Let's Talk About S....

Get your mind out of the gutter! LOL!!! I'm talking about

Symptoms

I think I'll keep the other "S" word private, since I am technically still registered under "family friendly". And my Mom reads this. LOL!

I've been promising to share my list of symptoms but until now, I had forgotten. Sorry. We can add memory loss to the list, I guess. Here's some of them...

• Numbness in Arm and Hand
• Blurred Vision
• Vertigo
• Heat Sensitivity
• Trouble Sleeping (has improved)
• Hands Shaking
• Migraines
• Frequent Headaches
• Hallucinations
• Pins and Needles feeling on Hands and Feet
• Complete Loss of Peripheral Vision
• Pain in Legs, Back, Neck and Back of Head
• Constant Ringing/Buzzing sound in Ears
• Floaters
• Dizziness/Lightheaded usually when Standing
• Tunnel Vision
• Memory Loss :)
• Heart Palpitations - I'll confirm this next week with my neuro, not sure if it's a MS thing yet.

So there you go! That is a partial list of symptoms that I deal with, some everyday. And please don't freak out if you DON'T have MS but you have some of these symptoms. Diagnosis of MS involves a lot of tests, as I'm sure many of you have read about on this blog. And I don't just have the symptoms for no reason, I have them because of the lesions on my brain and spine.

My freakiest (but oddly enough, easiest to handle) symptom has been the hallucinations. How would you like to be snuggled-up to the one you love watching a movie late one evening and out of your peripheral vision you see this...

That's one scary S.O.B

Mine was a little worse though because the one I saw had dreadlocks the color of Carrot Top's hair. He was standing in my dining room and was about the height of the bar. The hallucination was very quick but I saw every bit of him. He was ugly like the picture above, and wearing pretty much the same thing. Dark clothes and a dark hat, minus the gold buckle on the front.

All of my hallucinations have been pretty freaky. I've had about 4 since May-ish of this year. They freak me out for a moment but then they're done. That's why they're the easiest of my symptoms.

The most annoying...

Blurred Vision - If I had to put a number on it I would say this happens 50-75 times a day. It's freakin' annoying!!! Most of the time, it's very quick, maybe 3 seconds and then my clear vision will come back. Maybe 15 of those times are longer, lasting 30 seconds to a couple of minutes. Before my diagnosis I blamed it on dry contacts. Some days I was cleaning them 3 times a day. Somedays I catch myself still trying to blink away the blur in hopes that it's just something on my lense. Of course, it doesn't work.

Pain - Pain, pain, everywhere. Ugh! I'm sure you can understand why this is one of my least favorite symptoms. Who wants to be in constant pain? BUT, I'm visiting my physical therapist for the first time tomorrow (Thursday) and hopefully he/she can help me work through it. I think I am most excited about this appointment because for me, it spells R.E.L.I.E.F.

Ringing/Buzzing in Ears - This is 24/7. Fan-Freakin-Tastic! Again, you can understand this one. It has been going on for months now and it never stops. The best way to describe what I'm hearing, turn on your BIGGEST TV and mute the audio. Then, go stand near your TV and listen to the sound it makes just from being on. That is the sound I hear 24/7. It can be ignored but at night, when the house is quiet, it's not!

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All people with MS experience all different symptoms. There are no two patients alike. That is why it's so difficult for a doctor to predict what your future may hold, what your symptoms may be, and how your body will respond to them.

In my eyes, it's sort of like a game of Russian Roulette. The lesions are the bullets, we may never get another lesion, or we may get one. Or, we will get many, many more. And when that 'bullet' strikes, it'll effect yet another thing that we currently take for granted.