Hi I saw a neurologist some months ago he concluded my labrythitus 3 months before my first MS attack was not a relapse in itself as anyone can get vertigo. I also told that neuro that I get a sore neck sometimes when sitting , he said there may something in my spine and said I may have to think about DMD’s if new lesions are on my next MRI, so he ordered a full spine MRI.
Some lesions were on my spine on that next MR but spine ok otherwiseI. I said to the next different neuro I have had a sore neck when sitting ever since I had my spinal symptoms and I said that must be my lesions. He said no not necessarily. I said its obvious isn’t is? He said not its not obvious. He also concluded my vertigo before my first relapse was a relapse in itself.
So he says my sore neck when sitting may not be due to my spine lesions. Do I ask my GP to see a specialist about my neck?
The problems caused by lesions are often not at the site of the lesions - i.e. you can’t feel lesions themselves - they’re not sore. They just interfere with nerve transmission to other parts of the body, so where the symptom is felt depends on which part of the body those nerve signals were trying to get to. E.g. I’ve got painful feet. M.S. certainly doesn’t cause lesions in the feet (brain and spinal cord only), but a lesion in my spinal cord is messing with the nerve signals to my feet, which makes them hurt.
So the pain is often not near the lesion itself.
I would guess your neck-pain probably is related to having MS, but it might not be quite as straightforward as being directly caused by those lesions. MS can change things like gait, balance, posture and muscle tone quite subtly, so we’re not always aware we’re walking differently, or sitting differently. This in turn can lead to aches and pains.
I would think physiotherapy might be an avenue to explore, to see if they can identify any problems with how you move or sit, that could be contributing to neck-ache. It may be possible to do some exercises that improve posture, or help strengthen neck muscles.
Really, whether it’s caused by the lesions or not, it’s unlikely to make a huge difference to how it would be treated. It’s likely to be physical therapy and/or painkillers of some kind.
If there was anything mechanically wrong with your neck - e.g. worn disks - it’s likely that too would have been visible on MRI. Since nobody has mentioned anything like that, your neck was presumably structurally fine, so it’s more likely to be a muscular or postural thing - v. common with MS.
Cheers, I was thinking back when I saw the GP for my vertigo and he did the epley treatment on me with a hyper-extended neck over the back of the coach. It made my vertigo a bit worse after that. I walked away feeling very sore in the neck. I’ve had a look on the NHS page and it mentions about chronic whiplash which needs physio and painkillers.
Hi I contacted my GP and being referred for a GP appointment next week to check my neck out, then possible referal to physio. She said no chiropractic treatments or massage would be offered just physio. Like you mention Tina worn discs would have shown on the MRI, so it might be muscular. The pain goes when the weight is taken off my neck (laying down). So that might imply that its muscle pain rather than nerve signals may be? If only that pain would go I would feel so much better am taking paracetamol. When I was at college I sat at the front of class and was looking up with a slightly twisted neck for 2.5 hours. I should have known better.
Hi, I’m glad you’re getting it looked into, but also that she did not suspect anything sinister, and it looks like physio is on the cards.
Please don’t blame yourself for past behaviours - I think it’s more likely to do with the MS, than how you used to sit in college. MS does tend to cause muscular pain, as well as nerve pain, because if signals can’t get through to the muscles properly, they stop working right. They can become - paradoxically - very stiff and yet very weak. My calf muscles look as if I’m a gym freak, or a dedicated runner, because they are so sharply developed. Unfortunately, other than at the very shallow level of appearance, it’s not a positive thing, because they don’t work properly, and get tired at the slightest thing. It’s all because the nerve signals from my brain are disrupted, and telling my calf muscles they need to contract - even when I’m in bed, asleep. This means they’re getting a continuous unwanted workout, which has left them very shapely, but also permanently tired and sore (I take muscle relaxants to try to stop them tensing up so much). I’d much rather they went back to flabby, but working properly!
MS does strange things to the muscles. Pilates and yoga both supposedly help. A lot of physio exercises prescribed for MS are actually based on pilates, so if it turns out to be a long wait for the physio, you might want to try a pilates class. Obviously a good idea to mention to the instructor that you have MS, to make sure they’re OK with that, and won’t be pushing you into exercises that are too hard for you.
Cheers Tina. Some interesting info there for me to think about. I’ve got calf muscles that are not 100%, I did have some calf cramp in bed when legs were cold a few months ago. Have spasms sometimes in big left toe at night once or twice in night and it normally wakes me up. As I am not so active now I guess calfs are becoming weaker may be.