I am new here, I have not been diagnosed but am waiting for my MRI scan. I woke up 3 weeks ago with numb feeling down my left side. Then it felt like my left side was working harder to keep up with my right. it also felt like the nerve in my arm was being pulled which meant my left hand felt stiff. This subsided after 2 weeks, but now my body feels like it’s heavy, my arms feel as id they have been forced to hold weights all day and my legs have done jumping jacks at the same time. I am finding this deliberating (the whole thing is), but for 4 weeks ago, I was a ‘normal’ 32 year old girl and in that time my body has completely changed. The feeling of my body is making me cry most days as a simple get out of bed and get ready is now a mammoth effort. I work as a HR advisor and 4 weeks ago I worked at the speed of light, now i just need to take breaks after a simple task.
Does anyone know if the fatigue subsides right now I can’t imagine this being my life forever, or what tips do people have with the body heaviness issues? This has completely overwhelmed me and I don’t want to sound doom and gloom but I am struggling to see light if it is MS.
I presume you mean debilitating! No doubt predictive text getting it wrong again …
Fatigue, if part of MS, will be worst during a relapse. For many it will subside quite substantially - for some totally, but often will take weeks to months, and be a gradual process, though often 2 steps forward, one step back, so can be quite an emotional roller coaster too.
It sounds as if you are trying to continue at work through this. As you work in HR, can you not take time off to allow yourself to heal? Your body, through the fatigue, is telling you that you need to take it easy, for the time being, so listen to it. That applies whether it is MS, Long Covid or anything else that causes fatigue. You need to give you body the best chance of repairing itself, and pace yourself to how you feel.
I hope the wait for the MRI scan won’t be too long, and also hope that the fatigue will start to subside soon, and that you will get back to being something very like the ‘normal’ you.
Hi, I’m also new and a similar age. (I’m 33, nearly 34).
I find the fatigue does subside.
Does your firm have an occupational health dept you can speak too? They should be able to do an assessment and help a little. I’ve had my mri recently, and had to chat with them.
I am sorry that you are having such a worrying time. May I assume that you have already consulted your GP and, perhaps, been referred to a hospital specialist for assessment? If not, I would urge you to do this.
‘Normal’ is a slippery concept, as we have all had cause to learn this past year or so. I think we tend to thing of ‘normal’ as meaning much the same as ‘unchanging’ or ‘predictable’. In our hearts we know, of course, that nothing stays the same for long and that life can change dramatically at any moment. Anyone suddenly stricken by rather frightening illness our of the blue remembers how urgently one longs for the safe haven of the familiar. It is natural to feel that way.
Whatever is the matter with you, I hope that you get to the bottom of things before long and that it turns out to be nothing much to worry about. But even if it turns out that there is something going on, please be reassured that you are a capable and resilient person and will deal with whatever comes along. Either way, it may be a little while before you have the clarity you want. I hope that whatever this attack is will ease off and that you will soon feel stronger and have more mental and physical energy to bring to your busy life.
Thank you for taking the time to reply. Yes I was typing in an anxious state an auto correct did it’s thing. I have been very lucky I got an appointment to see a neurologist within 10 days and was told I would need to wait 4 weeks for an MRI. The hospital called as they had a cancellation and I’m being seen this week. Hopefully I get answers soon. I feel so worried, my body is tense all the time which I don’t think is helping. Are there reassuring stories people can live a decent life with MS, as I keep reading horror stories.
Yes people can live a decent life with MS, unpredictable but nevertheless decent.
Mainly I’d like to say “Look after your mental health!”
My GP was concerned that I was very stressed and knew that the diagnostic process would be stressful so he put me on Citalopram (a non-addictive anti-depressant) to take the edge off, which it did.
I’m doing OK and enjoying life after 20+ years of very active RRMS. It isn’t quite the life I expected when I was 38 with only a dim idea of what MS was. But one adapts, and, fingers crossed, life has been good and still is. And treatments are getting better all the time. It is a shocker of a diagnosis to get, no two ways about it, but many people with MS stay fit and active for a long time. The ever-improving treatments mean that people diagnosed now have much better health prospects than ever before.
I am glad you are getting specialist advice and are not having to wait for too long for a scan.
