I've never really had much pain with my MS. But lately I've been having pain in my hands, legs and hips.

I attribute the leg and hip pain to my gait. It just stands to reason that it would eventually make me ache in those areas.

My hands are different, though. It's more of a deep in the bones type pain. My right hand is numb so it feels different than the pain in my left hand. It's so hard to explain all the different "feelings" of pain I have.

I've been diagnosed since 2005 but feel I've had MS many years before that.

For those of you who experience daily pain is this just par for the course? Does it take a while before pain becomes an everyday thing?

I've brought this up to my Neuro before and he sort of just shrugs his shoulders and says that's just part of MS.

I don't take any heavy duty pain meds. Just Tylenol and Aleve and they seem to help......for now. I do take Baclofen for spasticity in my legs at night.

Besides PT what have you found that helps?

Kitty,

I have always had a problem with my legs aching. I usually get some relief with heat from an electric blanket wrapped around them. My neuro isn't very happy to hear I use heat but that's what works for me.

It's interesting that OTC meds help your pain. My neuro told me a long time ago that OTC pain meds will not help neuropathic pain and for me this has been true.

If I treat my pain with OTC medication and it doesn't help I know it's neuropathic.

My neuro never said anything about the OTC meds. I'm wondering if maybe the pain I'm having in my hands is arthritis?

I get severe pains in my hands. Gets so bad at times it feels like my hand bones are about to break. I have never had good luck with OTC meds for this, and have been taking baclofen and tizanadine for the pain, but its not working well anymore. I have had MS for 21yrs now, and the first 19yrs was pain free. Seems MS is making up for lost time with the pain for me. There are no more pain free days for me, but as everyone knows, each person is an individual and MS hits everyone differently. Hope you can find something that helps with your pain.

Since chronic pain has not been a major part of your MS in
the past, I would say it sounds like what I have....MS&Aging.
Of course you being young enough, almost, to be my DD, it's
not as much for you as for me, but some women start to age
earlier than others. I've always been a late bloomer..

Like my DH used to say, the 'itis boys are after me again ...
Arthur and Burrs..

it could be that the pain is something altogether different; like arthritis or carpal tunnel.

i'm not a good person to ask about pain since i am in pain every day, most of the day. heat and massage help but now i'm on oxycodone which doesn't help that much. i have a lot of muscle pain but not spasms.

i'm seeing a pain specialist which might not be a bad idea for you. or maybe a rheumatologist. the minute you said your dr throws his hands up when it comes to your pain i got really ****** off. let him try to function in pain everyday. URRRR.

i also wonder if any PT eval might help.
let us know how you are.

I've been having some pain too. I think a lot of it is actually a lack of exercise. Which I'm trying to start doing. I was thwarted in my attempt today.

I was going to start going to the same place that I've been doing PT at. I finished PT on friday, and was going to start their wellness program. ($30/month and can use any of their machines I want to use, except for the electro-stim machine).

I was supposed to be there for the orientation for it at 2pm. Took my mom out for lunch, and while we were sitting there, she casually mentioned that she didn't like it that she couldn't see well out of her left eye. (WHAT!?) I asked when that started, and she said "oh...last night" (again...WHAT?!?) She's just now mentioning it?

The last time she had a vision problem was last summer when she got West Nile virus. The day after she started having that vision problem (diplopia/double vision) she went to the hospital and went into a coma for a couple of weeks. So, naturally I panicked a bit. Called my dad at home and told him what my mom just said. So, he got her an appointment this afternoon, and I ended up cancelling my appointment for the wellness program orientation because he had to take her to the eye doctor.

I can't drive my car at the moment. Partially because it's a stick shift and I'm not sure I can drive it with the way my legs have been feeling lately, and partially because it's dead. (my car thinks I don't love it anymore. The battery died of loneliness) I had to let my dad take the van, since mom's eyes are more important than me walking on a treadmill for ten or fifteen minutes. I can do that on wednesday.

So, this afternoon, I'm doing the exercises that I learned at PT here at home. I also found an easy way to use our exercise bike. It's kind of hard to get onto the bike the normal way (it's a recumbent bike, and lifting one leg over the side of the bike is uncomfortable) I took my computer chair into the room the bike is in, and parked it in front of the bike where the pedals are. Then I sat down on the chair and put my feet on the pedals and pedaled the bike. It's kind of backwards, but the bike doesn't care if you're pedaling forwards or backwards. I don't get to use handlebars, and I had to make sure my computer chair was locked so it didn't tip backwards, but it worked.

I pedaled on it for a couple of minutes, since it's the first time I've attempted that. I'm hoping if I do that at least three or four times a week, that it'll help. Hoping I can move up on how many minutes I can sit there and do that. Plus, hoping that I can sit normally on the bike eventually.

I really think that a lot of my pain is just from sitting too much. I have a lot of fatigue, so it's kind of easy to just sit here. I need to try to do things that make me move around and make the muscles actually do things.