Note: I am not a medical professional nor do I intend to provide any medical advice to anyone. Please see your family doctor or neurologist if you have any health care concerns. My intention is to provide accurate information from the perspective of an informed patient.
Note: As an MS patient you can experience several or very few of the symptoms listed below, they can also vary in severity, duration and recurrence.
Note: Different people are likely to experience very different symptoms. Since no two people have exactly the same experience of MS, the disease course may look very different from one person to another.
Note: This is not a list of all my MS symptoms but a list of possible symptoms each MS patient can have.
Note: The majority of people with MS do not become severely disabled. Most people with MS learn to cope with the disease and continue to lead satisfying, productive lives.
Note: MS is not contagious and is not directly inherited.
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Symptoms |
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| Autonomic nervous system problems | Blood pressure and heart problems; difficulty breathing and swallowing |
| Fatigue | Physical and/or mental exhaustion |
| Gastroesophageal Reflux | Acid reflux |
| Inappropriately cold body parts | |
| Sleeping Disorders | |
| Uhthoff’s Symptom | Increase in severity of symptoms with heat |
| Anosmia; ageusia | Impaired sense of taste and smell |
| Epileptic seizures | |
| Dysphagia | Swallowing problems |
| Respiratory diseases | Breathing problems |
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Cognitive Symptoms |
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| Aphasia, Dysphasia | Impairments to speech comprehension and production |
| Anxiety | psychological stress, feelings of fear, worry, uneasiness |
| Cognitive dysfunction | Short-term and long-term memory problems, forgetfulness, slow word recall |
| Dementia | Serious loss of global cognitive ability |
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Sensory Symptoms |
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| Anaesthesia | Complete numbness/loss of sensation |
| L’Hermitte’s | Electric shocks and buzzing sensations when moving the head |
| Neuralgia, Neuropathic and Neurogenic pain | Pain without apparent cause, burning, itching and electrical shock sensations |
| Paraesthesia | Partial numbness, tingling, buzzing and vibration sensations |
| Proprioceptive Dysfunction | Loss of awareness of location of body parts |
| Trigeminal Neuralgia | Facial pain |
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Visual Symptoms |
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| Afferent papillary defect | Abnormal pupil response |
| Diplopia | Double Vision |
| Internuclear Ophthalmoplegia | Lack of coordination between the two eyes, nystagmus, diplopia |
| Movement and sound phosphenes | Flashing lights when moving eyes or in response to a sudden noise |
| Nystagmus | Jerky eye movements |
| Ocular Dysmetria | Constant under- or overshooting eye movements |
| Optic Neuritis | Blurred vision, eye pain, loss of colour vision, blindness |
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Motor Symptoms |
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| Dysarthria | Slurred speech and related speech problems |
| Dysfunctional Reflexes | MSRs, Babinski’s, Hoffman’s, Chaddock’s |
| Footdrop | Foot drags along floor during walking |
| Hypotonia, Clonus | Problems with posture |
| Muscle Atrophy | Wasting of muscles due to lack of use |
| Myoclonus, Myokymia | Jerking and twitching muscles, Tics |
| Paresis, Monoparesis, Paraparesis, Hemiparesis, Quadriparesis | Muscle weakness – partial or mild paralysis |
| Plegia, Paraplegia, Hemiplegia, Tetraplegia, Quadraplegia | Paralysis – Total or near total loss of muscle strength |
| Restless Leg Syndrome | Involuntary Leg Movements, especially bothersome at night |
| Spasms, Cramps | Involuntary contraction of muscles |
| Spasticity | Loss of muscle tone causing stiffness, pain and restricting free movement of affected limbs |
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Coordination and Balance Symptoms |
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| Ataxia | Loss of coordination |
| Intention tremor | Shaking when performing fine movements |
| Dysdiadochokinesia | Loss of ability to produce rapidly alternating movements, for example, to move to a rhythm |
| Dysmetria | Constant under- or overshooting limb movements |
| Dystonia | Slow limb position feedback |
| Speech Ataxia | Problems coordinating speech, stuttering |
| Vertigo | Nausea/vomiting/sensitivity to travel sickness from vestibular ataxia |
| Vestibular Ataxia | Abnormal balance function in the inner ear |
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Bowel, Bladder and Sexual Symptoms |
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| Anorgasmy | Inability to achieve orgasm |
| Constipation | Infrequent or irregular bowel movements |
| Erectile Dysfunction | Male and female impotence |
| Faecal Incontinence | Bowel incontinence |
| Faecal Urgency | Bowel urgency |
| Flaccid Bladder, Detrusor-Sphincter Dyssynergia | Urinary hesitancy and retention |
| Frequent Micturation, Bladder Spasticity | Urinary urgency and incontinence |
| Frigidity | Inability to become sexually aroused |
| Retrograde ejaculation | Ejaculating into the bladder |
©Willeke Van Eeckhoutte and Ireland, Multiple Sclerosis & Me, 2011-2013. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Willeke Van Eeckhoutte and Ireland, Multiple Sclerosis & Me with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Whew, thanks for this! MS is not a death sentence it is a life sentence and we controll the keys. Live or have a life, the choice is ours.
Exactly! It’s scary reading those symptoms but I thought I’d make it clear that no two people are alike in MS and that you can have few or more symptoms. And that it’s not contagious. Had to cover the basics to reduce ignorant questions :D