The Pain

I don't often talk about the pain I feel as an MS sufferer. Not just on the blog, but to anyone.

I've been suffering with it for so long, it's just become part of me now. The awful aching, the sensitivity, the burning pain, it all just gets lumped into the wonderful MS package.

However, I actually sat down with my consultant this week, and brought it up. For years I've been experiencing intense pain if anything knocks me, or I scratch an itch, for example. The area just flares up and burns intensely and it occurs all over my body. Last night I was taking off my shoes, and my foot slipped and the shoe hit me in the ankle. I nearly hit the ceiling. It's honestly painful enough for me to have to sit bunched up for a few minutes until it subsides.

I know what you're thinking....it can't be THAT bad. Or maybe I just have a low pain threshold, but no. I know I don't. I gave birth twice with no painkillers, so no, I've always been kind of proud of my high pain threshold.

This is something different.

When I mentioned the type of pain to my consultant, he said,

'No. That's not normal with MS'.

He said it could be something called allodynia. But it's normally just in one place, not over the entire body. He seemed a bit stumped, and is writing a letter to my GP.

It's only when I started researching allodynia, that I got onto fibromyalgia.

The symptoms match to a tee...even down to it often causing IBS, which I suffer from.

Symptoms of Fibromyalgia

• Widespread pain
• Extreme sensitivity
• Stiffness
• Fatigue
• Poor sleep quality
• Cognitive problems
• Headaches
• IBS

Some symptoms overlap with MS (stiffness, fatigue, cognitive problems), but the rest is definitely what I'm experiencing on top of everything else. The poor sleep quality is especially an issue at the moment.

But what can be done?

My consultant mentioned that the drugs to take for allodynia (the same taken for fibromyalgia, namely gabapentin and pregabalin) can be addictive, not really help, make you feel sleepy, and can flare up depression.

Now, I'm not really down for that. Having to deal with the kids, means I just don't want to take anything that makes me feel groggy, and I struggle enough with depression as it is!

So I looked into other therapies for fibromyalgia

Alternative therapies

• Swimming in a heated pool
• Exercise
• Cognitive behavioural therapy
• Psychotherapy or counselling
• Relaxation techniques
• Aromatherapy
• Massage
• Acupuncture

That gives me something to be going on with. I'm trying to up my exercise at the moment anyway (though in the depressed state I'm in at the moment, that's hard to get my head around). I think relaxing as much as possible, is something to aim for, and I think I'm going to try and start counselling and chase up my CBT that was meant to begin.

Needless to say, I'm going to make an appointment with my doctor to hopefully get a diagnosis, or at least talk to them about it.

Watch this space....