The One Where I Have a Non-MS Symptom

cowboyBizarrely, after a couple of weeks struggling through some kind of random MS flare-up where I’ve experienced every symptom I’ve ever had and then some, I am overjoyed to have something not connected to MS for once.

Before MS, I was pretty healthy (apart from being slightly Rubenesque) – never really had colds, coughs or flu, never had ear infections or a sore throat.

Never blagged days off school as a child, something I often recite to The Teenager when he attempts his best ‘sick-face’.

Now, however, I exist in an odd state of constant observation, or ‘MS Watch’ – did my foot drop that teeny bit more than usual? Why am I walking into walls again? Will the vertigo give it a rest? Will I ever be able to eat spaghetti or use chop-sticks in polite company again?

Anyway, I officially have … stenosing tenosynovitis (impressively medical-sounding), otherwise known as trigger finger (not so impressive and it makes me sound like a cowboy). Ok, so not the most glamorous of ailments, but boy, it hurts. I wake up every morning having to unclick one of my fingers from a weird bent position and throughout the day the pain gets progressively worse.

After months of putting up with it, the pesky finger showed no signs of improvement and, as my hands play up already, I took myself and my finger to my GP after having a chat with the nurse when I was having my monthly Alemtuzumab blood test. Trigger finger plus hands that just won’t do what I tell them to is dire.

My GP was, as ever, fabulous. I explained my frustrations, held out the guilty finger and felt a bit silly. She’s referring me to the trigger finger expert, so fingers crossed (minus the dodgy one) it should be sorted.

As an uncanny aside, I know MS is not contagious (of course), but is it possible for people to experience ‘Sympathy MS’? My long-suffering friend and boss appears to be exhibiting more MS symptoms than me at the moment. He trips over everything, he knocks his coffee over, drops his Jaffa Cakes and generally makes an MS-pest of himself.

Today, he dropped his pasty on the newly-installed radiator in the conversion we’re doing. When I stopped laughing (it took a while), he said, ‘bit strange, but I’ve got this weird pain in my finger, like it gets bent and hurts to unclick it’.

‘Oh, really?’

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8 thoughts on “The One Where I Have a Non-MS Symptom

  1. well it would make sense for him to also have problems with his fingers since he uses his hands a lot, but the rest could be he needs glasses :p (or better ones)

    I was always sick as a kid, not MS related, but always getting time off school for tonsillitis until they decided to hack them off and then I ended up in the hospital when the stitches tore :p

    • stumbling in flats says:

      Very true!! He also needs some time off work. Bless him, he’s a total workaholic and can never turn anyone down. I think we’re both quite surprised he seems to be picking up my symptoms!!
      I’ve heard tonsillitis is awful. My sister had it a lot and still does 🙁
      X

      • yeah its no fun at all, even having to eat ice cream to help your throat get boring when its ll you can eat lol
        From talking to people here, getting rid of them is not very common and even in Canada, its not done very much anymore

        he should take a break, even being the boss means you need a break. he should be like a lot of other bosses, delegate more work to people and pull a POETS day 🙂 (piss of early, tomorrow’s saturday)

        • stumbling in flats says:

          I couldn’t agree more!!! He even has ‘workaholic’ on his Twitter page.by
          I hope that with me working shorter hours, he’s slowly learning that work isn’t the be all and end all, so when I leave at 2pm-ish, he can wrap up shortly after (we start early!). He certainly needs to delegate more and just chill a little bit.
          POETS day – my favourite day of the week!! 🙂
          X

  2. Samantha says:

    I hope you get your finger sorted, it sounds very painful.

    Your boss sounds like my husband at the moment!! I have found myself getting a bit concerned of late (once I stop laughing). This isn’t the first time you’ve mentioned MS like things with him is it? I hope all is okay :/
    Sam xx

    • stumbling in flats says:

      I know! It’s weird. He’s been in hospital with lots of neuro symptoms and he’s displaying lots of MS stuff. Has been for a while, poor thing. But no one can find anything wrong with him. Apparently his eyesight is perfect (after having what sounded like optic neuritis) and he had trigeminal neuralgia which turned out to be fine.
      Most strange.
      He was far worse than me today – falling all over the place. However, I soon made it up with tipping a can of Coke into the paint tray by accident. Meh.
      X

  3. Archie says:

    as always – fascinating.

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