You've done a good job of explaining how it felt for me.

I think you will get about as many different explanations as you will people who have it.

I felt like I was being crushed. Couldn't catch my breath and it came as fast as it went.

It was like someone has taken a big ace wrap and wrapped it so tight around my mid section and it just wouldn't give. And then sat on my chest.

Do a search on this site for MS Hug and you will find several threads about it.

This might help.


http://ms.about.com/od/signssymptoms/a/ms_hug_pain.htm

I don't get the sitting on the chest feeling, however I get the 'girdle' sensation of the ace bandage around the waist. More annoying for me than painful.

For me the hug feels like a braxton and hicks contraction but without the actual contraction. Drives me nuts when it happens (though it is a very short drive)

Kathy

They used to call it the "girdle", and I think that described the sensation better then the "hug". It is like a very wide elastic stretched to the max, wrapped around a person, then released to synch them up tight around the middle.

As per the link Cheryl posted, "It is caused by a lesion on the spinal cord" and "is technically classified as a neuropathic pain called a “paresthesia,” which refers to any abormal sensation". Some "abnormal sensations" we get with MS include:

"Paraesthesia describes a number of abnormal sensations just about anywhere in the body. These include tingling, prickling, pins and needles, electrical-type buzzing, burning, skin crawling, itching, partial numbness (like feeling through tent-cloth) and a variety of neuropathic pains."

http://www.mult-sclerosis.org/paraesthesia.html

When I had the hug, I had ALL of those sensations combined with a feeling like I was swollen. I also had severe sensitivity to touch, as if someone was scrubbing me with a SOS pad when they slightly brushed my skin.

I have had a heaviness in the chest too, with "apparent" difficulty breathing, but had a COPD test and all was fine. This occurred at the end of a spinal lesion attack, after all the other "hug" sensations went away.

I don't know if we really have a satisfactory description of what the "hug" is. What has me a bit stumped about your explanation is that pain relievers do not usually help at all (or very, very little) for neuropathic pain.

If it were me, I'd be considering GERD or something like that instead.

Cherie

Thanks for replies..I know its hard to explain pain and also I forgot to mention that an echo was done on my pancreas. My PCP was thinking maybe pancreatis. That was normal also. Cherie, I was kinda thinking of GERD also. Again, thanks Ya'll

Someone else I know thought she was having the hug for the longest time, and it turned out to be a gallbladder problem . . .

GERD can feel very, very strong, almost like a heart attack. A lot of us seem to have this condition too.

Cherie