MS

[pooky]

Hello everyone,

I'm new to the forums but just had to register because I'm going out of my mind with worry. I've been on the verge of tears all morning.

I've had shooting pains around my body with pins and needles and numbness for the last few days and I'm certain I've got MS. I can't get to see my doctor now until the start of January and really don't know how I'm going to get through Xmas. I phoned an MS charity to see if there was anywhere where I could get a quicker test privately but there isn't.

I've already started planning my own funeral and the pins and needles are quite painful making it difficult to distract myself. I've often been worried about symptoms before but always knew rationally (however much I worried about the possibility) my concerns were unlikely. This time seems much more real however and I'm panicing.

Any advice/knowledge about MS would be very gratefully received.

Many thanks,
Pooky

[itoldyouiwasill]

Hello everyone,

I'm new to the forums but just had to register because I'm going out of my mind with worry. I've been on the verge of tears all morning.

I've had shooting pains around my body with pins and needles and numbness for the last few days and I'm certain I've got MS. I can't get to see my doctor now until the start of January and really don't know how I'm going to get through Xmas. I phoned an MS charity to see if there was anywhere where I could get a quicker test privately but there isn't.

I've already started planning my own funeral and the pins and needles are quite painful making it difficult to distract myself. I've often been worried about symptoms before but always knew rationally (however much I worried about the possibility) my concerns were unlikely. This time seems much more real however and I'm panicing.

Any advice/knowledge about MS would be very gratefully received.

Many thanks,
Pooky

You want advise and information regarding MS but you have posted on a Health Anxiety forum...this suggests to me that at least on some level deep down you know where your problems are likely to reside.

If you are Googling about MS stop! If you must Google, put in your symptoms and anxiety and you will see that they are pretty much a pwerfect match....there is a resaon why thousands of physical anxiety sufferers manage to convince themselves they have MS and this can very quickly develop into Health Anxiety.

Generally MS will present in one limb intially and pretty much always is bilateral....if you are having sensory issues kicking off all over your body this is really unlikely to be MS and a physical anxiety explanation is probably the likely culprit.

Your worst possible scenario is planning your funeral...why? All of us (myself included) who fear or who have feared MS at some stage even manage to overcatastrophise the disease...the reallity is that in the vast majority of cases MS in managable and you can expect pretty much a normal life span...yeah, you wouldn't want MS but there are far worse things out there believe me...!

[libbie]

hiya,
i too thought i had m.s. still do sometimes! ive had anxiety for 6 years, know all the usual symptoms, pins and needles, needing the loo, headache, tension, plus loads more, but i knew these were anxiety symptoms. Then i started getting pains in my legs, shooting pains, a cold burning pain, a sqeezing pain, like a bad toothache , in both legs, like u, i googled, and convinced myself i had m.s. went to doctors repeatedly, had loads of blood tests, and mri scan on back and brain, and everything was all normal. i had some very good advice of itoldyouiwasill (above) and tried to accept it was anxiety. im still finding it hard, as i dont actually feel anxious, just got these symptoms in my legs. but its def not m.s. the scans would have picked it up. I think half the battle is acceptance. i hope you go on ok, but try not to worry, the more you worry, the worse the pains get. please feel free to p.m. me

take care
libbie

[jill]

Hi hun :D:hugs:

:welcome: to the site

You have already had great advice, as always from this great site.

There are lots of nice people here who will help and support you

TAKE CARE

LOVE JILL XXXX

[itoldyouiwasill]

I have just copy and pasted this from a reply I posted in another thread...it may help with understanding how physical anxiety can still exist even though we may no longer feel mentally anxious:

'Yes, we all have a traditional view that anxiety is a mental condition but when mental anxiety becomes chronic it will all too often become physical. I prescribe to the rain barrel view of anxiety. What basically happens is that over a period of years we employ bad anxiety management and out anxiety threshold is slowly increasing...in other words the rain barrel is filling up! Now, because this happens so gradually we are actually unaware that our anxiety threshold is increasing...if we where able to tranfer our anxiety level onto somebody with a normal level thoughit will feel incredibly intense to them.

So, we keep filling the rain barrel up and all the while our body adjusts and we just fail to realise we are on a collision course. Now, what generally happens is that we then experience a stressor (can be good or bad) and our anxiety threshold responds by increasing but today is the day that the barrel is full!! Basically, this is the point that our emotional anxiety HAS to become physical..the water is pouring over the top and it is the same with our anxiety...we think that this is all 'out of the blue' but the reallity is that years and years of poor stress and anxiety management have finally told.

At this point it is incredibly common for physical anxiety to manifest itself as neurological sensations. This is because we have, in effect, fatigued our central, periphiral and sympathic nervous systems and this causes a whole host of wierd and wonderful neuro sensations. The problem now is that instead of thinking that we need to allow our bodies and minds time to recover we fall into the trap of literally pouring petrol on the anxiety fire and we analyse these symptoms and convince ourselves we have MS, ALS or whatever is your disease of choice...you are now in the health anxiety loop.

One of the things you here time and time again is 'how can this be anxiety if I'm no longer anxious'? The thing is that even though we may have turned the tap off the barell is still full. Another useful anology is to think of an overweight person...years and years of a poor diet will have made them overweight, if they decide to go on a diet after a week of eating the healthiest and best food ever they are still going to be overweight...it is the same with anxiety, we fall into the trap of thinking that it is all about what we are thinking at the moment...this is our biggest mistake, once anxiety has become physical this indicates it is a chronic condition and therefore it can take us just as long to correct the problem as it took to get into the state we are at. The sooner we stop dumping anxiety on top of anxiety is the point that recovery will slowly start but because we fail to see immediate results we doubt everything and once again employ all those old stalwarts such as over catastrophising, black or white thinking etc etc that are going to keep us locked in the loop'

[libbie]

again great advice from itoldyouiwasill. it is hard not to google, when my legs are really hurting, i used to google, it cant be anxiety, not when it hurts this much, but now im learning to read all the great advice on here i re read it and re read it until it sinks in! i ve had this since april, and its still here, but not quite as bad, so im thinking my nervous system must be starting to get better, well i hope anyway

take care
libbie

[itoldyouiwasill]

again great advice from itoldyouiwasill. it is hard not to google, when my legs are really hurting, i used to google, it cant be anxiety, not when it hurts this much, but now im learning to read all the great advice on here i re read it and re read it until it sinks in! i ve had this since april, and its still here, but not quite as bad, so im thinking my nervous system must be starting to get better, well i hope anyway

take care
libbie

Yes, it sounds as if you are well on the road to recovery. I am still twitching and buzzing after 18 months but am much better than I was....it can be a lengthy process but follow the 'rules' lol and recovery is pretty much assured.

[pooky]

I just wanted to post a thank you to everyone that replied to this thread (especially itoldyouiwasill who has helped me put this into perspective a bit more).

Many thanks,
Pooky

[marlou]

iread a book about smeone with ms, and a few days later, I got exactly the syptoms they were so real and strong and lasted for ages, like you I was terrified, however, I suddenly got a another problem that overshadowed it and it dissapeared, I have extreme health anxiety, but I look back on that time as a marker to keep me sane, (best I can!!)

[pooky]

Thanks marlou - that's very reassuring - I'm pleased you were okay and it just wore off. Im going to try and distract myself until I get checked!

[sjr1969]

hi pooky
this is a very big fear of mine at the moment. i have m.e so have alot of symptoms anyway which am now thinking could be ms. i know i am an anxious person about my health, but i too think, "well i dont feel anxious today so why am i feeling ill" . but i have the confusion of it maybe being the m.e. I am so worried about ms at the moment, i am having problems with my eyes which 3 optician appointments have all said are very good and no problems when checked. doc is referring me to an opthamologist just for my peace of mind, but im scared stiff they will find something. this ms thing is consuming my life and the moment and i feel so ill. it could be me., could be anxiety, help please?

sarah x

[Boos Mum]

I have MS, a quick MRI is what they can do but honestly what your saying doesn't sound like MS per say to me.

Seeing an eye doc is a good idea if your eyes are bothering you, don't want to mess around with that I can tell you

FWIW though, why you scared of MS so much? I have had it 17 years ish and I'm walking, talking and fine

My arms and legs get tingles, but that can be from a trapped nerve, or other disorder, not just MS.

Like someone else said, there are far worse things to get than MS if you really want to worry about something, I'd choose a better illness :)

[sjr1969]

hi boos mum
my dad had ms and i think i grew up watching him and it scares me. although i do know people can have it as you do, where it is not as severe.
your message has reassured me a little, but like i say with having m.e i do get alot of symptoms anyway. feeling really crap at mo, and the more i think, the worse it feels and so on. anxiety is kicking in big time but i just cant seem to settle myself down.
sarah x

[Boos Mum]

me is a term for " i dont know what is really wrong"

we all have "me" to some degree :hugs:

I bet it was hard watching your father, but for me anyway, it's one of the better things to get, heaven knows we all will get something one day, we all cant be 99 and in good health :roflmao:

MS has been linked to run in families, but usually skips,

hth

[Seebra]

Hi ppoky,

My husband has had MS since 1999, when he was diagnosed after experiencing numbness in his right hand and arm for over three weeks.

The first thing I wanted to let you know is that MS is not fatal. (only 1% of cases are the worst MS, which is quite serious). MS is not a death sentence, so even if you were diagnosed with MS, it does not mean you are going to die.

Second, MS does not usually present with shooting pains. Usually, the first symptoms are numbness on one extremity, or vision problems, or what they call an MS "hug" which is a tightness around the chest area.

The symptoms you are describing could be a number of different conditions, including stress, anxiety and panic.

Oh, and one more thing - MS does not travel around the body - it is almost 100% confined to one particular area (in my husband's case, it was his right arm and hand.)

I hope this helps you somewhat - if you have any other questions about MS please let me know - we have lived with it in our family for almost 10 years!

Feel better soon!


Hello everyone,

I'm new to the forums but just had to register because I'm going out of my mind with worry. I've been on the verge of tears all morning.

I've had shooting pains around my body with pins and needles and numbness for the last few days and I'm certain I've got MS. I can't get to see my doctor now until the start of January and really don't know how I'm going to get through Xmas. I phoned an MS charity to see if there was anywhere where I could get a quicker test privately but there isn't.

I've already started planning my own funeral and the pins and needles are quite painful making it difficult to distract myself. I've often been worried about symptoms before but always knew rationally (however much I worried about the possibility) my concerns were unlikely. This time seems much more real however and I'm panicing.

Any advice/knowledge about MS would be very gratefully received.

Many thanks,
Pooky

[Boos Mum]

MS does not travel around the body - it is almost 100% confined to one particular area (in my husband's case, it was his right arm and hand.)

Sorry but this is false, you can have it spread to other areas depending where the plaque forms in the brain, you can also have some plaques heal and develop new ones. You can not walk then walk again, it is a funny thing like that.

Most MS symptoms are symptoms of many other problems.

Numbness and tibgling vs pain is often a first sign but some people do get pain.

Again though its not something to worry about :hugs:

[Seebra]

I did not mean that MS does not spread and cause different symptoms, but in the case of my husband and from what his neurologist has told us numerous times, when the initial onset of MS occurs, it is actually confined due to the plaque that is exacerbating at the time. In other words, if you have tingling in your left hand, then your left foot, then your face, then your mid section in a matter of days or even weeks, that would most likely NOT be MS.

My husband has had many symptoms throughout his body - but MS is NOT a random disease. Meaning that during one exacerbation, he may have blurry vision and blind spots, during another, nerve pain, during another difficulty walking, and another, numb hand or arm.

What I meant with my post that if you have symptoms like numb hand, then it changes to your foot, then changes to your arm all in a matter of days or weeks, most probably it is not MS causing the symptoms.


Sorry but this is false, you can have it spread to other areas depending where the plaque forms in the brain, you can also have some plaques heal and develop new ones. You can not walk then walk again, it is a funny thing like that.

Most MS symptoms are symptoms of many other problems.

Numbness and tibgling vs pain is often a first sign but some people do get pain.

Again though its not something to worry about :hugs: