Weird and Unusual

Weird and unusual could be the name for MS. It is a disease with so many symptoms, that no two patients present the same. I have symptoms that have been with me since the beginning, and others that come and go, just to make life interesting.

One of the strangest sensations I’ve had is a feeling of wet. Yep, you read that right. I would walk across the kitchen floor and feel like I had walked through a puddle. My poor cat, he took some blame for this in the beginning. I would check the floor, find it clean and dry, and realize this was just another one of those MS things.

Not only did I feel this sensation when walking, it would happen when I sat down. I can’t tell you the number of times I’d sit down in a chair only to jump to my feet because I thought someone had spilled something on the chair. I’d wipe my hand across the surface, find it dry, and sit. I had to check, each and every time, just in case there actually was a spill. Annoying, for sure, but it was just part of my life. I haven’t had that sensation for awhile, so I wonder if it occurred more often when I was working, and in a constant state of fatigue.

Have you ever gotten those spasms in your feet where your big toe goes in one direction and the other four toes another. It’s like a cramp, sometimes irritating, other times extremely painful. I found it best to just wait it out, the spasm never lasts long. If it was too painful, I’d try to stand my foot on a solid, colder type floor. So the bathroom or kitchen floor rather than a carpeted bedroom.

From the beginning, and to this day, I have no feeling in the outer aspect of my left thigh.

Here’s one of the weirdest. I see…let me rephrase that, I have the sensation of seeing or feeling bugs. At least I think its bugs. I can be sitting in my chair and think I see a bug scurry across the table or on the bed when I’m reading at night. I see that flicker of movement and quickly look, but there is never anything there. Sometimes it’s the sensation of something crawling over my arm, again no bugs. I know it’s not real, because after all these years you’d think I would have seen a bug, if that’s what it was. Since I hate spiders, this can be annoying, so I always have to check.

I think these are what are known as Paroxysmal Symptoms of MS. More on that next time.