another symptom that I've grown used to as well.
In a previous post, I mentioned the different tests that make up a neurological exam. One of those tests is for Romberg's sign. This is tested by having the patient stand with feet together and then closing their eyes. The person doing the testing acts as a spotter, don't worry. I fail this one every time. A passing test would involve standing with feet together, eyes closed, and no swaying. A failing test results in swaying from left to right or, in my case, more like 'TIMBER' with a tree. To the right...every time.
Muscle spasms, fatigue, numbness, prickling pain
My experience with muscle spasms, or spasticity, has been minimal. There are some people who experience spasticity every day. In the past, I would wake up in middle of the night with major cramps in my calves. It would feel like the calf muscle had snapped and rolled up. My wonderful husband, Jamie, would massage my calves when ever this happened. Fortunately, I haven't had this problem for a while.
Another symptom that I had that was similar to spasticity was called tonic spasms.
One of the most common symptoms occurring in MS is neuro-muscular spasm. This troublesome symptom may be of two types, etiher tonic or clonic spasm.
Tonic spasm is when the resting muscle tone is abnormally increased. This is often simply apparent as stiffness, when the limb appears rigid and difficult to move despite the absence of absolute paralysis.
Clonic spasm: this is perhaps the most distressing of the two forms as the affected limb or muscle may jerk violently without warning, causing the individual to lose balance and perhaps fall.
I was at work one day at my desk, when suddenly the right side of my body went stiff and I couldn't move for a bit, probably about 30 seconds to a minute. My face contorted and my leg went stiff. This happened again when I was walking and I almost fell. I told my doctor about this, and I was told that this was called a tonic spasm and I was prescribed Tegratol, a medication usually used to treat epilepsy.
Fatigue is symptom that I deal with every day. I have a prescription for Provigil, more commonly used with ADHD. It also works to keep me awake during the day. I've found that if I forget to take my pill, or I've run out of my medication, I can't make it through work past noon. On those days that I have needed to leave, I've gone home and taken a 4 hour nap. Oddly enough, I take Ambien every night to help me sleep. It would seem that if I stopped taking both medications that I would be able to sleep at night and stay awake during the day. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way.
Numbness has become a part of my daily life. My feet have been numb for the past two years, to the point of my not feeling comfortable driving. At times, I am so used to the feeling, or lack there of, that I forget that I can't feel my feet.
The prickling pain is called neuropathy. In a way, it's a combination of numbness and pain to the touch. That doesn't sound like it makes sense, but it's sort of like the feeling when your feet are asleep and they are waking up. There is a point at which your feet feel numb and painful at the same time.
So far, I've only accounted for about half of the symptoms that I listed in the previous post. I will continue to describe the symptoms and how I'm affected by them in my next post.
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