Every late-afternoon, just as the sun begins to set, I have an overwhelming urge to take off all my clothes.
Sadly, this has nothing to do with a new-found interest in naturism or a desire to embrace my post-40 body, flabby bits and all.
I don’t find myself in front of the mirror chanting positive affirmations while gazing deep inside my soul.
It’s much more pedestrian than that – it’s an MS symptom. Mind you, that sounds quite weird so I’ll explain.
For the last two weeks I’ve had the most hideous nerve pain. I’m well-used to this in my legs, my feet and those occasions where it comes and goes in my arms and hands. It’s my constant nemesis. But this time the pain has been cranked up to the level where it hurts to have clothing next to my skin, a bit like a case of very bad sunburn.
Not only that, any kind of pressure is torture, so I spend my evenings alternating between sitting bolt upright on the sofa or wandering around the house like a lost soul, tripping over the cat.
Every morning when the nerve levels are manageable once more I think, ‘gah, must have been imagining it, tsk, silly me’. I get through the day, catch up on university reading (still struggling, still bewildered), attempt to pin-down The Teenager for more than three minutes to find out what he’s been up to (apparently we live in the same house, though you wouldn’t think it).
And just as I begin to relax, start to slough off the challenges of the day, blam, there it is. As if every single nerve ending is a burning needle. I’ve tried billowy t-shirts and baggy sweat-pants, I’ve tried a kaftan (yup, and luckily The Teenager was out that night). I’ve tried slathering myself in moisturiser as some kind of barrier cream but ended up sticking to my clothes.
I’m hoping it’ll pass and doesn’t become a permanent feature of my life. I know I quite fancied myself as a tortured writer, starving in my garret, but this isn’t quite the way I had planned it.
Mama mia! That sounds nasty. May it pass asap. Love, Judy
Thank you! It’s pretty unpleasant 🙁
X
Double bloody standards in this bloody house!!!!!
My father is perfectly fine seeing my own brother in boxers, but me? In 3/4 pajamas, *shock horror* him not showering for about 10 days oh perfectly fine, me not showering for 3 days GO HAVE A SHOWER now you stink!!! RATHER pissed off! apologies to anyone offended by what they read, I really don’t mean any offence!! :-((
Poor you!
Mind you, my son wanders around the house in his boxer shorts all the time 🙂
x
Isnt it odd how such debilitating symptoms are so forgetable? Seem so ordinary and mundane when they arent actually happening. Even in the middle of a relapse if asked to list the symptoms which come and go I find it nearly impossible.
An excellent point!
It’s hard to list symptoms, especially the more transient ones, when pressed. And if you do, they all seem so strange and even minor, although when they’re happening they’re absolutely horrendous.
X
Oh that sounds so bad!!! I really hope it becomes just a bad/vagueish memory soon. I can’t think of anything really positive to say except you write about it really well. I’m not having anything nearly as bad but find it hard to describe the symptoms I’m having in a way that helps people understand. Think you’ve described your symptoms perfectly.
Thank you very much!
I think it helps me a lot to put down on paper (screen!) what’s going on, to make it into some sort of sense. Then it doesn’t seem quite so frightening!
x