21 Year Old Female w/ Severe muscle pain and weakness, severe fatigue, tingling...

[justanotherperson99]

I am a 21 year old female who has experienced severe back and neck pain, muscle weakness and fatigue for years.  I am otherwise healthy:  I have a healthy diet and try to exercise although my symptoms make it impossible some days.  I currently use over the counter cream that supposedly helps with muscle aches and take 4-8 pain revilers a day.  These things only enable me to actually do an activity for a little while:  if I didn't use these things I wouldn't be able to do anything but the pain is still severe.

I am barely able to work part-time because of these problems and I am unable to attend school.  I recently started a new part-time job and everything has gotten much worse:  I already spent much of my time in my bed because of pain but now pretty much all of my free time is spent lying in bed, thinking of and figuring out ways to relieve my pain.

I will sometimes have muscle spasms and have areas that suddenly begin to throb with pain.  I'll also sometimes feel a tingling sensation in my muscles in random areas.

I am so fatigued that I feel like I am going to collapse at work and fear that one day I might.

I'll sometimes have difficulty breathing and/or feel that breathing requires much effort.

I sometimes have difficulty walking, especially stairs.  I sometimes can't even get out of my bed.

I am going to make a appointment to see a doctor soon but I was wondering if there were any ways that I could relieve my pain in the meantime, especially in my back.

And is is possible that I could have MS or some sort of muscular disease?

[auntissie]

Hey,

Did you find anything out?  Your symptoms are so similiar to mine.  I'm just learning about my POTS and Ehlers Danlos diagnosis.  Sometimes, people with these things eventually get diagnosised with MS.  But,(keeping fingers crossed) so far, they are not finding that.  The last MRI I had showed some white matter, but I had a terrible neurologist who wouldn't even comment on what that could mean.  So, don't have a clue about that one.  I do have symptoms of MS, but these other illnesses can be the same symptoms.

[LazyMoose]

Get thyroid tested for hypothyroid, TSH and free T3 and Free T4.  Your symptoms describe it, I had it for years before Dx'ed.

[auntissie]

I've had all these symptoms for YEARS!!
Finally a visit to Mayo came up with POTS Syndrome, Ehlers Danlos, Fibromyligia, Apena, and I do have tumors in numereous places including my brain.  But I feel the first 3 diagnosis is what causes these symptoms.  I was at first diagnosed with Parkinson's but the medicine made me worse.  I too couldn't walk etc.  But the POTS diagnosis explains almost everything and what that doesn't explain Ehlers Danlos does.  Hope this helps.  Keep me posted.

[Haddock_Entrap_Propulasion]

MS would not be my initial thought here, although it is a possibility.  This sounds more like fibromyalgia to me.  Do you have digestive issues or muscle stiffness?
MS follows a "relapse and remission" pattern where you would have a symptom for weeks or months, and then it would go away for a longish time, and then might come back along with other symptoms.  If your symptoms don't follow that pattern, it's probably not MS.  
I don't know what kind of pain meds you're taking, but ibuprophen tends to work best for muscle pain, and is safer for long term use than acetaminophen because it's easier on your liver.  You can also try icing your back by lying on top of a few bags of frozen vegetables for about 20 minutes a day, but you don't want to do it to the point of numbness, just enough to reduce inflamation.  In addition to good nutrition, make a point of staying hydrated, as dehydration can exacerbate a lot of things.  
Good luck, and do tell me what your doctor says.