Medrol dose pack

[floridamom2]

Has anyone who has symptoms of vibrations and tremors tried a Medrol dose pack or any other steroids with any relief?  I feel like I am gonna jump out of my skin and am looking for anything that I might do to help these sensations.  They are mainly in my legs but my whole body is extremely sensitive to touch and temperature.    

[MRIC1]

An MRI of just the brain will not r/o MS. A MRI of the cervical and thoracic spine will need to be completed to see if there are any plaques on the spinal cord. The use of MRI contrast will show the active plaques.

Did you have a spinal tap yet?

[floridamom2]

I love your name!!!!  I hope to be one too someday!

I totally identify with the nervous energy feeling.  I also started the dose pack Saturday.  It has not really helped much if at all with these feelings for me but did give me a bit more energy and I have been pushing myself a bit due to that.  I feel like I have to get as much done as I possibly can because you never know what tomorrow brings.  I have no dx yet so these meds are not an option for me yet.  Good luck and I hope you find one that works to stop or slow the progression of this disease!!

Kristin

[grannyhotwheels]

My doctor just prescribed me the medrol pack.  I started it Saturday.  I feel the same way, like jumping out of my skin.  I do have more energy but it's a nervous energy.  My doctor told me that this could help her in determining which MS medication would be best for me to start taking.  She thinks that it's between the Avonex and the Rebif.  I'm not sure how this will her in deciding this.  Any ideas?

Thanks

Grannyhotwheels  (Carol)

[floridamom2]

Hi again!  

Yes, I am exhausted and have been since mid May when Sx started.  I am learning to do small tasks and then rest for 20 minutes then I can repeat.  Being hyper makes it hard for me to just relax and has always been something I have struggled with but now my body will not allow activity for longer than 30-40 minutes before I get an overwhelming need to lay down.  

My neuro is - I don't feel - taking me seriously and so I asked if the dose pack would help with my Sx.  It seams to me that due to the negative MRI's she has made up her mind that this is not MS and she told me "MS is extremely unlikely due to these tests".  I am an LPN so I know for the most part how the game is played and I have not mentioned what I feel it is, MS, because then they will just say I am a Hyper Gama Chondriac!!  I would be thrilled if it was not but right now my money is on yes.

I had a 3.0 T MRI of brain without contrast and it was negative and the MRI tech said that she did not understand why it was ordered without contrast.  Would the contrast show something that the one without contrast would not in the 3.0 machine?

Since the heat issue yesterday I have been having more muscle twitches in my legs but that is about it.  I have had numbness in my right leg, and right arm pretty consistently.  The perineum was at the beginning of all this and it lasted about a week.  I do now have occasional numbness there but not as noticeable with the decreased activity if you know what I mean!!   Ha Ha!  

I would love to join the Greek house and I too am a Ben Stiller fan, hee hee!!  

Again, thanks for all your help, I appreciate someone taking me seriously!  

Kristin

[Quixotic1]

I meant the Medrol "might" energize you.  Proofreading - not over-rated.

I just read on another thread (see - you can't hide anything from me, lol) that you have had numbness in the perineum.  That's important!  Was it a pressure thing too?  Or, did it come and persist a while?

Can you think of any other things that you dismissed at the time, but that could be neurological in nature?

Quix

[Quixotic1]

I didn't know your neuro had presribed the Dose-Pac.  By all means take it as he suggested.  (Somehow, I thought you had come up with the idea in desperation from feeling bad, I'm sorry).  It make energize you some as a natural side effect.  You will likely feel better while on it.  If it has a lingering effect, then he has a direction to go.  Yes, definitely take it!  

Interesting reaction to the heat...If there are any places where the paresthesias are really persistent, you might ask your neuro to run some Nerve Conduction Studies.  Has an unusual level of fatigue been a part of all this?  Since the heat episode yesterday, any lingering effects?

Hyper, Type A, and Energizer Bunny syndrome, while sometimes amusing and entertaining, do not define anxiety.  And capable people under stress, even huge stress, don't necessarily turn it all into physical symptoms.

I'm glad my response lifted you spirits, but I didn't offer anything to help yet.  Stick around, join the Greek House.  We're having a party later.

Quix

[floridamom2]

Thanks so much for your response!  I have been feeling very sorry for myself this week and it has totally made my weekend.  

To answer your questions,  I am 37 years old and have been on Zoloft 50mg since my first son was 9 months old.  I had post partum but it basically turned into clinical depression and I have tried stopping it about 4 times since I started and within 2-3 months was extremely depressed and nonfunctional.  This dose is perfect for me and I never have trouble w/ depression or anxiety on it.  

Right now the symptoms are everywhere - vibrations that keep me up at night, tremors and shakiness, blurry vision, and yes my legs are "jelly" like more than weak.  My speech is also affected when the shakiness is at it's worst (slurring and inability to get it out!)

Yesterday I had to do a walk through with a customer at work and we were in and out of a/c (it is 95 degrees here) and walking for two hours.  By the time I was finished, I could barely make it back to my car I was shaking so bad and evrerything felt weak.  I had to come home and lay down for an hour before I felt like I had the energy to get up.  

This is not me.  I am hyper and have been told I am the "energizer buinny" because I can keep going and going.  I have done a marathon and until recently held two jobs along with maintaining my household with two kids, 3 dogs, and a husband who broke his back last year and was in ICU for 10 days (that was stress!!) without any troubles.  My hubby has been extremely supportive and is helping me alot.

My neuro had me do blood tests this week to r/o some of the inflammatory diseases before prescribing the Medrol dose pack.  I am supposed to start it today,  should I?

Thanks so much for helping me!!!!!!!  

[Quixotic1]

Ooops!  I'm going to surgically rmove my ENTER key!

A medrol dose-pack would likely not have enough punch to effectively calm or relieve damaged nerves.  Only the first 3 days give you any real antiinflammatory dose and it is nowhere near the dose used in an MS pulse.  First day of a dose-pac is 24mg, MS pulse is 1000mg IV.

It also would not like cause any harm, but I don't recommend it.

I never answered your initial post 2 days ago.  I am very sorry.

It sounds like you have mainly paresthesias - vibrational, burning, tingling, hypersensitive.  It started in your legs.  Has it spread to your arms and body since then?

You described something as feeling weak.  But it sounds like it wasn't truly weak.   Is that right?  did it feel kind of "jelly" like - like after you've worked out?

Personally, I don' think these sound like depression symptoms.  Is your depression very active right now (if you can separate it from feeling lousy)?  Are you typically anxious?

RLS (better named Restless LIMB Syndrome, becasue it can affect all limbs)
is a possibility.  I want to note that RLS is seen more often in MS than in the general population.  My MS neuro, when he was looking over the notes of my "evil" neuro, noted that my episodes of RLS had been overlooked, and were,yet, another symptom of my undiagnosed MS.

Back to you.  How old are you? What anti-depressant are you on?  Any med changes recently?  

Quix