Have to keep this short and sweet...as luck would have it (on the day before my second Tysabri infusion, which is Tuesday), I tossed and turned all night last night with a back/neck ache...only to wake up in the wee hours of the morning with MANNEQUIN HANDS. Yep, they "feel" plastic...if "feel" is really the word to use. My hands might better be described as NUMB...except I still can "feel" them, if that makes any sense at all! My skin feels bizarrely plastic or glove-like over my hands, while I'm having electrical "zaps" shooting down both arms...not painful zaps, but more like tingle-ee zaps. WOOT?!?!
Consequently, I cannot trust my faulty skin on my hands to register anything like temperatures or pain...yet they MOVE and can grasp and I can peck this keyboard by simply pushing down on the key until it hits bottom while using my eyes to make sure I haven't typed a bunch of the same letter (like "eeeeeeeeeee"!) with my finger pressure. When I put my hands on my face, my fingers feel cold to touch...most unusual.
I thought yesterday I might be getting a cold as I had head congestion and body aches...turns out, whatever THAT was has settled nicely in my hands and arms. I just hope the rest of my skin/appendages don't develop this plastic feeling. If I DO become completely plastic, look for me modeling the latest summer wear in a store front near you! I'll be the mannequin in the window that's cursing without moving my lips...LOL.
Anybody ELSE ever have THIS bizarre MS symptom (at least I "think" it's MS?!?)? Do tell...
Well of course I've never had this symptom but hubby has had it to some degree. Twice his left leg has turned into what he calls a wooden leg - numb and not very usable and just strange feeling. He would swing it around to try and walk but both times he ended up using his walker until it went away. (Both times IV solumdral was given and it worked).
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the Tysabri today. Hubby has had 4 doses and he really is walking a bit better, I'm so hopeful.
I'm impressed you can type with numb fingers & hands!! Hope this goes away just as quickly as it appeared, as I reckon it's not too fun.
ReplyDeleteI would assume it is from the MS as the only time my hands & fingers go numb is if I sleep funny, but then they "wake up" about 5-7 minutes later, that's my 2cents on the subject
Hi there, My name is Daisy. I was diagnosed Jan.1,2007. I have experienced the Mannequin Hands. luckily it has yet to last longer than a couple of minutes. It is odd, isn't it. This wonderful MS has showed me many new sensations that I didn't know existed.
ReplyDeleteGood morning Ms. Cheese,
ReplyDeleteMy Grand baby is taking a nap (thank God) and I can check out my favorite bloggers.(while sitting still in one place for more than 2 minutes!)
Never thought of them as Mannequin Hands...well, it mostly effects my legs, torso and feet and I equate it with what it might feel like to have on a rubber wetsuit. Even when I get a massage I can feel the pressure of the therapists hands but not the "touch", like I'm wearing something thick and unyeilding . Can't tickle me anymore.
Linda - you are not alone. lol You can definitely appreciate the challenge of each quilt stitch I make with my 'mannequin hands'. Thanks by the way - I am stealing that term! Mine have become pincushions, I can't feel if that needle is coming through the fabric, but I sure have left my blood everywhere. Best of luck with your next infusion. And thanks for stopping by my brain.
ReplyDeleteStay inspired!
Michelle
Expand your mind ~ visit Brain Angles
manny hands. Been there, done that. I get it at night when I wake up and the entire arm/hand on the side I WASN'T sleeping on fell asleep. Sometimes it takes quite a while to go away.
ReplyDeleteHad this same thing nearly 20 years ago, went to a gen. practitioner and he said "you have MS and will eventually end up in a wheelchair. There's nothing anyone can do. That'll be $50." I freaked out. I went to a neurologist who said "you have carpal tunnel syndrome. That'll be $75."
Imagine my surprise 10 years later when I end up being diagnosed with MS. Maybe the first quack had it right after all.
My manny hands don't stay, but rather come and go. Had testing done 6 months ago for carpal tunnel and I'm just beginning to get it, but not in the worst hand. go figure.
Hope you are "feeling" (get it?) like your old self soon!!
If you feel like its a kind of noise interfering with your ability to feel (like you're wearing a pair of burlap gloves that don't have any sharp cut-off,) sorry honey but that sounds like MS.
ReplyDeleteDon't depend on the temperature of pressure sensations to give you any useful information. (But they can feed you some, uh, entertaining lies.)
It sounds like what ever virus you're fighting off has caused an immune system exacerbation (poor system doesn't know what to attack, so its attacking you.)
As for the numbness, I had it, had a really bad exacerbation and my medulla was, and I'm quoting the neurologist here, absolutely fried.
Then after five weeks in hospital total, (one week was spent in Neuro-ICU,) and a few month rehab, I recovered almost completely, conquered object-oriented programming and went on for another fifteen years before my next attack.
Now I'm having fun with podcasting.
wow...nope...i have not had this symptom yet! but i have had a buzzing vibration in the back of my head lately. MS is one weird disease.
ReplyDeleteYeah, MS. I can't believe you haven't felt it before. It will come/go/stay until a cure or fix happens. I once had it from my neck to toes. THAT was reeall fun. (not) Don't worry, you'll get used to it. What do all these symptoms make you think about all the MS drugs you've taken?
ReplyDeleteI have Mannequin Feet. I was diagnosed this past January when my leg went "numb", spread to my butt and then down to my feet. Everything has gone back to normal except my feet. I describe it as having thick glue dried on my feet. I can still feel, I can still do everything, but it feels like my feet are leather - very weird. Most shoes don't feel very good - except Crocs - which I really do not like the looks of. I hope your hands get better soon!
ReplyDeleteI got mannequin hands last October. I went to a Rehab Doc at Magee Rehab in Philadelphia. After EMGs, pin pricks, and all sorts of tests, he says - if you exercise your fingers, the numbness will calm down.
ReplyDeleteSo type, he says. Geez, I type all day. So he said to do typing exercises 3 or 4 times a day.
When my GP went to take blood, I let him hand stick because I couldn't feel a thing. It lasted almost two months and by Christmas it was gone.
Of course I wrote another book in all that time too! :-)
It is an awfully alien feeling. Be careful you don't get burned w/ hot water or anything.
Take care,
Anne
just stopped over quickly before I disappear for the next week - have a good one ms cheesewiz!! hope you're feeling better!
ReplyDeleteI haven't experienced "mannequin hands" but I did have this time when my whole forearm went "dead" so much that when I felt it with my good arm, it felt like I was touching someone elses arm. Creepy!
ReplyDeleteI have been down the rabbit hole and into Wonderland myself. Wow, what a trip... I love your sense of humor in the face of crisis. I too find that laughing at myself makes it all better. It is far morefun to joke about oral abortions thatn to talk about almost duingfrom a mallory Weiss tear in the esophagus. It is also funny to pull the diseased card or tosay, "I look great for an MS patient." If I can laugh or make others laugh I can do this thing called life. You go girl!
ReplyDeleteI have had this at two separate times, each on one side of my face (but a different side each time - left in 2002 and right more recently).
ReplyDeleteI also had it happen to one arm at a time (right arm, in Jan 2007). Also one leg. Also one buttock. ;-p