What kind of pain do YOU feel?

[chmagu76]

I was asked a question yesterday about how everyone else feels in here as far as pain in concerned.  My boyfriend is worried about what I'm going through.  Sometimes my body hurts so bad I can barely walk or write or type.  He said I look old when I move and it's sad that I'm going through this at 32 years of age.  Each episode seems to be worse than the last and they go for as long as they want.  Days, weeks or months....I never know.  The description of what I feel would be an underlying all over body ache that changes in severity.  Sharp shooting pains, weird tingling feelings, burning sensations, static like shocks and high intensity throbs that can stop me in my tracks especially when they're in my head.  So.......does anyone go through this?  Do you feel like I do?  (is that a peter frampton song?)  If so, what kind of medication has your Dr. put you on?  PLEASE anyone answer.  I'll be taking this info with me to my Dr. in a week.  I thank you all so much for being so willing to talk about your health issues.  This site really is amazing!  

Thanks and I hope you are all as well as can be,
Christina

[Sailorsong]

I have tried a few alternative methods to control my pain.

One that works fairly good is concentrating on a pain until it goes away. I think this works by doing an overload for the brain so that it shuts off the feeling.  This usually controls my pain for several hours at a time.

Another is to get my endorphiones flowing. Chocolate and shopping does a fairly good job of this. It doesn't control pain as long though.

I am also starting a meditation class to futher help contol pain. I should get the course materials in the mail early next week, so right now I don't know how good it will do.

Dennis

[Udkas]

Hi I am undiagnosed but Dr believes I have TM, will have my results very soon.  I have lots of pain and take Gabapentin for it.  In the past I took Tegretol but find Gabapentin better tolerated and doesn't seem to make me as drowsy.

I get burning sensations, altered sensation, sensitive to touch, like someone has placed a hot iron on your leg.  Usually the same spots, I get twitching of the painless type and then cramp contractions of the painful type.  My pins and needles can become painful and wearing after having them day in and day out.  I also get bolt like random shooting nerve pains.  Pain and altered sensation is my predominent thing, I do have leg weakness and my leg feels like it's heavy and gone to sleep but that is not usually painful, just feels very weird, like it has no strength, like someone has severed the spinal cord, but that sensation scares me!!  I get a banding/burning sensation around my torso as well.  I have also had zaps like I have touched an electric fence running down through my spine.

I also had a bout of trigimal neuralgia and  I was also was treated with tegretol but that was many years ago now..

I have told my neuro every symptom in the hope that it will help him to give me a diagnosis.

Currently I have Gabapentin 3 times a day and it has helped me heaps, doubt if I would cope without it, but hope to try again without it soon.

Cheers,
Udkas

[chmagu76]

First, I want to say 'thank you' to all of you for answering.  I was diagnosed within 18 days of my leg going limp.  After a series of tests, something that was found in my spinal fluid and the numerous lesions that were present I was told I indeed had MS.  pennst8r described a lot of it perfectly with the vibrations and buzzing in my head (scary), twitching (which can also be embarrassing!), shocks, wet spots(i gave up looking to see if I spilled on myself), the eye thing and tingling feelings (annoying).  I get pain all over in multiple and random spots and it can last anywhere from seconds to hours and varies in severity.  On top of this I also have this full on body............tightness or...I feel like if I were to stretch I would snap in half.  That's the best way I can explain it.  It's a very uncomfortable feeling and especially lately it has become extremely! uncomfortable.  When I do stretch I feel some relief but it's over as soon as I stop.  I wish there was a clear cut description of the feelings but there is not.  I read all of your posts and it seems like I can find a little of myself in each of you.  I can't sit for too long.  I can't stand in one place for too long.  It seems as though the cold weather brings out the worst of it.  My hips are very soar and my hands seem to have their own 3 ring circus going on.  Sometimes it feels as though there is not a spot on me that does not hurt and it's because there's so many pain feelings going on at the same time.  I try and explain to my Dr. what it feels like and he said it sounded like nerve pain.  If I did try to give a play by play description I would sound like a auctioneer.  "There's one!  No wait..there's another one. One here!  One there. Now I feel this!  This is going on!  My eye!  (lol)  My hand! My foot!  My feet!"  and so on.  That's why I just say, "it's everywhere".  sigh.  Last week I was getting ready to fill disability paperwork, that's how bad it was.  Either the episode is finally passing, the medication is FINALLY starting to work or the slight increase in temperature has given me some releif.  Who knows.  

Wow, Dennis.  That REALLY stinks.  You can't take anything but Tylenol??  I don't even know what to say to that except it stinks.  Just like I thought the presciption I was put on was fake, I thought Tylenol were a joke too.  Have you tried alternative options?

Well, I hope you are all as well as you can be.  I hope you all have a great day and I wish you all happy holidays!  
Lulu, I just typed hoppy hilidays and had to correct it.  LOL.

Take care all,
Christina  

[crswin]

My pain is:
- in the center of my neck- electrical shocks
- my right arm- tingling, weakness and numbness
- the center of my back- sharp, electrical pain and burning
- tingling on my right cheek
- tingling, heaviness, weakness in my legs, but only from the knees down

In addition, I think that my 90 year-old great-grandmother looks like the younger of the 2 of us when we walk together sometimes and I am 31.

I have not had an official diagnosis, but have been hearing MS for 6.5 years now.  Yestarday, was the 1st time that a doc used IS (instead of might be) and MS in the same sentence.

Hang in there and be thankful that your boyfriend is at least trying to understand.

Crystal

[Sailorsong]

Pain is one of my greatest complains right now with no relief in sight. My lower legs and feet constanly feel numb, I get a cramp in my right leg almost daily that feeling like my foot is being bent backward toward the cieling. Almost daily the bones (not joints) in my legs feel like thay have been broken. In my left leg I get a sharp pain that feeling like someone have just sliced it open to the bone from my waist down to the knee. I get the electrical shocks in my back and upper legs. Some days just wearing clothes feels like I am being crushed. When I cough my kidneys feel like someone has been hitting them with a 2 by 4. I also get stabbing pains in my left eye some days when ever it moves (those day I walk around with it closed in order to stop the movement).

For treatment of the pain my docotr will not give me any of the narcotic types because of my balance problems, He also won't give me Motrin type pain releivers because of damage to my kidneys, This leaves only plain old Tylenol, which doesn't touch the pain at all.  Luckliy over the past 20 years I have learned to block most of my pain with my mind. This works pertty good as long as not too many of the pains surface at the same time.

Dennis

[Quixotic1]

I have been soooo fortunate that I do not have much pain at all.

My toes burn and tingle mildly.

My right arm hurts when I move it both in the forearm and the upper arm, but it feels like a tendonitis kind of pain.

I have mild pain and stiffness from spasticity in the R side lower back, buttocks.  

I had Trigeminal Neuralgia on the L side last year and that was BAD.  It was well relieved by carbamazepine (Tegretol).

I have very little that would make me seek a med for it.

Quix

[doni54]

You're not alone by any means, Christina.  I have much the same as everyone else including you.  Some days the pain is bearable, and other days I want to just curl up and disappear.

I recently had a sinus infection which caused a low grade fever...........OMG the pain was beyond anything I have ever suffered before!!  Lasted for 3 days, and then backed off again to the everyday pain.

My two worse things are my toes and feet which never stop and when I get the spasms in my midriff and occasionally in my stomach.  Sometimes even feels like my ovaries are twisting into knots, wierd huh?

I am so sorry that you are having to deal with this at such a young age, I know that must make it even more difficult for you.  

I know some here on the forum take Baclofen (sp?) for their spasms and are happy with the results.

Look in the health pages, there is a chart that lists most of the common meds used and what they are used to treat.  That will give you a big picture of all the current drugs being used.

I hope your pain eases up soon.

Hugs
doni

[Lulu54]

hi Christina,
as you can tell from the above responses, everyone's experience with pain and MS is different than the next person's experiences.  I have little pain that would require a medicine, but I do have the twinges, electrical zaps and tons of dizziness and spasticity.  I am diagnosed, but not on anything other than my daily injections of copaxone.  At times I believe I need to be on something for the spasticity and discomfort but then my symptoms move on for a while and I feel fine.  

I know this is of no help to you as it relates to your symptoms.  

my best, Lulu

[sllowe]

BTW - I love that Peter Frampton song! So cool.

Yup, all of the above but they are a little different.  My pressure and throbs are in my spine in the middle to lower back. My sharp pains are usually some sort of spasm that can be in my bladder, inner thigh, etc.  

Burning on the skin of my back is daily.  Uh, lets see, your boyfriend may notice you walking slow and relates that to looking old, but it's probably the stiffness doing that.  Only thing I can suggest it to stretch, A LOT.  No matter what is going on, stretching will not fix it, but will give you a little more flexibility.  

ttys,
Shell

[Rachelinpain]

i am not diagnosed either but i do not have the pain you describe.  i have tingling and numbness in different areas depending on the day as well as shooting pain that comes and goes like lightening.  sometimes i will have periods of time where i will have what i call rubber band pain where an area will feel like it is being stretched like a rubber band and is about to snap.  i also have muscle spasms that contribute to my pain which i am taking medication for.  people with MS generally do not have all over aching pain.  that could be attributed to many different things.  you may want to post in the fibromyalgia forum as whole body pain is a classic symptom of that syndrome.  good luck.

[essdipity]

I believe I'm like most of us here in that the pain I have during one month or year may be quite different from the next period. For the past several months I've been quite fortunate in that my pain has been mild. That's because of the Lyrica and Amitriptyline I take on a daily basis. They have relieved the burning pain on my legs and the deep achiness in my arms. I still feel these, but the volume has been turned way down and it's now only at an annoying level, worse in the evening.

Those who have pain "all over" or pain that flits from arm to toes to neck, and so on, all in the same day are not likely to have MS, because that's not how MS lesions work. MS pain mainly stays around a good while, and can slowly migrate to a new area, or a symptom can be added to the same area or areas. If you have an inability to pinpoint where you hurt or to be specific about how it hurts, it's unlikely to be MS pain. There are other diseases with somewhat similar symptoms where the pain is more diffuse, so these should be tested for.

For these reasons, most of us recommend keeping a timeline. Make notes of what symptoms you have, describing them briefly. What date they started, what date they stopped or morphed into something else. What doctors you have seen, what their conclusions were, and so on. This part of the timeline is strictly for yourself and to jog your memory. From that you can make another version to take with you to a new doctor.

Good luck,
ess

[pennst8r]

I've only been around here and there lately due to other issues, so we haven't "met" yet. Are you diagnosed? I am not, so I'm not sure if you're interested in my input bu tI'll give it anyway, lol!

The only pain I have is from spasms and spasticity. I do also have shooting shocks, which do hurt briefly. I also have all sorts of strange tinglies, burning feelings, "cobwebs", wet spots, vibrations and buzziing. I take baclofen for the spasms and spasticity. I take clonopin for myoclonus (muscle twitching - doesn't hirt but can go on fo rhours and is VERY annoying) and the wierd eye things (visual field will jump to the left, etc). For now that's all I'm on.

Hope this helps!

Penn