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Monday, December 5, 2011

That MS hug

It had been several years probably five or six since I had experienced this awful symptom.     It is often described as the MS hug and believe me that is exactly what it feels like.

The first time it happened we were getting ready to leave on a trip I felt this tightening of my chest accompanied by a lot of pressure.   The first thing you think of is a heart attack after all this is a most common symptom linked to heart attacks .

Add to this the reality that I've been living with my left hand, arm and a portion of my face continuously numb and you will understand why a trip to the doctors was mandatory.

Everything came back normal, there was no problem at all the ECG, chest x-ray and whatever else they did came back clear. Mentioning it to the neurologist several weeks later he indicated it must've been my chest going into spasms?

From what I understood your legs, arms would go into spasms but your chest that I did not understand.

I was reminded of this Saturday evening around 6 PM starting with the tightness in my chest and as Jack Nicholson said in one of his movies felt like I had an elephant sitting on my chest.        In bed by 8:30 PM I spent the night tossing and turning popping tums a few aspirins and everything else I would normally take.                I was fine the next morning except for being wasted after spending the night awake.         This morning things were much better it was another bout with spasms as I could feel the muscles in my chest and my back painful yet nothing one of those heat pads and a few pain killers couldn't take care of.   Another day or so and things should be back to normal.

There is no doubt if you should have this type of experience the first thing to do is to contact your doctor, go to emergency whatever you need to act on it now.   It could be signs of a oncoming heart attack.   Definitely not something you want to mess with contact your doctor or the emergency department ASAP.

Since I was diagnosed with MS I've experienced this condition three times and each time the symptoms and the result are the same.        Scary you bet, painful yep during and after, not something that appears to happen often and I hope you never have to experience what is known as the MS hug!

2 comments:

Karen said...

This was one of my early symptoms that started the long investigation into just what the heck was wrong with me.. I too thought I was having a heart attack.

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