I found this publication, by Dr Freed, who has also been DX with MS, the best I have read on the uniqueness of MS Fatigue. All of our Family and Friends should read it, to really understand what our fatigue is like.

Maybe they will stop trying to compare it with their fatigue. IT'S NOT THE SAME!! How many here, have heard "I know how ya feel, I'm tired too"? Make copies of this article, so you can roll it up and smack them with it. Or....they could read it.

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Fatigue In MS: What It Is, What It Does, How To Manage It

By J. Lamar Freed, Psy.D.

Every introductory article on Multiple Sclerosis (MS) that I've read mentions that many people with MS get fatigue. Health care professionals usually are informed about this effect of the disease as well. Despite this recognition, fatigue has not been taken as seriously nor viewed as profoundly as what the experience of people with MS merits.

Fatigue is a symptom of MS. But it is much more than that. Fatigue underlies and influences many of the other symptoms experienced by people with MS and profoundly influences their quality of life.

The brain's myelin-covered nerve cells send commands and information from one part of the brain to another or to other parts of the body. The essential mechanism of MS is that this communication is impeded or blocked by the destruction of the myelin sheath that surrounds and insulates the cells.

These communication cells serve as the superhighway to make messages travel quickly and easily. When the myelin has been destroyed or damaged, the information must bully through on less efficient channels which are often not ideally constructed for the task. It is like getting from New York to Washington without driving on I-95.

Depending on the locations and number of these myelin depleting lesions, communication within the brain may be profoundly disrupted. As happens with any drive that lasts too long, fatigue is one of the results.

Click the link for the remainder of the article....

http://www.lamarfreed.net/fatiguems.html

Hi Sally,

Very timely article for me to read today. Even though we just kind of mellowed out yesterday and watched football I still had to go to bed around 7:45pm. I slept until 11am but felt totally wiped out. I was back in bed by 12:30pm and slept until 2pm. Still not feeling refreshed or even with it at this point.

I'm concerned because we are going to visit my daughter on Sat and that is a 2 hour drive each way and we're only staying for the day. It's my second grandson's first birthday. Both sides of the family will be there so I'll have to "turn on the switch" and be congenial and pleasant. No time for naps.

Even though they still don't know what I have, NOT MS. I still have all of the symptoms and FATIGUE is definitely a big one I fight ever day.

Thanks for posting this Sally. I appreciate it.

"Living with fatigue means having to cope constantly with its unpleasant effects. Consider a tired child. How would you describe him or her? Grouchy, sullen, distractible, easily hurt, snippy, pessimistic, immature, picky, needy, demoralized, testy, easily pushed to anger or tears, remote, more prone to worry... These and many other things are often accurate. A tired child has more trouble concentrating. A tired child has no ambition. A tired child is a far different animal than what he or she was, sometimes just hours earlier. Then the child was cheerful, full of pep, precocious, smart, focused, impervious to criticism, immune to damage"

Hmmm - I resemble that remark...

Interesting article - thanks Sally.

Sally,

A couple of years ago I attended a mini fatigue seminar here in London Canada sponsored by the local MS Society. The guest neurologist stated that recent discoveries at the time indicated that MS fatigue may be caused by a lack of proper chemical activity within the cells of the brain. I never got a chance to ask the doc to elaborate on that because she had to leave and catch a flight back home.

My wife Marg, since progressing to SPMS, always had a terrible fatigue problem. She would wake up after a night's sleep, walk 30 feet to the kitchen using her walker at the time, and be exhausted! In June of 2000, she started to use Prokarin and one of the first, most dramatic changes in her condition back then was a huge reduction in fatigue. Six and half years later and still using Prokarin, she has been able to control this fatigue to a great extent.

Prokarin helps cells in the brain operate properly. Perhaps MS fatigue is indeed caused by some kind of chemical imbalance and has little to do with demylinated nerves. Just one more mystery about the disease.

Harry

Today I'm bone tired. When will I learn to quit over doing it? I guess never. I read the Dr. Freed's fatigue article and oh how I can relate.

Tomorrow I will try to have a restful day just wash clothes and play on the computer.

Hope the rest of you have a restful day too. Betty

Yah. I always thought that "fatigue" is the wrong word for how we feel. Because fatigue is used to describe a healthy person's sensation of tiredness, it is misleading.

I'd like a new word. Personally, I loved the metaphor on BT about 5 years ago, that "I am superman but there is kryptonite in the room" to describe MS fatigue.

I hereby announce that the new word for MS fatigue is "Kryptonitis"

I like it. From now on MS fatigue will be know as Kryptonitis or craptonitis, if you will.

Guess what today, I did nothing but rest, talk on phone, etc. I'm starting to feel better already. Betty

Good for you Betty. That's the way to beat fatigue..

Hugs,

Hi Sally,

I've linked a lot of people up to that article before because I agree that it describes our fatigue to a T. In fact, I sent a copy to my ex-boss and my sister (both workaholics) when I first read it, and never had another smart alec comment when I said that I was unable to do something because I was too tired.

I like the whole article though, because for me it gave me a "visual" of what is happening in our bodies; the superhighway, less efficient routes, etc. It felt good to something to point to, and a new confidence that this fatigue is really quite different from what "normies" feel.

Thanks for posting it.

Cherie