explain "fatigue"

[Tommy1968]

This is so me!

It breaks my heart to hear of those of you who just cannot get your energy back. I think I fear a constant state of fatigue like the small glimpse I had more than anything else.

The hardest thing for me is that I am quite strong willed - I've always been able to push through just about anything and make it happen. But not this. This beat me, and it was devastating to realize that I couldn't just will myself to overcome it. I hope and pray this new neuro will hear me when I explain it.

I couldn't write anything closer to myself. I've always just shaken everything off. My motto was "just move". WAS is the operative word here. I feel like a slug. I move from bed to easy chair to bed.....ten minutes on my feet seems like hours...I keep hoping things get better.

[misslux]

I recently came across the best explanation of MS fatigue I've ever seen.

I've attempted to put a link in my profile. Hope it works!

I just saw this. Thank you for the article!

[redeemed]

Full Body Heaviness.

The fatigue that can come on can be so bad that my body feels VERY heavy. Legs, chest, arms ect. I really can't stand that. I have been trying to "KNOW MY LIMITS AND STAY WITHIN THEM." It is difficult to not be able to feel refreshed. I have thought about a wheel chair BUT this is a tough step that I'm sure many of you understand. I am facing that thought to conserve energy but I don't want to give in. Any Thoughts? Thank You.

[hojita]

I'm in limbo land, but I just had an awful time with fatigue that lasted a few months. At first I attributed it to thyroid levels, since I was way off, but long after I was "normal", my fatigue was debilitating. Even having been hypothyroid several times in my life (I was diagnosed in 2002 at age 12 with Hashimoto's), I had never experienced fatigue this severe. I lost almost six months to it because I just couldn't function.

For me, I could sleep 18-22 hours easily. And often did. I would wake up and WANT to get up but I just couldn't move. I felt like I was weighed down. There were times when I would get up, and only be able to make it to the couch. A few hours later, and I would have to be back in bed. Too much sleep was never enough.

I did a project on MS for a class and while I acknowledged that I'm still in that limbo land area, I experience extreme and debilitating fatigue. The way I described it was being as if you're wearing those heavy vests you wear for X-rays. But many of them. Five would not be heavy enough to explain how weighed down your body feels.

One night, I drove to work, and just as I was about to get out of the car, I was hit with such overwhelming exhaustion throughout my entire body that I considered calling out from the parking lot. I wasn't sure I could walk into the building. There have been many times where I reach my destination and stay in my car for a long time, just trying to get the energy to move. It's awful.

It's improved greatly for me, so I'm hoping that's a good sign. Again, I don't even know for sure if this is MS related as I'm still in the process of diagnosis and all that, but I strongly suspect it is. I've experienced fatigue on and off for years because of my thyroid disorder, but never anything this severe. I missed multiple classes this past semester because of it. I started using the elevator at school for the first time ever. Sometimes just trying to push myself through it just wasn't enough. It's terrible because I work nights, so everyone is quick to blame that. But I know it's not due to my work schedule. I've worked nights for over three years, and I've never had this problem. When blood work says I'm "normal" and nothing like vitamin D or thyroid levels explain the fatigue, it's got to be something else.

I still don't have my old energy back, but I can now make it more than 6 hours being awake! A serious improvement. I hope I get more energy so I can be more physically active.

[sunshine008]

explain fatigue?? hmmm

It's the equivalent of giving birth 3x in one day, than after that jogging about 4 miles, and than being ran over by a small matt truck?!



yea, that's what it's like for me..

good?? lol do we all agree??

[gazdajl]

Funny...I have also used the expression, that I felt like I was 'hit by a Mack truck'!

If I don't lie down around 1pm, through about 4 or 5 pm, then I just conk out, for the entire evening, by 7pm...never varies, at least lately.

My fatigue, it feels like to me, is more of an intense body fatigue...I don't really feel like sleeping, just that I can't move very easily...my arms, and especially my legs, feel like they each made of lead...as others have said, it feels like several xray shields, are lying on top of me, not letting me move. I feel like my legs have become part of the mattress! It is crazy and a bit scary.

I am in limbo land, also...trying to get the right doctor to help me! Take care, all...Love and Light...Jan.

[Ikaika]

In the early years everyday activities, like a swim at the beach, left me exhausted, but I'd come good after a sleep, and I could still swim and go for long walks.

Now I could no sooner swim in the surf than I could win the Nobel prize for physics.

I think at some point fatigue is due to general disability. Going anywhere, doing anything wipes me out, because I have no balance, and I am clinging to walls like a gecko.

Yes, I'm in the middle of a flare, but it's hard to tell the difference these days.

Thank you!!! My life exactly, just well said by you

[JBWInColorado]

The best descriptions I've read are it's like wearing a lead suit, and that it (the fatigue) is non-negotiable.
The first sign I get that it's about to get bad is I can't hold my head up... I lean heavily on the arm of my chair with my head on my shoulder... next I'm flopped on my desk. Then I go home! I just get all floppy like a ragdoll. No strength at all. I left work early last Friday, got home and crashed by 4pm, slept until 5pm on Saturday when my boyfriend came to get me when he got off work (I couldn't drive), got to his house and went back to bed. Laid around all day Sunday - did nothing but sleep. Monday morning I felt just as tired and didn't go into work. Made myself get up on Tuesday morning and have been draggin *** since then. Tomorrow it will be 2 weeks since this bout of fatigue hit me. Pleeeease go away!!!

I'm still new at this... this wouldn't be a flare up, would it? Do any of you need to take steroids for fatigue when it hits you? Before this started, I had felt 100% fine since November.