Flushing

Hi all,

I feel like I’m forever asking questions so I apologise in advance.

i was wondering if anyone had ever had random face and neck flushing as a symptom of MS? Recently I’ve noticed my face, neck and ears going red and becoming very hot for no reason at all and at any time of the day. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to it and no site I’ve looked at lists it as a known symptom of MS.

I feel like I’m going crazy and I’ve also made the stupid mistake of looking up the symptom on Dr Google-the r3ults of which are now causing me sleepless nights.

Thanks in advance

Sarah

hi sarah

it could possibly be a side effect of a medication.

ask your pharmacist or gp.

tecfidera, which i take, causes very deep, very hot flushes sometimes.

no need to say what i think of dr google!!

carole x

ps a tiny spray called ear calm rectifies my flushing ears.

The only hot flushes I’ve had have been menopausal, not MS. My quick fix was to buy a small, hand-held, battery-operated fan. This cools me down quickly just where I need it.

But we’re those flushes dry, just facial redness and hot-or was it sweating flushes? Does MS cause your body temp to be a bit higher than normal?

i wasn’t sweating just very VERY hot!

it wasn’t the ms that caused my flushing, it was the tecfidera.

maybe one of the meds you take is causing it.

GP should try to help and pharmacist will review your meds to try to get to the bottom of it.

carole x

I’m on copaxone, but I’ve come off it for a few weeks to see if the flushing subsided, still hasn’t

im reluctant to go to my GP now, every little thing that’s wrong they seem keen to pin it on MS, I could have an ingrown toenail and they’d blame it on that, lol! Seeing my neurologist is an absolute nightmare, I had to cancel my last appt because we were short staffed at work, they rescheduled my next one for 7 months later, and my MS nurse is neither use nor ornament, she saw me once, back in May and that’s it. I have no contact number for her and she was very dismissive of any concerns I had about the numbness I was experiencing, saying ‘that’s not a relapse, it’s just a flare up of old symptoms, you don’t need to concern yourself over it’

struck gold with her didn’t I!

sarah

my ingrown toe nails really are caused by ms through the strange way i walk these days.

you have made me remember that i need an appointment for the chiropodist - so thanks

xx

Your MS nurse doesn’t know what she’s talking about. A relapse can be new symptoms or a recurrence of old ones. It’s at times like this that I realise how lucky I am with my nurse. Which reminds me that it’s a year since my last appointment with her. Must phone her to find out what’s going on.

I know that you said you don’t want to go to your GP because they want to put everything down to MS, but it’s important to see someone when you have a relapse so that it’s noted in your medical history. I believe MS can cause problems with your body’s temperature control, so it might be a good idea to talk to your neurologist if you don’t trust your MS nurse.

I have had flushing for the last few months - it does seem to start with my ears. Not at all sure if it’s due to the MS, or my age (i’m 57) OR the Tecfidera. Either way I always have a little hand held fan with me

Juls

The other week my ears were burning hot for several days I cooled them off with my cold hands - always got cold hands, feet and nose. I didn’t even consider it might be a symptom of MS I just thought someone was talking about me!

A couple of years ago I had (what I now know to be) MS related tingly all around the right hand side of my torso. I would frequently get hot flushes which seemed to start in that area. I initially thought I’d started the menopause but that doesn’t seem to have been the case!

Thanks for your replies everyone, sometimes it helps just to know you’re not alone! I wake up every morning hot with a flushed face, and it comes and goes throughout the day, so I can’t even pin it on what I’ve done or eaten! It’s driving me bonkers! On the plus side, since I have a constant glow Im constantly getting told that I ‘look well’ lol! So even if I don’t feel it, at least I look ok. I think I’ll have to bite the bullet and see my GP if it doesn’t start to subside, I work in a bank and my customers are always shivering in my office because I have the air con on as low as possible at all times. Ooops!

NanaJules

try Ear Calm £1.50 and it works!

once my ear has stopped burning the rest of me cools down too.

carole x

Since getting m.s. there has been something wrong with my body thermostat. Any increase in temperature, any activity or any rise in humidity and I sweat like the proverbial pig.

Think it must be linked to the m.s. but have never mentioned it to the medics - not sure if there’s anything that can be done

I have a terrible paranoia of sounding like I’m moaning, so I’m always reluctant to mention anything that I don’t already know is 100% related to the ms!

my first neuro was an amazingly empathetic, kind and wonderful man. i told him i had something wrong with my thermostat. he liked the way i worded my symptoms and said he might use them to help others who struggled to explain. sadly he had to pass me on to an ms specialist. so sad that not everyone has the good fortune that i had.

I have a flushed face quite often, which I thought were low grade fevers. My face was red, especially my cheeks, and they were hot to the touch just like a fever. I thought that maybe low grade fevers were another odd symptom of MS, yet, when I took my temperature, I didn’t have a fever. It’s good to hear that I’m not alone in this!