itching

[Mike_Shuswap]

I've been experiencing a lot of itching lately, and I'm starting to wonder if this is another MS issue. The itching occurs all over my body, top of head, face, arms, back, etc., etc.

There is nothing visible on my skin, no rash or bumps or anything.

I wake up at night itching quite often.

Scratching only relieves it as long as I continue to scratch, the itch seems to return as soon as I quit scratching.

It goes away suddenly, but hits again wherever it wants several times a day.

Oh, and it drives me nuts!!!

Any one else have this weird problem, or am I going bananas?

Thanks

Mike

[aj1964]

i also get the "itch" different spots on my body all the time, i sure if anyone were to watch me for a few hours they think i was a drunk with bugs.I scratch sometimes drawing blood and when it stops in one spot it moves to another, i have tried everything nothing really seems to work except i do get milf relief from a hemp cream with aloe in it, does not get rid of it but it does ease it up a bit.On any given day I have blood blister somewhere on my body from scratching

[Sailorsong]

Mike,

  I had been going through the itching thing for about 3 years off and on. I would actually scratch my legs until they bleed some times as nothing was making the itch go away. Finally one of my doctors finally RX me a petroleum based cream for the itch and it helped a lot. I suspect that it was just to having the itch replaced by the feeling of the cream.

Most of the time the itch was just my lower right leg, but many times it was both lower legs. So I guess that would qualify it as being a large area. But I have noticed that after my IVSM treatment I have not had the itching any more at all. I'm pretty sure this is a MS thing for that.

Dennis

[essdipity]

I just want to add that I can't say for sure that the gabapentin did the trick for me. It could be that the whole attack, which was about 2 months all told, was phasing out on its own. It's just that things did get better once I started gabapentin. But I had to go to a very hefty dose to get there--from zero to about 1800 mg in a week or so, then stay there a while. I doubt that increasing yours by just 300 will matter much.

Now I take usually 900 at night, as that's when my leg and foot pain get vicious. Even that doesn't totally do the job, but I don't want to increase the regular dosage as I don't want to gain weight.

For me, two factors sealed the deal. All other causes had been eliminated, and my left side was way more affected. I think you do need to talk to your neuro.

ess

[Mike_Shuswap]

Thanks everyone for all the great responses!

The NMSS link you gave me, Kyle, was informative, but it didn't cover whether or not MS type of itching can occur in so many places on the body, or if it only hits in a small general are like JJ has experienced.

Ess, seems to me you're right, if Gabapentin eased the itching/stinging then it would seem to me to be a neurological condition (read MS). I am on a small dose of 1200mg daily of Gabapentin. Maybe an increase of dosage would help me out. I think I'll pop an extra 300mg at bed time to see if it helps.

I thought a possible allergic reaction might be the culprit, JJ, but we haven't changed any cleaning products we use, and I have been using all the same drugs for a long time, so we can't think of anything that would cause this.

I have an apt with my Neuro the end of this month, so I'll add the itching to my list of things to discuss with him. Having read all your input I'm leaning toward believing this is another weird MS issue, but I'll see what my Neuro thinks.

Take care all,

Mike

[kwarendorf]

PD - If contact with a cat caused me to itch I'd be in big trouble! Mine tend to stick to me like Velcro :-)

Kyle

[PastorDan]

Oh, just to make it interesting, I have some places that itch for good reason, such as contact with a cat, but at other times those same parts of my body have itched for no apparent reason at all.

[supermum_ms]

Ess's 1st paragraph said what i was going to! My itch experience has so far only been on my face, 2 spots, thumb print size on my right eyelid and running up the curve of my nose, one slightly bigger next to my mouth on the left. I made the mistake when it first began, of itching so much my face swelled and swelled, I looked like i'd been someone's punching bag minus the black and blue.

I tried everything and nothing stopped the non stop itch, the right eye was the most annoying because i already had tingling going on under the eye (bag area lol) and then the itch on the top eye lid just felt a little unfair. lol  It did eventually stop. It happened a couple of times in exactly the same spots, but the eyelid spot when it comes back now, is actually numb numb and it hasn't itched for over a year.

I've got to mention allergic reaction because its possible because of how big an area your experiencing your itch. My kids react to shampoo's & conditioner and my daughter reacts to lots of medications, reactions don't always bring forth the welts and rash visuals, sometimes they feel just as itchy but its not as obvious they are reacting to something. DD reacted to aderal (sp) at work the other day and raced to the chemist to get antihistamine to shut it down.

So if it is possibly an allergic reaction, you could try antihistamine to see if it helps, though if it's paresthesia it wont help at all, sorry.

Cheers........JJ      

[tingletingle]

Yes, I can certainly confirm uncontrollable urges to itch my MS hug to my back and legs.

A really funny ha ha symptom lately is a sharp stinging sensation that has occurred in my left toe then my right three little toes, then my left nostril, then today two separate times on two different fingers of my left hand. I am always startled with the zap and give a yelp. Yes, friends, family, strangers all think I'm a bit nuts. I keep looking for the bee or the needle or something but there's nothing there.

Blessings
Alex

[byyygrace]

I almost forgot-there is nothing visible on my skin when I begin to itch or scratch but as soon as I scratched I would have raised whelps and red streaks everywhere I scratched. When it stopped itching, my skin looked completely normal again.

[byyygrace]

I had severe itching for 2 years before I was diagnosed. Every day, always worse at night. Sometimes my head, neck and face. Other times it might be the back side of my forearm and my torso. I kept Benadryl in business!

I feel like it is MS related but I have no proof. My PCP had prescribed Hydroxyzine to help me sleep. It did not help with sleep but it did stop the itching. I take 10 milligrams at night before I go to bed and it works like a charm.

Wishing you scratching free days!

Colin

[essdipity]

Hi, Mike. If you're going bananas you have a lot of company.

Supposedly MS itching occurs only in one or two spots at a time. That makes sense, because it is a paresthesia, like tingling, and results from a given CNS area going a bit bonkers from demyelination. If the coating on the wiring gets chewed off, weird signals happen. Right? Right. Or so I thought.

Large areas of the CNS don't go bonkers all at once, and not all in the same way, that's true, but what if some 'master switch' section suddenly loses function? Is this even possible? I don't know.

What I do know is that this past spring I started in with itching that drove me crazy. It was nearly all on the left side, but not absolutely all, and it encompassed my back, my face (even eyelids) and my scalp. That's a lotta territory. Saw my allergist and that wasn't it. Saw my PCP and had a bunch of blood work done. Nothing. Gradually the itching gave way to very fast pins and needles, then to stinging, and it even affected the inside of my mouth on the left--tongue and gums. It was bizarre, but at least it wasn't itching. I didn't associate it with MS at first because the area was so large.

But I finally saw my MS NP out of desperation. She was puzzled, but ordered 3 days of IV steroids. It was strange, since the sensations receded during the evenings of the infusions but came back strong, and within a few days afterwards I was worse than ever, all the time. (Another strange thing is that I had absolutely no bad reactions to the steroids, not even a metallic taste. It was as if I had been given saline only. But that's for another post.)

Net net, I then started on an aggressive course of gabapentin, building up quickly, and soon the itching-turned-to-stinging abated. I stayed on a high dose for maybe 10 days, then gradually tapered down. I still need gabapentin for painful parasthesias in my right leg and foot, but a relatively small dose. Still having tongue issues, which I've had several times throughout the MS stuff, not anything I can't deal with.

What caused what is still something I haven't been able to unravel. I just know that every other possible cause had been ruled out, and that nerve pain medicine worked.

If this sounds anything like your experience, don't wait as long as I did. See if you can get the IV treatment, and/or try gabapentin or Lyrica.

Best of luck.

ess

[kwarendorf]

Mike- I've had this itch and it is definitely MS related. Nothing would make it stop, except the continual scratching you describe.

Here is the NMSS take on it.

http://www.nationalmssociety.org/about-multiple-sclerosis/what-we-know-about-ms/symptoms/itching/index.aspx

Kyle

[EJNILB]

I've had this a few times now. It's worst when I get out of a hot shower which leads me to believe it is an MS thing.

[ghost39]

Hi Mike,
I also get this and its horrid and drives me crazy. I assume its an abnormal sensation and a MS thing! Your not alone and I too would like to know what it is???