Monday, September 28, 2009

Change Of Season Brings On The Pain

The weather in Eastern New Mexico has been changing and fall seems to be here. We have had cool days and nights and lots of moisture. Usually this time of year plays havoc with my wife's MS. When the weather starts to change it seems to stir up her leg issues and pain issues in her body. It is almost like arthritis that hurts when a storm is coming. She will be doing great then a big weather change will come and the pain starts in the joints and other areas of her body. With the rapid changes lately it has been interesting to see how her body has reacted.

One way my wife has helped with this issue is to wear thermals on cold days. This seems to keep her body temp more level and her body doesn't become so cold that she begins to hurt. If the weather changes and then stays cool, then there aren't as many issues. It makes it worse when it keeps changing hot to cold and then back to hot. I know my dad has the same problems with his Rheumatoid Arthritis. Strange how these two diseases have some of the same issues and how they can both be "stirred" up by many of the same things. I know my wife will be happy when the weather decides what it's going to do.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Tingling Comes And Goes With MS

Toes tingling, feet tingling, leg tingling, arm tingling and that's just been in the last few days. My wife's MS seems to be acting up since she has completely worn herself out the last few weeks. Even with extra sleep during the mornings, she is still struggling to finish the day without having some tingling or pain in her legs or feet. Tonight she even had an odd pain in her ankle area right above the ankle bone. By the end of the day she has been limping and dragging one of her legs most of this last week. Tonight was no different, she came home dragging her left leg and having pain issues up and down her thigh. She just took a hot bath to relax her legs and it seems to have helped.

The tingling has come and gone with the amount of stress she has put on herself this last week. The more rest she gets, the less tingling and issues. The more stress, whether it is physical or emotional, the more tingling and issues she has. Yesterday was probably the worst I have seen her in a while. Her eyes showed it all. I have always been able to look at her eyes and tell how she is doing. Yesterday they looked bad and I immediately setup and appointment for a massage to try and relax her to see if that would help. It did help, and she was doing better last night. We have noticed that after a massage she can have some odd reactions. We are not sure if it the toxins that are stirred up during the massage or something else, but last night she was having chest pain which is usually a sign of low Potassium. By this morning she felt really great and her eyes looked much better.

One difference my wife commented about tonight was that her eyesight was very good when we were driving home. Normally she has problems seeing clearly at night and making out things in the distance. Tonight she was very excited about how well she could see and commented that she wishes it was like that all the time. I guess we will see if it is the same tomorrow. We feel like some of this may be from the massage and just relaxing. Yesterday was the first time we tried this particular massage therapist and we both feel like her massage technique has really helped. Her massage style was different than anything we have done, so we are very excited to find a method that seems to help. For tonight my wife is dealing with a little bit of pain and some tingling, but nothing major. After a good night's sleep I am sure she will be off to another day of overdoing and stress. I wouldn't expect anything else from her after fourteen years of marriage.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Legs Tingling With MS

This last week has been pretty tough on my wife. Lots of emotional stress and physical stress just wore her body out. She has had fatigue, overheating, headaches, pain in different parts of her body and tingling in her legs and feet. Last night she told me that her legs were tingling in a different place than normal. They were tingling along the outsides of her thighs, which she has had before but it is usually in conjunction with the top of her thighs. She said it felt very funny for just the outside of her thighs to tingle. She knew she needed to rest so she took a bath to relax and went to bed early.

Leg issues and Multiple Sclerosis seem to go hand in hand. It seems like most people I meet with MS have experienced tingling, pain and other issues with their legs. My wife's legs have always been a part of her MS symptoms, and we have always been able to reverse the problem with rest, chiropractic and nutrition. She just walked into my office a moment ago and the tingling is gone for now. She is walking and moving fine today, but it is another reminder that stress can bring about an MS issue. We have already had to change our plans this weekend so that we don't stress her body anymore than we have to. For now we will both have to be aware of what all she is doing and how much walking etc. she has to do. She will have to rest this coming week because she is going to be on her feet the following week at a Display for our Children's Home. Just another "normal" week with MS.

Monday, September 7, 2009

Tingling Feet With Multiple Sclerosis

Today my wife came home with tingling feet. She wore herself out earlier this week and her legs have felt "tired". She has also had some tingling on and off in her feet, but today it seemed to be aggravated by her shoes as much as anything else. She came home earlier and immediately took off her tennis shoes and explained that they felt tight today and were making her feet tingle. Once the shoes were off, her feet weren't tingling so much and felt better. The tightness of the shoes rubbing on her feet seemed to make the issue worse. After sitting for awhile her feet felt better and she knew she needed to rest or have more issues.

After overheating earlier this week my wife slept and tried to rest and stay off her feet and legs. Her legs seem to be the first thing to have issues when she is tired and over exerting herself. We felt like it was important to see a chiropractor quickly so we went and visited a new chiropractor that we have been trying since we moved. This new Dr. has been practicing for awhile but has no experience with MS patients and uses a little different technique than we are used to. After the adjustment my wife was very sleepy and felt OK, but still wasn't doing great. It showed us once again that not all chiropractors are equal even if they use similar techniques. We are on the hunt for another chiropractor and will continue to make sure she rests. Through experience we know that it is very important for her to rest as much as possible over the next few days or this will become worse. There's never a dull moment when dealing with Multiple Sclerosis.

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Overheated With MS

My wife hasn't struggled with heat like many MS patients, but this week the heat got the best of her. One morning this week my wife started out working outside helping in the sheep barn on our campus. It wasn't very hot, but she was having to hold the sheep while someone else worked with the animal. When she finished she was pretty tired, and she could tell that her legs were already worn out from the physical exertion. After she finished that, she was helping stock groceries in the grocery room on our campus which has no A/C. After a few hours of working in the heat her body finally decided it had enough. She began to feel "funny" and couldn't explain what was going on with her body.

She called me about that time and asked if I could go back and finish the work for her that she started. She was very sorry for not being able to finish and would have tried to go and do it if I wouldn't have insisted that she lay down and rest. She explained to me that one of the main issues she was having was that she overheated through all that she did that morning. Once she becomes overheated, it seems to take forever for her to cool down. She called me after about an hour and was doing better but was still not feeling well. She rested most of that day, and slept much of the next day. She was feeling better after the sleep but still didn't feel like everything was OK. I think the hard thing to understand with her is that it bothered her more that she was letting the others down by not finishing the job than concern about her actual health. She never wants to feel like her MS causes anyone to be inconvenienced.