relape???

hi folks

i hope all is as well as can be expected, and the sun is literally and metaphorically shining where you are

i am currently at home in bed- this may sound stupid think I may have had a small relapse (is there such a thing?) at work yesterday as I suffered the following symptoms:

  • dizziness and poorer balance (ie significantly poorer than usual where I couldn’t stand up)
  • loss of strength especially in neck and legs (couldn’t get out of chair once I was in it)
  • very slurred speech as if drunk
  • poor vision and sensitivity to light
  • significantly greater numbness and tingling in my left hand side and feet

i have just come off the phone from my amazing gp who thinks so (and is contacting my equally fantastic MS nurses to try and get the wheels in motion), but i am interested in what past experience has told you as my MS mates.

i would put some funnies here but at the risk of coming a cropper i won’t…

best wishes fluffyollie xx

just realised what a total spanner i am… what the hell is a ‘relape’ anyway???

Hi,

Has it been 24 hours yet, since the onset - with the symptoms still there?

The reason I ask is you can’t technically “have a relapse yesterday”, as they have to last more than 24 hours, so either you are still having it (it sounds so, if you are in bed - or is that just a precaution?), or it wasn’t a relapse in the first place.

A relapse is any new symptoms or a recurrence of old symptoms that lasts more than 24 hours, and isn’t explained by any other factor, such as having an infection.

Relapses come in all shapes and sizes - there’s no rule that it must be totally incapacitating.

So I think the only relevant questions are: “Has it gone away yet?” (in which case not long enough for a relapse), and: “Is there anything else that might explain it?” - e.g. are you aware of any infection (even a cold) in the past few days, or has there been any unusual stress or exertion?

Tina

x

Hi fluffyollie,

Sorry I can’t be of help as since I’m still awaiting diagnosis, I effectively can’t suffer with a relapse. There’s sarcasm there, but that’s not why I’m commenting. I just wanted to say, “chin up and keep strong”. Hopefully, it won’t last long and you’ll be back to your normal self.

Thinking of you.

Babs

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Hi fo

I can’t offer advice regarding relapse. Btw, I never noticed yah spelling mistake…many words look strange to me.

Good advice though from Tina.

I hope things improve for you soon.

Take care

X

my relapses have always started this way,i get what you describe, and i know its the onset of one, i usually feel like this then after 4 days i get the same type of thing and the relapse normally lasts anything from 10 weeks to a year.

J X

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Hi fullyollie,

I really hope, if it is a relapse, its a mild/short one for you, I have just gone through what my GP called a ‘flare up’ (that would be a mild relapse then!?) this followed a virus/chest infection/stress and tiredness from my dmd, wiped me out for 2/3 weeks, slowly improving though.

Hope you feel ‘better’! soon, my sympathies.

Cherry xx

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I’ve had times when I’ve thought with a sinking heart, ‘Hello, here’s trouble…’ but it hasn’t come to anything. Let us hope that you are having one of those. There’s nothing predictable about MS. Even a missile that seems to have your name on it can decide to swerve at the last minute and pass you by.

My policy is to steadfastly ignore things for as long as they can be ignored, on the very scientific basis that things don’t exist until acknowledged. Believe it or not, this does not always work! But occasionally it does.

Keep ducking and weaving, and good luck.

Alison

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Crumbs, I’ve just read that and it reads as though I’m telling you to pull yourself together and be a brave soldier. Which would be filtered words, obviously, and not what I mean at all! Get well soon.

A

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hi all

many thanks for the responses and advice- i really appreciate you for taking the time to read, let alone respond.

i feel as weak and wobbly as i was yesterday (not a lack of food to explain it), and very achy along with blurred vision and cold LH side (sounds like the shipping forecast ‘cromity south by south sera. dogger, fisher’ etc.). GP seems to think it is and has told me not to go into work at least for the rest of this week, and MS nurse called during her lunch break to say she’ll read email and get back to me.

Alison- it didn’t cross my mind that your post sounded as you think it did- i was dodging as much as i could yesterday but it comes to something when even work drive me home. i was all up for carrying on and had the year nine students i teach wheel me from my office to the classroom on my office chair. even more surprising that they were actually quite sweet to me- scary…

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aw fluffyollie how sweet of your year 9s!

they love their fluffy teacher

i’m sure if you inserted a funny into a serious post about ms you’d get away with it.

go on. i dare you!

feel better soon and don’t rush back to work.

carole x

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if your year 9’s are being ‘sweet’, beware, they may be organising for a revolt behind your back! sorry, humour, shame on me. you didn’t say whether or not there was the possibility that you have an infection of any type. not so long ago i had a UTI and it made it virtually impossible to stand/think/co-ordinate myself, it also had an weird effect on my vision too. i agree with others, we all need to remember that while we have MS, it doesn’t preclude the possibility of symptoms being a sign of other health issues. i had a haemorrhaging aneurism in my brain in 2012, and the medics had to work their way past MS before they got to what was actually happening, and so did i! because sometimes MS just isn’t enough for us, right?!

wendy x

you posted your reply while i was typing mine, i inserted humour into my post… i’m waiting for the knock on the door… it’ll be dark soon, they’ll use the search lights. see you all in 5-10 years then!

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damn, that might be seen as humour too, help me i’m drowning…

hehe wendy- the very same thoughts crossed my mind too (both of ‘smiling assassin’ year 9s, and of contraband risible comments and the potentially life-changing affects of their misuse). black h*mour is really the only way (and thats from a man who lives in essex).

re other illnesses, i hadn’t even thought of it. i don’t feel ill in any other way (sods law i’ll croak it after posting this), but will be vigilant of UTI et al as i’ve heard they’re horrendous. my poor dad (who was suffering dementia at 80 years old) got a UTI and it sent him totally crackers whilst he had it.

you’re so right about the nature of MS aka the ‘gift that keeps on giving’. are you ok after the aneurysm? sounds horrendous…

fluffyollie x

yes, black humour’s the way for me to go too, and i live near middlesborough, god help me. my mother had alzheimer’s, so i appreciate reference there too. as for the aneurysm (this time i haven’t ignored spell check, it still looks really wrong with a y in it) , it began with a ‘thunderclap headache’ i panicked, phoned upstairs to my daughter, got rushed to my local hospital… the next thing i know it’s 6 weeks later. so it was my poor daughter who had the horrendous time, not me. i was bloody lucky, basically, my daughter made me go to hospital, thankfully, i had a fabulous surgeon and luck on my side. you’re almost certainly having one of those delightful relapses we ‘enjoy’. i mention this as a cautionary tale only, something to be aware of.

wendy x