Had to go to ER again last night
 

Back in April 17th, I had went to the ER due to squeezing in my waist really bad, like right under your stomach and above your private parts. It started tolerable on a Monday, but by Wednesday night I was hurting so bad that I couldn't get any relief. They gave me pain meds then, and sent me home. I talked to my neuro, which he said to come off of Rebif, but MS Lifelines AND my primary care doctor told me not too, that it was a symptom of MS, and not of Rebif which is the MS meds I'm currently taking (just took my 4th 44mcg shot today btw) which later my neuro agreed with them. Well, the pain did go away eventually around April 23rd.

This past Wednesday evening around 5pm, I started hurting in my waist again, this time with a major headache. I missed church, and went to sleep around 7pm and woke up around 930pm, and then couldn't sleep until 4am. Woke up around 1030am, and still in pain. I did take Motrin and Tylenol the day before but it didn't help. I called my neuro and left a message with the nurse asap, and he never did. So around 630pm, I called my primary care doctors emergency number, and left a message. He called me within 10 minutes, and said the best thing to do was go to an ER. So I did.

This time though, they gave me medicine that took the pain away, but I was really sore. The pain this time I forgot to mention was the squeezing of my waist, along with my entire legs were tense and twitching and hurting, along with my lower back. The pain hurt even worse when I walked. Which when the hospital doctor touched my lower back, it was more tender than everything else. I was in so much pain until after they gave me the meds, and then I was just sore for the rest of the night.

They sent me home with a prescription of Predizone as a steriod to take for 5 days, and Tramadol. I went to sleep last night around 2am and woke up at 1pm today. I was sore for most of the day, and laid down on the couch mostly. Then as the day progressed, the pain started to come back in my lower back, I felt the squeezing but it's not as bad as it was. I've took my meds already for the night.

The hospital doc said that maybe it could be possible a disk in my back is whats causing this, or a symptom of the MS. He was a much older doc than I had last time. Plus they did like 10 x-rays on me when I was there, but he said they didn't show anything wrong and the blood work was fine. I'm not sure why this is happening again, but it was a much worse experience than last time.

What I feel right now is some pain in my waist, more in the back than the front, and my legs feel really tighter than normal, esp my knees hurts. Almost feels like I've ran a marathon.

My neurologist finally called me today at 545pm. I told him what happened and he thinks it was a MS Hug and to take the meds prescribed and lets see what happens. What is so weird is that exactly one month apart this pain has happened.

I'm not sure what to do, but I feel as though as the bad pain is coming back. What do you suggest I do?

I'm sorry, but sometimes other than getting a pain med or a muscle relaxer from a doctor, a lot of times you can't do anything about the Hug other than wait it out.

I've been doing exercises for the spasticity I get from the MS (the Hug is one of the forms that spasticity can take) and stretching can help, but you really have to keep up on it. Something that I'm bad about sometimes.

Several years ago, I had the Hug around my ribs really bad. It really really hurt, and I couldn't get anyone in my family to believe me about how bad the pain was. All the doctor did was give me baclofen and gabapentin. (gabapentin did nothing for me btw, other than make me get edema and gain weight) I ended up just having to sit there and wait it out. I did buy a TENS Unit from Amazon.com for about $40 and used that when it was at it's worst. Which helped some. But not totally.

Hopefully you can find the right combination of meds or something to help with the pain, or that it'll stop on it's own very soon.

Can the MS Hug be on any part of your body? I've read a couple of posts and articles about MS Hug and most of them has said that what they experienced was more in the ribs and chest area. Not one did I find that had expressed it had the MS Hug in my waist, legs, lower back.

Yes the Hug can travel up and down your torso, usually around
the waist/chest/abdomin area. Your leg spasticity is a side of
MS too and probably going on at the same time.

All you can do for any of it is to take the meds, your Doc has
prescribed and wait it out.

You can also have something called "banding" around your extremities. Feels like someone has wrapped something around your arms or legs. That will sometimes feel like your wearing rubber gloves, or boots if it's on your hands or feet.

Right now, I have an invisible band of something around my upper left thigh. It's really annoying. It's really disturbing the first time you feel something like that. But, it's sensory, it's not something that a doctor might feel is an emergency.

That was kind of a hard thing to learn. That doctors see sensory symptoms as something that's not an emergency that they need to do something about if you don't have anything else going on...and the doctors that I've seen for sensory symptoms really do not communicate that fact back to me. They've all seemed seriously unsympathetic and basically have made me feel like they think I'm faking. Not a good feeling.

I've had exactly one doctor show sympathy for a sensory symptom, and that's only because I know he has a medical condition that causes similar symptoms and he was able to relate to the weird feelings.

are you on any muscle relaxers?
i agree with sally on taking the meds recommended and rest. hopefully the steroid will help with the sx's.

it sounds as tho some of the pain is residual, left over, from very tight muscles. you might try a low heating pad several times a day over the sore spots. don't use it too high or too long as that can dry the muscle out.

a warm bath might also help release sore muscles. don't get too warm in the bath as that can make you weak. you don't want to raise your body temp too much.