" Black hole fatigue"

[DeniseApril]

Does everyone with MS go through the debilitating fatigue like I have been?  It is terrible!  I thought the fatigue was bad when I was in a flare up of CFS...I used to say I felt if I closed my eyes, I'd just die. My fatigue today is so much worse!  I literally feel glued to the chair/couch/bed.  I'm in the "black hole", trying to climb back out through thick cobb-webbs.  I just can't bring myself to do anything when I'm feeling this.

[Quixotic1]

Hi, more than 80% of people with MS complain of severe fatigue at some point in their disease.  For some it is a constant.  I thought I had known really severe fatigue.  When I was in training, and would go 36 hours on my feet without sleep, I was fatigued, but there was always a little something I could draw from if there was a code late in my on-call.

Then I got chronic vertigo and suffered the mental fatigue associated with that.  I thought that was the worst thing I had ever had.  Hah!

Then, a few years before my MS diagnosis, when the vertigo was finally burning out, instead of feeling better, I suddenly couldn't move.  The fatigue was "crushing" and insurmountable.  I had nothing to "push through it" with.  Days and nights in bed and in my recliner.  I measure my days by the one or two things I get done, besides emptying the cat boxes and spending some time here.  A long day out in the car (which stimulates the vertigo) and I may be down for 2 days.  What a wimp!

I am in such admiration of people who continue to work!

So, I hear ya, sister.

Quix

[Lulu54]

Last year before my DX of MS I would get up every morning and think to myself - Please let this be the day that I'll have some energy and get something done.  Unfortunately, that day did not come.  Then  I got the MS diagnosis and it put it all in perspective.

I am fine to sit at my job - which doesn't involve anything physical.  I'm ok to be on the laptop and writing on this forum too.  But when I have to actually stand and do something, it takes so much of my energy that I don't last long and am always ready to sit back down.  A trip to the store finishes me for the day most times.

One thiing that is known to help fatigue is exercise, strange as that sounds.  I do feel better in spurts if I have pushed through and gone to Tai Chi or swimming.  The past few times though I have been so tempted to not go, thanks to the fatigue. Maybe that would help you?

I hope you get out of the black hole soon....
Lulu

[opie74]

My fatigue comes and goes.  Sometimes, it stays for a while.  Are you getting enough quality sleep at night?  I started taking Lunesta to make me sleep for 8 hours, and it actually helped.  I do still get exhausted, easily.  B-12 injections once a week help also. I tell my husband that my bones are beyond tired; that if i could lie down until i felt better, he might see me in a week!

See if you can get some help.  give in to it a little, don't let it consume you, but don't push too hard.

[meg321]

I have very severe fatigue, and I started provigil a long time before i was diagnosed.  It was great for a long time but it is not helping as much now.  But you shouldnt waste any time, fatigue is not good,  Get the provigil.

meg

[essdipity]

Hi! Great to see you here.

Fatigue is the most common of all MS symptoms. There are so many other symptoms that differentiate us, but fatigue is the big common denominator. And it isn't just being tired. As you say, it totally interferes with life.

I don't know your status regarding diagnosis, but you can be treated with Provigil at any stage in the process. Also, I'm wondering whether you're depressed. That too is a major MS symptom, and that too is treatable.

I hope you'll seek meds for these right away. Your life is going by, and you can't really live it the way you are now.

Meanwhile, stay here and join in with us. We're a good group, if I do say so myself.

ess

[jdhecaj]

I call that, and I describe it this way to my neuro. My cat sitting on a sunny window sill fatigue.

If you pick up a cat in the middle when it is warm sitting on a hot sunny window sill. its muscles are so relaxed it will make a 'U' where you pick it up. I describe this as the type of fatigue I have. If you picked me up in the middle non of my muscles would contract and I would make a 'U' shape like that cat.

Isn't it funny-strange how many times I looked at the cat lounging at that sunny window and wished I could get that relaxed? A person really does have to be careful of what they ask....they might get it.