Ok, fair warning, this is going to be a very long post, unlike the last.

Not just because there are a ton of MS symptoms, but because this deserves a spotlight. A lot of our symptoms are invisible. I don’t think this subject should be.

Moving on to the fun stuff – insert eyeroll emoji, of course – the symptoms.

I’ve experienced a couple dozen different symptoms in the past decade – this sounds a lot less dramatic when we think about the fact that there are over 80 symptoms associated with MS.

I’m going to go over some of my symptoms, including the early ones, and then include a more comprehensive list below.

The first symptom I know I experienced was hearing loss. It’s not very common, but in rare cases, it’s reported as the first symptom, usually in kids or teens.

I remember first failing the school hearing test in elementary school, and again in middle and high school. I was sent for further testing twice, but nothing came of it.

What came next was a whirlwind of mood changes, and what I’ve called “emotional flares”. Don’t take this term lightly – I mean it exactly how it sounds. All the physical impairment that comes with a regular flare, was all in my head.

Those flares actually led to me being misdiagnosed with multiple mental illnesses and inpatient in a psychiatric facility, too. But, that’s a different topic for a different post.

As the years went on, I would have irregular bouts of random other symptoms. There was numbness, tingling and vertigo, for instance. But all would resolve themselves within a few weeks, and I’d move on. It wasn’t until after my first physical flare that I realized something else was going on.

With that flare, like the rest, I could almost feel it building in me the months prior to it. Little things happened here and there. However, nothing concrete enough happened until I woke up one day, and everything was different.

I suddenly couldn’t feel my feet. At all. It was like I was dragging bricks around all day. My eyesight changed, too. Probably a nice case of optic neuritis, but I’ll never know for sure.

Being enrolled in beauty school, I was constantly being required to do roller sets or perms, but I just couldn’t. I actually faked a doctors note so I wouldn’t have to do them, because my teachers would never have let me slide for something they couldn’t see.

My words slurred, I was exhausted all of the time, eventually I was numb from the waist down, and the list goes on and on.

My second flare was very similar. I also experienced foot drop, meaning the nerve that lifts your toes so that you can walk isn’t initiating. Half of my face started to droop, so I looked like I’d suffered from a recent stroke.

All of these symptoms were invisible, until they progressed to those last two physical disability. But I was suffering long before that.

I’m pointing this out because you can pass by me on the street without ever knowing I’m battling a very real, very invisible disibility.

Enough about me. Here’s a more comprehensive list of some of the symptoms people with MS will experience.

• Fatigue
• Spasticity
• Optic Neuritis or Vision Issues
• Mobility Difficulties
• Clumsiness or Lack of Coordination
• Dizziness or Vertigo
• Hearing Loss
• Numbness or Tingling
• Weakness
• Bladder or Bowel Issues
• Cognitive and Emotional Changes
• Pain and Itching
• Speech or Swallowing Problems
• Sexual Problems
• Tightness Around Ribs, or the “MS Hug”

Those are considered primary symptoms – actually caused by demyelination – but what about secondary symtpoms? Those are things we experience because of those symptoms.

If you have spasticity in your legs making mobility difficlt, and fatigue on top of that keeping you exhausted, how likely are you to hit the gym? Not likely – even though that’s actually when you need it most.

Symptoms can easily impact each other, and they certainly have an effect on almost every aspect of life for those with MS. Because of this, I will have do a post dedicated entirely to coping with symptoms.

However, next up in the Introduction to MS Series is a History of MS. Have you ever wondered when we first recorded it or what tests were like for diagnosis a hundred years ago? Maybe I’m jus a history nerd, but I was SO curious when I was first diagnosed.

I hope to have that post live soon. If you need me in the meantime, you can always find me on Instagram or see what I’m pinning on Pinterest.

Until next time,