Hot tubs can put MSers in the soup

  

Jumping in the Jacuzzi may sound appealing when muscles spasm and joints ache. Whiling away time in a steamy whirlpool can sound soothing.

 

 

  Lounging in a steamy hot tub may rejuvenate some folks, but it can utterly wipe out someone with MS.

 

Not so for anyone living with multiple sclerosis.

 The hot tub can be one of our worst enemies, when it comes to managing life with MS. It’s pretty much on par with a sit in the sauna, when it comes to triggering MS troubles.

 Heat is not our friend. (Actually, extreme temperatures in either direction can set off our symptoms.  But overheating is a big baddie for us.) 

 Is a sauna soothing for someone with MS? Not so much.

 Uhthoff’s Phenomenon (aka Uhthoff’s Sign) is a classic experience among MSers. When the body temperature goes up, our neurological symptoms generally increase too. That means a cozy dip in the hot tub can invite extra balance problems, blurred vision, confusion, dizziness, fatigue, numbness, pain, tingling, weakness, and other MS woes.

Once our bodies cool down again, some of those symptoms may subside, usually within 24 hours.

 Is it worth all that, just for a short jaunt in the jetted tub?

 

Related items:

• Autumn brings MS relief
• Heat intolerance - Facing MS symptoms from A to Z
• Remember hot showers? Not with MS.
• Remember when bathing didn’t make you blind?
• Thermostat wars and MS
• With MS, a hot flash may not be a hot flash at all.

 

 

Image/s:  Public domain photos, Pixabay

 

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Can MS mess with your handwriting?

 

I’m pretty sure living with multiple sclerosis has something to do with my penmanship becoming nearly illegible chicken scratch.

 I’m having flashbacks to elementary school, where we sat and scratched out basic cursive writing on those tri-lined newsprint note pads for hours on end. We weren’t allowed to quit until our letters matched those on the cursive ABC strip that lined the top of the blackboards at the front of the classroom. 

  Now in middle age, I find my never-perfect, but perfectly acceptable, penmanship has turned into a sketchy scrawl. Can I blame this on MS, or could it be attributed to some other factors?

 Is my sloppy scribing from aging and arthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome, writer’s cramp, or MS spasticity?

 Or perhaps I’m simply out of practice, because of my current reliance on typing and dictating to Siri (who has a frequent affinity for homonyms, which can be downright hysterical at times).

 If you live with MS, have you noticed a change in your own handwriting?

 

Related items:

• It's not writer's cramp. It's M.S.
• MS comorbidities: Welcome to the party!
• MS episode: Is it a relapse, a new lesion, or what?
• MS makes me clumsy sometimes.
• My hand is numb. Is it MS again?
• Trail tumble: No wrist for the wicked

 

Image/s:  Adapted from public domain image.

 

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Pain & fitness: Sometimes the answer is the last thing we wanna do

 

Feels like sciatica, I sighed. Actually, I may have used less scientific and more graphic terminology. And it may have been the all-too familiar nerve pain that can come with having multiple sclerosis.

 

But let’s not split hairs here.

 My lower back was giving me agony. Bending, stretching, twisting, and even standing still hurt. Sitting and reclining were the worst.

 I moaned and groaned (mostly to myself, but more than once to a couple of others) for two days. I spent two whole nights, squirming and wincing and trying to find a sleep-able position. Didn’t happen.

 Ask any MSer what happens when we get overtired. It’s not pretty. And I was there.

 

Something had to change.

 Finally, on the third day, I dragged myself out of bed, hobbling like a fairy tale monster. I forced my feet into my sneakers and made my way to the gym for a stretch/cardio/strength class. Honestly, I expected to limp out of the session early.

 

But it actually helped.

 Moving was the last thing I felt like doing. The mere idea of stretching made me want to cry.

 As it turns out, all that activity was just what I needed. Isn’t that often the case?

 

This can take all sorts of forms.

 Maybe it’s physical therapy. It might be walking up and down the driveway once or twice. It could even be taking a shower, when symptoms are making the MS life extra tough. The thing that could help the most still draws our dread.

 When we make that move, we may be surprised to find some relief.

 

Let’s not get carried away here, though.

 It’s easy to overdo things, while battling MS. When we are able to get up and get going, we may be tempted to go all-out, making up for lost time (when we were sidelined). That’s a danger zone. We know it. But we still fall into that trap.

 I’m not throwing shade at anyone who is immobilized today, with the MS MonSter attacking in full force. The battle looks different for each of us.

 It’s just that sometimes I need the extra internal shove to work out some relief. Anyone else know the feeling?

 Let’s hope I don’t regret today’s workout tomorrow (or even tonight).

 

Related items:

 ·        Beware the MS hiatus hangover

·        Despite MS, sometimes we just have to take it to the limit

·        MS makes me clumsy sometimes.

• MS makes me wanna cheer anyone struggling to exercise
• Who wants to exercise when your head is pounding?

 

Image/s: Adapted from public domain image/s.

 

 

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Remember hot showers? Not with MS.

  Hot showers are the stuff of nightmares for those us battling multiple sclerosis. The MS MonSter makes steamy, soothing, scorching-hot showers altogether impossible.

 

Got sore muscles? Spasticity? A hot shower or bath might be just the ticket for most folks suffering from all sort of aches and pains and muscle cramps. But not for the MSer.

 Maybe it’s worse in the summertime. Temperatures soar outdoors, while homes, workplaces, stores, and other indoor spots are chilled.  The extremes can make us reel, especially when we step into a steaming shower or bathtub.

 

If you live with MS, have you experienced any of these scenarios?

•  Does your vision blur in the shower, even more than the mirror or shower doors do?
•  Did you ever had to step out of the shower (maybe still soapy), just to recapture your own bearings?
•  Have you grabbed the handrail mid-shower, because you lost your balance?
•  Did you ever climb out of the tub and have to lie down in total exhaustion for a few minutes before drying off and dressing?
•  Have you forsworn hot baths, knowing they’ll do more harm than good?

 I can raise my hand for all of these questions, as long as I haven’t just climbed out of the shower. Then I might need a moment to recover first.

 Of course, a cold shower would be bad for spasticity, which plagues most MSers anyway. So it’s all about finding a happy medium between fainting and freezing.

And don’t get me started on saunas or hot tubs.

 

Related items:

• Heat intolerance – Facing MS symptoms from A to Z
• Is sunshine good or bad for MS?
• My shower looks like a crime scene
• Remember when bathing didn’t make you blind?
• What’s a weather-related migraine?
• With MS, a hot flash may not be a hot flash at all.

 Image/s: Adapted from vintage movie still. Pub. Dom.

 

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My hand is numb. Is it MS again?

Oh, no. Not again. I woke up in the wee hours of the night and realized one hand was completely numb. Even though I was awake, this single paw was still asleep. Did multiple sclerosis cause this?

It’s happened before. MS has knocked out the feeling in one hand, one foot, or another random body part before. It’s not uncommon for that to happen to an MSer. And the feeling usually returns at some point. Maybe it takes a few minutes, a couple hours, or even several days. But it always seems to come back.

I shook my hand a little. I tried to wiggle my fingers. They worked. I made a weak fist, and my hand started to tingle.

Those are good signs, I thought.

Still, my hand was asleep. And it felt cool to the touch. I groaned and wondered: What’s this all about?

I quickly considered several possible reasons for this strange loss of sensation in one mitt. Surely it wasn’t a stroke, a spinal cord injury, or another particularly scary occurrence.  I hadn’t caught frostbite in the night, huddled under my cozy quilt. I was pretty sure I had not suddenly picked up carpal tunnel syndrome while sleeping.  I don’t have diabetes, Raynaud’s disease, Lyme disease, or another potentially numbing disorder – except MS.

Did MS make my hand go numb while I dozed?

I clicked on my bedside light and looked at my hand.

Aha! There’s the culprit.

I had a spare hair tie looped around my wrist, which must have swollen somewhat while I slept. I slipped the band off and spotted the ring-like indentation in my skin.

Sometimes there really is a simple explanation.

Now, that’s a relief – this time around.

Image/s:

Generated by this user on meme tool

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