Is your MS fatigue actually chronic?

[marti]

It's so hard to believe that this daily, all day and night, constant fatigue is just from MS. I have other problems that cause fatigue too and I find it hard to impossible to believe that this much fatigue is coming from any one of these problems. I'm talking about Fibromyalgia, Osteoarthritis, IBS, Gastritis, MS ( of course ) and on and on.

So can MS fatigue really be chronic and never-ending?

[Tia1]

I hope that this fatigue packs up and goes away!

[Tawanda]

Hi Marti,
I think maybe we have talked before over the years about chronic fatigue, but I don't remember, so sorry if this is a "rerun".

My chronic fatigue started with my MS and has never left me. I am from tough Polish/German stock and was brought up to not be a "quitter" and I swear to you, I have tried EVERYTHING, both natural and pharmacutical (including every medical stimulant ever invented) to no avail.

Fatigue was the MS symptom that I just could not work through and was forced to go on stinky SSDI to help keep my family afloat.

Fatigue has taken a huge toll on my pride and deeply effects my quality (or lack there of) of life and that of my family's. I am almost relieved that my daughter will be off to college in a few years, where she will live among the healthy who can entertain her! Being a mother has felt more like a chore than a joy and that is not how it should have gone down! I never, even as a kid, napped before MS. Now I would pick having a quiet house to myself for a couple weeks where I could sleep as much as I want over a trip to Hawaii.

It is hard to enjoy life when you are dragging butt all the time. Every little thing is a huge effort and I feel so cranky. I try sooooo hard to suck it up for my family's sake, but I do snap occasionally as any sleep deprived person would.

Again, there is NOTHING left to try. Oddly I just met a woman at my neuro who said she envied the way I walked into the office as her own mobility was not great. I told her not to envy me as my fatigue was a horrendous handicap and that I had rescheduled my original appointment because I was too tired to go! Despite her mobility problems, this lady did not suffer from fatigue.

Why one MSer have either chronic, sporadic or no fatigue is beyond me. I asked my focus if it had to do with lesion location and he shrugged.

So without a doubt, I have chronic fatigue that has choked the life out of me. I do not wish this symptom on anyone...in the 12 years of being diagnosed with MS, this is the worst thing I have had to deal with by far. I doubt anyone could believe how life altering chronic fatigue is it is unless they had it themselves. I feel so alone in this "invisible" symptom. It rules my life each and every day.