INTENSE ELECTRICAL SHOCK SENSATION?

Hi CDH41,

Electric shock sensation?  How frightening since it happens in your chest and finger at the same time.  I do not have an answer for that particular area.  However, I have read of people experiencing that same feeling in different body areas from the head to the third toe of one foot. This is real, but is it MS?

I have trigeminal neuralgia (TN) which I describe as a lighting storm in my mouth when it attacks. That sounds like the same thing.  You don't have to have MS to have TN, but MS seems to make it more intense.  It happens when a nerve is disturbed in any way. I tell you this because my doctor gave me a pill I take every day, and the attacks do not come as often.

Please talk with your doctor.  Be ready to say how often it happens, how long it lasts, and if you can identify what triggers it.  Don't hesitate because you think the doctor will look at you funny.  It happens to enough people in different situations so we know it is a valid medical complaint. There may be some treatment that reduces the chances of that shock being triggered.

Good luck, and let us know.  Thanks.

For the past 8 years I have experienced stabbing electrical pain in the top of my head, left thigh and forearm and the left side of my face-in the past six months the pain has occured a few times in my right leg. I get it much like a summer lightening storm-it occurs out of nowhere-sometimes once a week, other times off and on throughout the day-sometimes it is one 'jab' and other episodes the area seems to be quivering with electrical pain that stabs off and on.

This type of pain is fairly common among us MSers-the Nation MS Society has several good articles that discuss it. I take neurontin, which helps, I guess. The best help from prescriptions for me came from Topamax that I no longer am able to take due to insurance probs.Analgesic pain meds make absolutely no difference.

For me--heat can be helpful and sometimes firm massage (for some odd reason touch can seem to set it off again when I am having a the 'quivery' kind). The hardest part  is the 'out of the blue' nature of it. It can be bad enough to make me cry out or double over-not the way one wants to act at work or church. It helps that I know it will end and I can go hours or days without it occuring.