MS Is A Pain In The Neck

I find myself wondering what new weird symptom can pop up with my wife's MS. We have been dealing with this crazy disease for years, and have seen a lot of different symptoms that may be associated with her MS, but there always seems to be some new symptom lurking around the corner. My wife has had the issues with the electrical shock shooting down her spine as I know many MS'ers have, but she has had a new problem lately. About a week ago she started having issues with the right side of her neck. Her gland was really swollen and her neck really hurt from the pressure the swollen gland caused. When she would turn her head many times she would feel a pinching in her neck and would have to try and keep her neck still.

Along with this problem has come another strange issue. Her whole right side has felt funny since the gland issue has started, and her right shoulder has had soreness and pain. Her right side feeling funny is nothing new, but the shoulder pain is a new issue that we don't remember happening before. Sometimes the pain shoots from her shoulder blade and sometimes the pain shoots from her collarbone. When it happens, she has to stop because it really takes her breath away and she has to really concentrate to begin to feel better. She has been having cramps in her shoulder blades forever, but the shooting pain and the collarbone are new. Not sure what all is causing this, but I know the massage therapist commented on how wrecked her shoulder area is and how hard it is to get her body to loosen up.

I wish that was everything that was going on, but she has had another past villain show up. Under her arm she has an area that is extremely sensitive, and reminds her of shingles. She has had shingles multiple times before and many times it is in the armpit area. This is extremely uncomfortable for her, and it seems to come and go. So, she is having the cramps and pains in her shoulder and collarbone, and then she can't move her arm much because of the sensitivity issue. What a life it has been lately. She is doing much better the last few days, and I think we are past the main issues this time around. We are about to go on a 4 week trip to areas of the US setting up displays, so maybe we can find some time to just relax and rest. I know it would do both of us a lot of good.

Shingles With MS

My wife had a familiar pain this past week during our trip. One morning she was raising her arm awkwardly and telling me about the sharp pain in her armpit area. She said it felt like needles poking her and anything touching it made it worse. She has dealt with this type of pain before when she had shingles. She even had the shingles in the same area as this pain, which really worried her. I remember that the pain she felt the last time this happened was extreme. She would walk around with her arm raised so that there wasn't anything touching the sensitive areas. She was able to recover from it after a week or so, but it was not a pleasant experience.

This past week it seemed to move on her. The pain started in the armpit area and then moved to her arm. After about an hour, the pain went away and she only had one other short episode all week. This is not a common problem for her, so it took her by surprise when it started hurting. I am very glad it came and went, and I really hope that it doesn't start hurting again. This type of pain is very different from the "normal" MS pain that she feels, and I could see the nervous look on her face when it started. We know she pushed too hard this last week and the stress is taking it's toll on her body. I know she didn't have any sensitive areas this morning, so hopefully this was an isolated problem.