> Some time ago,
> (maybe a year and a half?) I was having problems walking. It felt like I
had
> huge balls of cotton under my feet. (I had to go buy new shoes!) This
> lasted
> a couple months. My previous neurologist did not seem interested. I read
> where some people talk about their feet feeling like blocks. Has anyone
> else
> had "cotton feet"?
My feet felt like they had pads under them. I saw that listed in a book on MS
under "paresthesias" several months later, paresthesias being defined as
unpleasant sensory feelings. Some of the others listed are pins-and-needles,
tingling, crawling feelings, hot and burning feelings, cold feelings wetness,
tight-band or girdling sensations, feelings of swelling, feelings of extra
padding, feeling a non-existent foreign object on the skin,
feeling of vibration for no apparent reason. The last sentence in this
paragraph of the book says, "These odd symptoms, like many others of MS, can
unfortunately be mistaken for those of hysteria." A lot of TMers experience
some or many of these.
The other symptom you describe, the electric feeling down your back when you
bring your chin down to your chest, is called Lhermitte's sign, after a French
neurologist. Many people with TM have mentioned this, also.
Both of these things must be common to spinal cord related illnesses.
I know what you mean about being frustrated over what must seem like minor
symptoms compared with some who have lost so much -- I try to remind myself to
be grateful for what I do have. Yet, as you said, major or minor, the symptoms
we have to deal with are the ones that bring us frustration and tears.
Hope things improve for you!
Barbara H.