Multiple Sclerosis

Huge List of Multiple Sclerosis Symptoms People May Missed Some Of Following

One of the most common questions that I get asked, aside from “What is MS?” is “What are the Symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis?“. I have been getting this question more frequently lately, as more and more people are thought to have MS or are newly diagnosed.

Multiple sclerosis is a specific immune system malfunction

To be honest, there is a HUGE LIST of Symptoms for MS.

What affects one person, may or may not affect the next. Everyone and their MS is different, so this is just the list of ‘potential’ symptoms that one may have when they suffer from Multiple Sclerosis.

My hope is that this list will help you identify some of your own symptoms, or it will educate others- so that they understand the disease a little better. If I forgot any, please just email me or leave a comment, so I can add to the list.

Symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis:

Heat Sensitivity

  • Increase in severity of symptoms with heat

Muscle Weakness

PAIN – PAIN – PAIN, Lots of Pain

  •      Body Pains
  •      Facial Pains
  •      Painful Muscle Spasms
  •      Muscle Stiffness
  •      Eye Pain
  •      Migraines

Visual Issues

  • Blindness.
    • Usually affects one eye at a time, but can affect both.
  • Color-Blindness
  • Blurry vision or sometimes seeing a ‘foggy haze,’ even when the eye itself is healthy.
  • Double Vision
  • Eyeball pain or Discomfort
  • Abnormal pupil responses to light
  • Ocular Desmetria –
    • Constant over or under shooting eye movements 
  • Jerky Eye Movements: 
    • ‘scanning’  or jumping around, instead of focusing on what you are looking at: like trying to read- but you keep losing your place in the text.
  • Sometimes, Optical Neuritis occurs 
    • Damage to the optic nerves
  • Hallucinations –
    • Seeing things not as they actually are or seeing things that aren’t really there.
    • *THIS one isn’t listed as an ACTUAL MS symptom, but Marcus experienced it during exacerbation, so I am mentioning it. It might be helpful for someone else to know that it isn’t just them.
      • Marcus’ Hallucinations:
        • He would see people with black sockets for eyes, like in a horror movie. 
        • He thought the hospital room looked like a round room, when it wasn’t.
        • He thought the ceiling looked like a school-bus ceiling, it didn’t.
        • Our sloped ceilings looked EXTREMELY sloped, they aren’t.
        • He thought hallways and rooms were longer or wider than they actually were.

Balance & Vertigo

  • Vestibular Ataxia: 
    • Abnormal Balance function in the inner ear.
  • Feeling ‘off-balance’
  • Or feeling like you are falling, when you aren’t.

Loss of Perception in space & Object Displacement

Loss of body awareness, where your body parts actually are...

  • Common exam done by Neurologists and other doctors is would be “TOUCH YOUR NOSE” and you can’t actually touch your nose.

Cognitive Issues

  •      Forgetfulness & losing your thoughts
    •  Example: ‘brain farts’
      • We have all had them.
      • With MS, they are more frequent.
  •      Short-Term Memory Loss
  •      Long-Term Memory Loss
  •      Slow Word Recall
  •      Dementia
  •        Anxiety 
  •      Mood-swings
  •      Bipolar Syndrome
  •      Depression
    • Pushing People Away {Part 1}
    •  Pushing People Away is Self-Sabotage!

Abnormal Sensations- Sensations that happen without any apparent cause

  •     Partial or complete numbness 
  •     Tingling Sensation
  •     Buzzing or vibration sensations
  •     Burning sensations
  •     Itching
  •     Electrical shock sensations
  •     Sensation of ‘Pins & Needles’ stabbing you

Bladder Control/ Irregular Bowels

  •    Can’t hold bladder for too long (urgency)
  •     Urinary leaks and/or Incontinence
  •     Urinary hesitancy (can’t urinate & requires a catheter). 
  •     Infrequent or irregular bowel movements. 
  •     Bowel urgency
  •     Bowel Incontinence.

Mobility Issues

  •     Paralysis. 
  •     Difficulty walking/standing
    • Some people are permanently disabled and need use of a wheelchair/scooter to get around. Other times, they may use a cane or walker.
  •     ‘Leg Drop’ aka “Drop-Leg”– Foot drags along the floor when walking. 

Dizziness

  •   Room spins, like if you had too much to drink but without any alcohol.
  •    Loss of coordination
  •    See also- Balance & Vertigo (above)

Fatigue

  • Fatigue is one of the most common MS symptoms. 
  • Being “tired” is no comparison to fatigue.
    • For example, having to take a nap because walking to the kitchen just ‘wore you out’. Most often, the more fatigued you are- the harder it is to get your body to cooperate.

Muscle Spasms, Restless Leg Syndrome, & Spasticity

  • Involuntary Muscle Spasms: 
    • Involuntary contraction of muscles. 
      • Jerking muscles
      • Jerky movements
      • Muscle Tics or Twitches 
  • Restless Leg Sydrome:
    • Involuntary leg spasms
    • often occuring at night.
  • Spacticity: 
    • Loss of muscle tone causing stiffness, pain and restricting free movement of affected limbs.
    • Imagine holding something, but not being able to remove your hand from that object. The grasp remains, even though you want to open your hand.

Sexual Difficulties

  •      Erectile Dysfunction
  •      Male and female impotence
  •      Inability to become sexually aroused & lacks sexual desire…
    • “Not tonight honey”.
  •      Inability to orgasm. 
  •      Retrograde ejaculation-
    • Typically, semen is ejaculated OUT OF the urethra, in Retrograde ejaculation, the semen is redirected into the urinary bladder (ejaculating backwards, basically). 

Tremors

  • Shaking when performing fine motor activities
  • Shaking without any cause

Speech Difficulties

  •     Slurred Speech
  •     Stuttering. 
  •     Problems coordinating speech. 
  •     Impairments to speech comprehension
  •     Impairments to speech production.

Insomnia

  • Can’t sleepeven if you are extremely tired.

Loss of Appetite and/or Nausea

  •     Loss of taste and smell
  •     Acid Reflux
  •     Difficulty with chewing and/or swallowing 
  •     Nausea / vomitting

The “MS HUG” & Respiratory Issues

  •      Chest tightening
  •      Difficulty Breathing
  •      Feeling like you are being squeezed
  •      Feeling like there is an elephant sitting on your chest (Marcus’ description)

One of the most common misconceptions about MS is that people “look fine”…

This list shows you that not all MS Symptoms are visible to an onlooker. Consider this list the next time you think someone with MS “looks fine,” most likely they are suffering one or more of these symptoms and many of them are invisible symptoms!

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