My first appointment with a neurologist is in a couple of days and I have not been diagnosed with MS. However, I am struggling hugely with muscle twitching, stabbing pain under my fingernails and right bicep, tingling in my face, and sever nerve pain in my legs and arms.
Several months ago I had a bit of an attack where the symptoms became uncontrollably painful. I tried a TENS machine and naproxen which helped somewhat. In January, I experienced the same escalation but to a different extreme and the TENS machine/naproxen did nothing. After that second episode the twitching, tingling, and weakness in my arms hasn’t gone away. As I mentioned, I have not been diagnosed with MS but I am curious to know what people have done at home apart from medications to help with symptom relief. Given my appointment is only a couple of days away I’m not keen to go in to my doctor.
keep you gp informed of how you are feeling.
have more appointments with them than you usually have.
maybe your gp can suggest other ways of managing pain.
i found mindfulness meditation helped, mainly because it helped me to relax.
meditating doesn’t make the pain go away but it requires concentration so it takes your mind off the pain.
CBD will help if you can get it.
Hello Runner
If your neurology appointment is very soon, I suggest you save the question of pain relief to ask the neurologist.
At that appointment, you’d normally expect to go through the history of what has happened to you and when, whether any symptoms have improved or just stayed the same, and any pain you are experiencing.
You should also have a neurological examination.
The neurologist may decide to refer you for more tests, such as an MRI and maybe Evoked Potentials and/or Lumbar Puncture (among others, depending on your symptoms and physical exam).
At that point, you can ask about neuropathic pain relief. The doctor may suggest something that will help a lot more than anything any of us suggest, since it will depend not just on the pain you are experiencing, but also what they think is causing it.
If you still have several days to wait and are in severe pain, I’d ask your GP for advice. They could prescribe something that might help (I’m thinking about drugs like Amitriptyline which are quite commonly prescribed for many types of neuropathic pain).
Good luck with the appointment, try if you can to take someone with you to help you remember everything that’s said. It’s very common to leave an appointment and immediately ask ‘what did s/he say?’
Sue