How Many Weird MS Symptoms Can There Be?

Ok, so we've seen a lot of weird stuff through the years of my wife's MS. She has lost control of her throat and couldn't swallow, lost color and complete eyesight, felt weird pains and tingling, been numb all over or just in little spots, felt like her nerves were on fire, and a whole slew of other symptoms. This past week we were introduced to a couple of new ones for us. Now, we have been under a lot of stress lately. Life changes are happening and we are stressing, and hopefully we will have some kind of direction soon.

With all of the stress, I expect my wife to have issues. This time is no different, and she is having some weird stuff going on. The other day she woke up and had a pain shooting from her chest to the middle of her stomach. It was a piercing pain that would let up for awhile, and then come on full force. The pain stopped her in her tracks, and she wasn't able to do anything that day, but try to get in a position to stop the pain. This lasted a full day and even caused her discomfort when she was trying to go to bed. After a full night of sleep, the pain was gone, and there were no signs it had ever happened.

If it would have stopped there, I wouldn't have thought a whole lot about it. A few days later, she began to have severe stomach pain. If she laid completely still, the pain would subside for a bit, but as soon as she moved the pain would hit full blast and she would be bent over in agony. Again, the pain went all day and didn't subside until a full night of rest. The next day, the pain was gone, and her stomach was sore but it wasn't anything major.

On top of those issues, she has had shoulder issues for the past couple of weeks. Her shoulder catches when she raises it and she isn't able to raise her arm fully over her head. I know this, and maybe the other symptoms, are not all MS, but I do know that the stress the MS puts on the body seems to fatigue it to the point where she is more susceptible to other issues. This catch in her shoulder has been going on for awhile, and we are going to see the Chiropractor today to see if he can help.

It seems like through the years of writing this blog, I have repeated the mantra of stress and MS more than I would like. It truly amazes me how stress impacts the body, and how MS just magnifies that. We hope to find out some very important news over the next few days about our future, which should help to alleviate some of the stress, but until then we have to find ways to relax. Tonight we are going on a date, to relax and spend time just enjoying each other. It almost scares me to think of all the weird ways MS affects the body, and I would just as soon not find out. Stress, please go away!

Daughter Asking Hard Questions About MS

The other day me and my daughter went to the gym to shoot baskets. While at the gym, she and I were talking about how my wife has been struggling some and how she wasn't able to go with us that night due to her leg's being tired. So, during our conversation I really didn't think about any of it too much, but just tried to be as open and honest as possible with her. She asks questions periodically, but usually it is short lived and she doesn't dwell much on it. After we made it back to the house, she made an off hand comment that really got my attention.

She walked by me and told me to never let her get paralyzed. She had been thinking about how my wife has been numb a few times and how she didn't want to be that way. I talked to her for a minute about it, and she asked me if I thought she was going to have MS. We had talked about this before, but for some reason it was really on her mind that night. We talked for a short time about the chances that she had it, and she went on and didn't talk about it again. I know she is concerned about it, but I also know that she doesn't think about it much until my wife has been having issues.

I guess I feel a little more comfort right now in talking to her about all of it since there are some strides being made with CCSVI and the testing for vein issues. If and when we get to the point of testing my wife for vein issues, we will go ahead and test my daughter to see if she has any blood flow problems. I guess I'm pretty paranoid because lately she has been talking about being light headed and having some black out spells where she says everything goes dark. I pray that she doesn't have Multiple Sclerosis, but I have to be real and know that there is a chance. That's the last thing I would want for my little girl, to have to struggle with this dreaded disease like my wife has. I am sure she will talk to me about it again, and I'm sure I will have to answer some hard questions, but for now she just needs to be a teenage girl loving life.