Is this an exacerbation?

I am currently undiagnosed with anything, but symptoms point to MS according to my neuro.  Starting yesterday evening I started experiencing a dull pain in the base of my skull that goes all the way down my spine.  My other symptoms were eventually a headache, soreness and achyness all over my body, and being extremelly cold, although to the touch only one side of body feels cold.  All I could do is lie as straight as possible on the couch and not move.  I actually don't mind that part since I am sooooo tired.  I didn't even want to talk because it hurts to close my jaw.  Last time this happenned it lasted a little over 48 hours.  When I woke up this morning I thought that I felt a little better, but after about 30 minutes of moving around I feel back the same as I did.  It has been about 22 hours now and it doesn't seem to be getting better.  For those who have read my posts before, I am pregnant and I had been taking advantage of feeling better, but now that I am in the 2nd trimester and the hormone levels have leveled off I have slowly been seeing symptoms come back.  So if anyone can tell me does this sound like an exacerbation?  My neuro wanted to know if I had one and I don't want to sound stupid if this isn't one.  

[sllowe]

Hi there,

Well, my Neuro told me that an exacerbation has to be a minimum of 24 hrs.  So anything under that time frame would not count.  Yours has met the timeframe for sure, but not so sure if it is one symptom wise.  Since symptoms are so varied, I cannot say if this is an attack of sorts or not.  

It's so hard.  Especially when they ask you that question, ". . .have you had any. . ."  I always find it hard to answer.  So, what I do is just describe what happend, and how long it lasted.  If it resolved, or if it minimized, etc.  That way, they can decide and fill you in.

2nd trimester huh? You must be in the beginning stages of all sorts of new things. I hope those parts loosen up and relax a bit for you.  Being very sleepy is so very common at this point in your 9 months. Go w/it if you can.

Are these new symptoms, or just the old ones returning? That may be important for the Dr to know about too.

ttys,
Shelly

[mrsturbo]

Yeah I am used to the normal pregnancy tiredness, this is my 4th in 5 years.  The exhaustion I am experiencing now is related mto whatever this is going on, exacerbation or not.  These are the same old symptoms returning.  Stilll not anywhere as bad as before, but still life interupting.  I am a stay at home mom with all 3, so no energy and hurting interupts EVERYTHING!

[Quixotic1]

Hi, I can't comment on pregnancy, but you can and clearly this is not a pregnancy thing.  In the contex of MS, this qualifies by its duration and being a "return of old symptoms" which is part of the defintion of an MS relapse.   However, the allover achiness and soreness does not sound typical of MS.  I hope others with confirmed MS who have had this kind of symptoms will speak up.  I'm not aware of "flu'like" symptoms being a part of MS.

But, that really is not the issue here.  Your neuro asked you to call or notify him if you had a relapse.  From your description it definitely is a "return of old symptoms" so absolutely you should notify him.  Never, ever feel stupid reporting things that are not normal to your doctor.  If your doctor makes you feel stupid then either tell him off (I know, that's difficult) or find one that doesn't put you down.  It sound, though, like your doc wanted to know if things got bad again.  Let him know.

I hope this is over quickly.

Quix

[mrsturbo]

Okay.  Woke up this morning and felt alot better, not 100% better, but I was happy.  Went to church and at about 10:45 all the symptoms were back.  My Tylenol wore off about then, but this seems rediculous.  Now I am back to having a little relief for about 3 hours and then I need more pain relief.  The Tylenol doesn't take away even 25% of the pain but it takes the edge off.  My question is would MS do this, come and go throughout the day.  Now I just HURT and want answers!  I'll take anything you got.