My Daily Symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis - Kelly's Story

Kelly discusses the MS symptoms she experiences on a daily basis.

My Daily Symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis - Kelly's Story Some of the symptoms that I deal with in living with multiple sclerosis, which I have been living with for 15 or so years, they vary from day-to-day and from season-to-season. I live in Phoenix, Arizona and the temperature can get very hot, and the heat is very problematic for me as a person with multiple sclerosis. Once it gets so hot I have a very difficult time walking, walking any length, any distance consistently. I wobble quite a bit. I don’t have a whole lot of strength in my legs and the heat actually drains any strength that I do have. It drains most of that from me. So I do all that I can to stay as cool as possible, drinking lots of cold water, staying inside during the summer, not overheating my body with exercise. I do lots of exercise in the pool. Some of the other symptoms that I deal with, I have a hard time walking and turning my head from side-to-side without falling over. One of the problems that I had, I had an MS exacerbation early in my disease course with vertigo so that I couldn’t, again, turn my head. It really impacted my ability to drive. I couldn’t drive for quite a long time because I couldn’t turn my head without getting all off kilter. I do have lots of numbness and tingling in my legs and, again, all of that increases as my body temperature increases and I get hotter. I have some weakness, most of the weakness is in my left leg. I don’t know why my right side isn’t as impacted as my left side - both my legs and my arms and hands.