Talked to one of the other neuros at my neuro's office a little bit ago.

Told him I woke up this morning to weaker legs, my walking is really slow and if I have to go pee it takes a minute or two to get things going on that. I have more numbness around my waist.

He said for me to call on monday and see about getting more steroids, but that if things get worse before then to go to the ER that their office is associated with. (at least it's not all the way downtown or way out west of my house) and that I could get set up with an IV. (not real thrilled with that, I'm still trying to get over the side effects of the oral 'roids I had in december)

Why are things so weird? Last night, I was starting to feel a little bit better, didnt feel as sick and feel a little more steady. I went to bed and woke up to things feeling worse than it did. Only thing different is that I dont feel like I want to throw up all the time. I could barely move my right leg, and when I stood up from my bed, I had to stand there for a minute or two, holding onto my bed and the wall before I could hobble into the bathroom.

It doesnt seem like I have a big problem with moving my feet, but getting my legs to move from the hip area.

It just bugs me that I went to bed feeling like things werent that bad, and then I woke up to weakness and more numbness in my lower back and screwed up walking.

I'm soooo tired of this <lots of swear words>.

Erin,
I was doing good, no pain and last 2 days, with no changes I see me as making, without rhyme or reason, I've got pain where I never had it before at times and places and positions I never had it before. WTF? @#$%^&

Is it the weather? Sunspots? Is Mars in Venus or something?

This has just been a sucky MS year for me, and I'm just tired of having new crap hit every 6 to 8 weeks...and it just seems like it's out to get me as quickly as possible sometimes.

wish I wasnt so tired. I cant sit down anywhere for more than 5 minutes without falling asleep. (fell asleep while writing this.)

Erin, are you sure you don't have an underlying infection or something causing the sx to flare up? Maybe your doctor could do some blood work and other diagnostic testing (urinalysis maybe?) to make sure before you go the steroid route. They can be so brutal on your bones.

I'm so sorry Erin, for your pain..

Please do follow Kelly's good advise. You do not want to go on steroids if you have an infection!!!

I havent really had any typical UTI symptoms, but I am starting to wonder. I think it's probably a good thing that I've been drinking a lot of water if I do have a UTI.

I'd go now to the urgicare to get that checked, but they moved. Used to be less than a half mile from my house. Now they're 5 miles down the road. (before that, they were renting space from my regular doctor's office) It's also snowing/freezing rain/sleeting/frozen crap falling from the skies.

I just want to cry because it's sooooooo uncomfortable. I dont want to go anywhere, do anything. I've hardly even showered because of the energy it costs me to do that. My dad is cool. bought me a basic shower stool last night without me even asking. When I had my shower remodeled, I'd gotten a teak shower chair, and it ended up not working because it was wobbly on the floor of the shower. (floor is angled to allow water to drain, the teak stool had solid wood legs, not adjustable. Gave it to my mom to sit on in her bedroom when she's drying her hair.)

I havent used the new plastic shower stool yet, but I'm seriously considering it right now. I'm just really tired and dont want to have to spend the energy.

I'm pretty sure part of why I'm really kind of bugged by what's going on is the weather. It's freaking cold outside, I havent been out of the house for about a week...or longer and if I were to go somewhere I wouldnt be able to do much before I crash. I want to sit outside in the sunshine and knit and get mosquito bites. (ok, I dont really want mosquito bites, but I want it to be warm enough to sit outside)

I'm actually looking into getting some acupuncture. (not telling my doctors!) and I'm getting stuff together to send to a doctor in TX to get some LDN. (not telling my doctors about that either. They already treat me like I'm nuts) My dad said that he could pay for a few acupuncture's to see if it would help.

It's just hard to sleep when you're numb/MS Hugged from the chest down to your waist. Tonight the small of my back is burning and the burning is going down my left leg.

I'm just hoping this flare will let up and let me go back to normal for awhile (if that's possible)

I hope I'm not whining and kvetching (complaining) too much.

You've got so much going on, can't say you're whining too much!

The cold weather IS hard on us, I think. Here in New Mexico, some places have had their
coldest temperature EVER. And many places have no natural gas--no heat--supplies did not hold out (no excuse for this, methinks). I have heat in my house, but I can't even walk to the mailbox on my numb feet, because the ground is too cold.

I've been doing acupuncture since 1994. Weekly. She does not treat my M.S. The whole paradigm is different. I believe it helps my overall being to better contend with the chronic disease. It is not a cure by any means and its effects are cumulative. Don't be surprised if you start feeling worse before you start feeling better. The way she described it to me is that a fish that has been swimming in dirty water has adapted to the water. But when the sediment is stirred up from the tank, the water looks even worse and the toxins are readily accessible. Its not until the water is cleared out that any progress can be made.
The initial treatments typically stir up the 'water' and reveal what has settled in the tank. Be patient and give it a fair chance.

And it requires more responsibility on my part, to eat right avoid junk and keep my overall well being in check. Otherwise I am on re-dirty-ing the waters.
good luck

I am seriously considering the acupuncture, if anything it might make things that are not MS related feel better. I've had back problems since a car accident and a fall during a weird accident on a vacation. Maybe having something help that might help the MS, since it seems like most of my problems are coming from the spine. Maybe those back injuries are ticking off the MS?

I'm also thinking of massage. (preferably with a really cute guy doing it, but at this point I really dont care who's doing the massage as long as they know what they're doing and it makes my back stop hurting)

I really want to try the LDN. Kind of ticked that none of the doctors I've talked to will Rx it for me. I looked into getting it from out of state several months back, but have been a little scared to do that. I think I'm going to just go ahead and try this week to get the LDN. I dont think the LDN will hurt me if I try it.

I'm actually really disillusioned by the medical system. It seems like other than the occasional steroid or pain pill, they really cant do <swear word> for us. It kind of makes me feel like I've got the red-headed stepchild of serious illnesses.

I think it's the baclofen and valium that's making my legs weak. I havent had any baclofen or valium since about 7 or 8am (saturday morning) It's 3am sunday morning now, and my legs feel a little less weak. Not much, but a little.

I havent been taking the valium every day, so I think I can just drop that one. It's the baclofen that I want to back off on if I can. I just talked to a pharmacist and she told me that since I take 3 at night before I go to bed, that I should start out taking 2 1/2 for 3 days, and then 2 for 3 days. I want to see if I can back off to just one pill a day.

and then I'm asking for physical therapy to see if I can get back into shape and get my muscles strong again...maybe then I can actually use my membership to the gym instead of wasting that $30 a month.

I'm going to try taking 2 1/2 baclofen tonight. If I get woken up by a muscle spasm, I'm going to try to get up out of bed and stand and walk around on it till it lets up.

I'm hoping it's the baclofen causing the problem and not my spine.