Just wondered if anyone has had the symptom of itching (mine is all over my stomach and affecting sleep) I dont have a rash or anything else visable. I have tried to call my Neurologist but the receptionist is particularly awkward and says hes unlikely to call me back so to make an appointment with my GP which i have but i cant get an appointment very quickly. I have also had real fatigue in the last few days as well and the 2 symptoms (having googled it…) can mean it could be something more serious but Im inclined to think its a weird MS thing. I was only diagnosed in June so rather clueless.
I get MS phantom itches on hands or arms and the best thing is to run the affected part under the cold tap for as long as I can bear it, but that’s not so easy to do when it’s your stomach!
The GP might be able to suggest something to damp down the nerve misfires that are yelling ‘itch!’ when there isn’t one, if it is so troublesome that it is affecting your sleep (I am guessing here because my MS itches have never been that troublesome). One d-i-y thing that is certainly worth trying is making sure you are not over-heating at night (getting too hot tends to make ms symptoms worse.) You might try a hot water bottle filled with ice-cold water to put on your stomach, perhaps? That might just help, the way cold running water helps my itching hands.
Hi Beccy, I suffer from this itching on my whole upper torso front and back, it got so bad I ripped my skin to bits from scratching. Topical medication does nothing for this, my nuero prescribed 25mg amitriptyline it took about 10 days to work but it has totally disappeared.
I have this infernal itch on the same place on my back and it drives me mad. Also find my head itches continually. I think it must be one of Ms’s little quirks.
I have this on my upper left arm. I spent two weeks trying to sleep with one arm hanging out of bed because I couldn’t even bear the sheets touching it. It was so hot and itchy and felt like something was crawling under the skin. I scratched but couldn’t get to the itch. I put cold ice packs on it but nothing helped.
I called my ‘local’ MS nurse who is about 30 miles away but she couldn’t get out to me for a week. She prescribed amitriptyline and it took another week to take effect hence the two weeks with one arm hanging out of bed and practically no sleep.
She told me that it might go away in time and to try to reduce the amitriptyline gradually to see if I could manage without them. I’ve tried countless times in the last 5 years but the blasted itch just comes straight back.
I now have eczema as well so I’m now itchy all over on a bad day. There are times when I hate my body …
Thank you so much. It’s all interesting and very reassuring to know that what’s happening is quite normal… Well as normal as Ms gets. Wishing each of you all the best. x
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