Got an appointment at the relapse clinic tomorrow (appreciate I am lucky to have that option), and getting stuck on describing symptoms again. Always makes me anxious because there’s usually nothing to see - I know my leg isn’t working properly but there’s hardly any limp to see. This time I’ve got numbness AND pain in my left arm, left side of face and left leg - how can it be both?? But it is!
I’m getting a burning pain through my arm, but it still feels as though it doesn’t belong to me and is swinging like a dead weight. My face ‘feels’ numb, but I can feel it when I touch my skin… I keep biting the inside of my mouth - wondering if that’s connected too.
It can all feel ok, if I do nothing, but after 20mins of physical or mental activity, it all bubbles up, with little twitches and spasms, and pain. I keep testing myself to see what makes it happen…
Moan over! Interested to hear about anything similar - thankfully no major mobility problems (yet), just these rolling sensory symptoms which wear me out.
Nice to have a sunny day today xx
I think you describe it well … I’m in limbo just now no diagnosis but your symptoms sound similar to mine I’m sure they have heard it all before and will understand your ways of describing , my biggest thing is that my calf feels numb when I walk but I’m able to walk lol
good luck with your app
a good description!
i too have burning sensations, usually as a right side sock: foot and calf up to the knee. again, not necessarily painful as simply annoying.
when i was enduring my first major relapse, and presenting myself to the local A&E, the admittance questionnaire asks you to rate your pain on a scale of 1 to 10. I would always doctor the form to say 0 because i was essentially numb and thus pain free. such honesty resulted in long wait times.
it is a tricky, seemingly contradictory state to be in; feeling numb, and yet still sensitive to temperature and touch. the best description i use, is to say my skin feels like pruned finger tips (from being in the tub for too long); more fuzzy than numb. a kind of ‘half way numb’ sensation.
similarly, although i have been lucky enough not to have a relapse that affected my face, my hands presented me with challenges of perception. not as painful as biting the inside of your cheek perhaps, but not being able to put fingers into the correct hole on a pair of gloves frequently became annoying.
don’t be anxous; your descriptions are good and not unusual.
good luck!
Thanks 
I get paranoid that no one believes me - maybe I just don’t believe it myself. My arm feels attached but not strictly under my full control this morning - like one of those duff horror movies called ‘The Hand’…!
have you ever seen ‘Evil Dead 2’?
Off topic somewhat, but where the hell did doctors come up with that question:
“Where on a scale of 0-10 would you rate your pain?”
Doesn’t that depend on your pain threshold, you previous experience of pain (if female whether you’ve given birth to an 11lb monster of a child), your tendency to exaggerate, the length of time you’ve waited in A&E, etc, etc. It’s simply meaningless. Plus an absence of pain in itself can be a diagnostic differential.
Sue
i am guessing that it’s a method to determine urgency on the basis of comfort.
it also helps to determine the attitudes of those seeking attention; for sure personal pain thresholds vary, but someone reporting a pain level of 11 for a splinter in the thumb, can wait at the back of the line despite their protestations…
I used the pain of having a kidney stone as a benchmark.
As I can’t comment on 11lb monsters I’d be interested to hear from ladies who have had both.
Anthony
(Probably the worst personal ad ever!)
2 Likes
Ooh Anthony, you are such a flirt!!! Unfortunately I can’t answer your ad as I’ve not given birth at all, let alone to an 11 pounder.
(Btw, how did you ever persuade your wife to even go on a date with you, let alone marry you?)
Sue
1 Like
There are too many 10-point scales about - handed out by people who do not know how to use them. But it has been worse:
Back in the early days of the Blair government, every time I stepped into my local surgery I was handed a questionnaire about depression. Quite apart from the fact that some of the questions would not have elicited any relevant information, the waste of paper was using a 4-point scale. The margin for error inherent in a 4-point scale is just a hair under 50%, which tells you all you need to know about government forms.
Back to Sue’s original question, I can only think that someone has the idea that a 10-point scale bakes it easy to work out the statistics Easy? Yes. Useful? No.
When I go to Odstock for my annual FES checkup, I am asked to rate “Effort” and “Feeling of Safety” on 10-point scales with and without the FES. Discussing the value (or lack of value) of these forms with one of the bio-mechanics experts there, I was told “Yes, we know it’s rubbish, but that is what the customer (PCTs in those days) wants. Maybe it is all that they can understand”.
Geoff
1 Like
As far as I can remember it was her idea.
I’m just as baffled as you are.
2 Likes