Fatigue?

[wonko]

Hi All,

I have a general question about fatigue.  I've read that a lot of people suffer from this.  I've had something going on the last week or so, getting stronger, and I'm not sure how to feel about it.  I'm undiagnosed.

I don't feel tired or exhausted in ways I've felt before.  Whatever this is, it's a new beast.  I mean, invisible monster pulling me down, unstoppable force keeping me from even TRYING to do things normally!  When I start to fall asleep, it actually scares me because I feel very weak and tired and wonder if my involuntary functions will keep going.  

This has been blooming for a week or so.  Of course I've been trying to just fight back.  I've been dieting and thought maybe I'm being too strict, so I've been making sure to eat a little more.  I still do exercise, though I've had to cut back a little bit (like from 30 minutes to 20 minutes, but still doing it).  But it keeps creeping further in.

Anyway, I'm going to start Prednisone later this week (after I see my neruo-optha on Thurs).  Will the steroids likely help with this?  And not to mix up this post, but I was also wondering if steroids can help with fibro?  I am tempted to start the steroids now, but I still think it makes sense to let the neuor-optha see me while I'm worse off.

I'm 29 and otherwise healthy, I can't think of why all of the sudden I'd be getting so exhausted?  I've also been in an "episode" of symptoms for about 12 weeks, including paresthesias, double vision, and other stuff I'm too tired to type!

This STINKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Deb61]

The fatigue that goes along with MS is a killer.  I don't know what I'd do without the Provigil.  Have you tried this?  It's expensive if you don't have insurance, however, but it doesn't have the long list of side effects that steroids do.  

Deb

[brandisnif4]

my fatigue has been killing me.  My hubby took my 3 year old to tball practice at 9:30 and I was to friggin tired I crawled in bed and slept till 11.  I swear I could have gone to bed at 7.  laundry sits, dishes sit,I just no longer have the enegery I had before. At 45 I know I am slowing down some, but I've never experienced anything like this before. I has always been super active and now I can't drag my butt to do anything.  I say the closest I have ever come to this feeling is the 22 hours of labor right before the emergency  c-section where we both almosty died!  I slept for almost a week after that ordeeal,then wham 6 weeks later I got struck with this ****!

[MrsPriz]

Oh!  Thank you for differentiating between the fatigue and depression.  I can now officially telll my Neuro that I seem to be experiencing both.  
I am finding myself having to choose what I am expending my energy on - both physical and mental.  I really have no choice in some areas, like work, but when it comes to making the decision to work out or clean the house....  to take the kids to the park or get caught up on laundry...  these get tough.  Thankfully my husband is a great help...  but then the depression enters.  I am just not accostumed to not accomplishing everything I need to.  At least not on such a regular basis.  I was beginning to wonder if I was tired because I was depressed or depressed because I was tired.  I think it swings a little back and forth, but knowing that I want to get these things done and really just don't have the physical energy is helping my mental state quite a bit :)  It's NOT me..  it's the MS and the related meds....  and I refuse to be defined by my MS.  Hmm is that denial speaking?  lol  Who cares..  its making my mental feel better ..  I'll take it!
~Debbi  

[ohwild]

Hi there , the only way I can describe fatigue is that its when my brain wants to do something and my body says no-way im not playing...it can be just plain annoying...like when you hold the phone up to your ear and your arm feels like 2hundred weight so you keep changing hands or you have to prop up arm on chair side etc. The worse kind is when you gotta do something and you cant... drive, hold a conversation while standing anything really .you cant concentrate anymore and thats it..It stopped me from getting to work more than once. managed to get in the car one day but to push down on accelerator was a nightmare, couldnt keep the pressure on pedal, so wobbled back home and lay on bed for all of that day, and all the time i was saying to myself come on get up you will be ok etc
hope this helps hugs
CJ

[wonko]

Thanks so much.  Though I'm not diagnosed, this is a big change in the last week or so and though I hate to admit it, I think it is part of "this" thing going on with me.

Quix, I agree that I don't feel like this is depression.  I desperately want to do things.  Early today I started an outing, but it got so that I could barely lift my arms to drive and just had to head back home.  Glad I tried, and did get out for a bit, but just had to go home.

I just had another strange experience, though this was my own stupidity.  I've been eating a healthful diet and being careful with portions.  I've lost 20 lbs so far!  (A good thing in my case).  Well, so I thought maybe I'd feel less tired if I eased up a bit on my diet, so I overdid my eating today, and also had some chocolate, which I'd not eaten in months.  So, a horrible bellyache resulted!  But somehow, the stomach upset caused all of my other sensory symptoms to go into overdrive!  Does this make any sense?  It was actually a frightening thing!   Luckily as the food I over-did it on is getting digested, I seem to be feeling better.

Has anyone else experienced that feeling sick or maybe an injury can ignite other symptoms?  As  soon as my stomach started to calm, my symptoms returned to their normal state.  

I live with my sig. other, so thankfully I am not alone through this discomfort and confusion, but we are both are concerned about the growing fatigue and severity of my symptoms.  I'm glad I have the prednisone Rx and the neuor-optha this week, cause 3 months of symptoms just has me on my last thread!

Thanks again for all the help!

[Quixotic1]

You might ask your doc to titrate up from 10mg.  That will often give you the sleep you need, and also be enough to augment the pain relief.  If not, once you are used to 10mg, you can move to 20mg and then to 25mg.  It's bad enough to feel crummy without feeling spacey on top.

All in all tho, I'm glad you're finally sleeping.  And I do believe in the need to "catch up."  Not hour for hour, but when I finished my medical training, which is a 3 year exercise in sleep deprivation, I slept abnormally long for at least 4 months.  My firends reported the same thing.

Q

[essdipity]

Yes, only at bedtime, 25 mg.

ess

[Quixotic1]

From my reading ess' description of fatigue meshes more with the usually desribed type of MS fatigue - a debilitating lassitude.

I believe that what I have is the combination of the severe visual/mental fatigue of chronic vertigo, combined with the MS fatigue, augmented by some effects of medication and mad worse because I am so deconditioned by inactivity.

Ess - If you are in your first 2 weeks of amitriptyline, then expect for the spaciness to get better.  Are you only taking it at night?  And at what dose?

Quix

[essdipity]

I'm very glad this thread has started, and went back to re-read the health page on this.

I've had so many different kinds of fatigue that now I'm just plain confused. I know well the fatigue of chronic insomnia and how it affects one's mental well-being. I also have a lot of experience in overdoing things and being subsequently whacked by pain and tiredness to the point where it's hard to move.

Now I'm going through something else. A couple of weeks ago I was prescribed a hefty dose of Lyrica for pain. No build-up in dosage. For 2 days I was so out of it I was spacey, but I slept and slept. How wonderful for an insomniac who is also exhausted for other reasons. After that my system seemed to get more used to the Lyrica (which, by the way, is helping with pain), and my sleep remained quite good. What a blessing. Lyrica is not supposed to be a sleep med, however.

Now my sleep doc has also prescribed a small dose of amitryptaline. I need that to stop taking either Ambien or Lunesta. That in combination with the Lyrica does a much better job with the pain, but I'm spacey again. Yesterday morning, after doing the usual routine for a couple of hours, I was about to get in the shower when I glanced at my bed. Then it was all over. I slept for another 4 hours.

In some ways this is great. I feel as if I need to sleep for years to make up for things, but I also want to get stuff done that is just too much to do right now. Not the crushing exhaustion Quix describes, but more like a very debilitating lassitude. I'm not sleepy all the time, but if I get into bed I'll sleep way more than usual. Talk about good news/bad news.

I'm not at all sure that it's just the meds doing this. It feels more like my body is demanding rest and more rest almost like after a serious surgery. You have a reasonable amount of energy, then boom, it's gone, you're wiped out.

Any comments gratefully received. Am I going from one extreme to another because it's MS at work?

ess

[Quixotic1]

Welcome to the party, sweetie!  Although, it is a very boring party.

The fatigue of MS really can vary from minimal to bone-crushing.  Make sure you read the Health Page on MS Fatigue.  There can be so many types of fatigue operating in this and some other neurological disease.

What you describe is what I have.  It is an overwhelming beast that puts me down and it even feels like resting is too much work.  I distinguish it from the fatigue of depression (in me) as I realize that there really ARE a whole bunch of things I want to do.  I might even stand up to go do one of them, only to lie back in my recliner defeated.  In depression, I lose the desire to do the things I usually enjoy.  With the MS fatigue, I can't do them even though I desperately want or NEED too.  I have let financial deadlines come and pass because of the effort involved to take care of them.

Now, my last 1-day steroid infusion gave me two days of wonderful energy, and I was better the rest of the week.  It can also cause agitation and insomnia resulting in a cleaner house.  Personally, I ignore the house and post on the forum.

Provigil is frequently used to combat the fatigue of MS, and CFS and Fibro.  It is a miracle for me but only in that I can do three things a day instead of my usual one.  Other meds used are Amantidine, Adderall, Ritalin, and many alternative docs use the combo of Acetyl-l-carnitine and Alpha Lipoic Acid.

Of course, a bit of exercise every other day will give you some oomph, but when I'm at my worst, that's like asking me to climb a K5 peak.  Conserve your energy.  Make the walking you do at home or work count for as much as possible.  Do what you need to do when you have the best energy - like right after a sleep.  As far as we know, no one has actually died from this fatigue, although it is possible that some people have slowed down so much that they were carted off as unnecessary ornaments.  I always said that if I slow down any more they will have to reclassify me as a statue.

Stay as cool as possible!

Quix

[wonko]

d'uh
I'm not even sure I asked my question:  Does this sound like fatigue?  Or could this be depression or something else?  Any ideas how to fight back?

Also if ppl know  if steroids  help with this sort of thing, and if they help with fibro (with which I am not diagnosed but its been mentioned since my tests look mostly good).

Thanks!