Momentum - Spring 2012

“The brain can actually modify what
information it lets in. If your brain is busy
doing something else, it may close the gate
to sensory signals.”

•;High-dose corticosteroids, which may relieve numbness and tingling if an acute relapse is responsible for those symptoms.

Other options

“I walk the line between having medications in my life and getting through without them,” said Quinn, who was diagnosed in October 2007. She was on a lot of meds for pain the first couple of years. “I couldn’t tell which was more difficult: the pain or the side effects.” These days she is off all pain meds, although she has lidocaine patches for immediate relief.

Non-pharmaceutical strategies for numbness and tingling include wearing loose shoes and clothes; wearing a pressure stocking or glove; or using warm compresses. People with MS may wish to consider visiting a pain clinic or physical therapist to discuss these options.

Other alternative remedies that people with MS have tried include taking B vitamins, exercise, acupuncture, massage, topical ointments containing capsaicin, hypnosis, yoga, biofeedback or meditation.

Marijuana is one more alternative. “Patients tell us it

helps with pain, anxiety and
spasticity,” said Dr. Bowen.
“However, it’s nearly impossible
to do studies due to current
federal laws.”
Jackson has had the most
success with hypnosis. “My
initial goal with the hypnotist
was to be able to tolerate more
of the pain medications, but
instead she helped me learn to
imagine turning on a cold faucet
and washing the sensations away.
Within a few weeks, I could do
that for 15 minutes at a time,
and within a year I got relief
most of the time.”
Another way to help control
symptoms, according to Dr.
Bowen, is a concept called
gating. “The brain can actually
modify what information it lets
in. If your brain is busy doing
something else, it may close the
gate to sensory signals. At other
times, it may open the gate.
Sensory symptoms can fluctuate.
If you smash your thumb in
the door, it really hurts at first.
But then you get busy doing
something else and forget it.
Later when you’re not so busy,
you might notice again how
much it hurts. That’s gating.”
People with MS might be able
to teach their brain to “close
the gate,” he added, through
biofeedback, meditation,
acupuncture, or staying busy.

Learning to cope

“I live in a fourth-floor walkup
apartment, so I didn’t think I
had a choice to walk or not. In
about a year I got used to the
numbness and didn’t fall so
much,” Jackson remembered.
“It’s not that I caught myself
when I tripped. It’s that my feet
learned how to tell where they
were enough, despite the lack of
sensation, so that I could walk
and run. My body somehow
learned to disregard those signals
that said, ‘Oh! something’s
wrong!’ ”
“I’m learning to deal with
the fear my symptoms bring,”
Quinn added. “There’s no path
in MS that someone can lay
out for me: A, B, C. That lack
of predictability and control
breeds fear. So every time I
experience something new, I
automatically believe it means
the worst possible thing is going
to happen. That psychological
impact is sometimes much
greater than the physical.
However, having symptoms
doesn’t mean my disease is about
to progress. The more times I
experience symptoms and things
don’t get worse, I realize it’s just
the nervous system declaring
itself. Every single symptom
doesn’t herald a crisis.” n