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MS Sensitivity: When a Touch is Too Much

© Pamela Martin

I deliberately spent the entire first day of Spring lying on the sofa with my eyes closed and the blinds drawn to shut out the sunlight. My husband came home from work and greeted me with his customary hug, while gently stroking my arm in his loving way.

"Why don't you sit out on the balcony?" he inquired as he walked towards the patio doors. "It's a beautiful day, and the sunshine might make you feel better." With a flick of his hand, he unleashed the full brilliance of the afternoon sun from the cage of vertical blinds that had kept it at bay.

The sunlight that beamed unfiltered into the room felt like a laser assault on my sensitive eyes. The surface of my skin where he had stroked my arm began to burn from even this feather-light touch. A prickly, pins-and-needles sensation coursed up and down my left leg with random abandon. I knew from experience that these unusual feelings are common elements of what I call MS sensitivity.

Having MS sensitivity can be a Through-the-Looking-Glass experience where everything is backward or upside-down, and nothing is quite what it should be. How is it that the feel of a loving hand can create such an unpleasant sensation? What causes this hypersensitivity to ordinary stimuli and what can be done about it?

Or, put another way: How do you survive in a world where the lights are too bright and a touch is too much?

Paresthesias (Abnormal Sensations)

The Help4MS website defines parasthesias as "abnormal neurological sensations that result from the loss of myelin. Numbness in an arm or leg, a sensation of tingling, burning or 'pins and needles', or an increase in sensitivity (hyperesthesia) are all examples of parasthesias. Parasthesias occur spontaneously, and often involve only a patch of skin in a specific area, perhaps a hand, arm or leg."

Dysesthesias (Painful Sensations)

The late Dr. Herman Weinreb, a noted MS specialist, had this to say about dysesthesias (painful sensations):

"MS is a frequent cause of neuropathic pain, meaning pain that arises from injury to the nerves in the brain and spinal cord. Neuropathic pain has characteristic features, often described as burning, shock-like, [and] tingling ...Other features include the triggering of pain by light touch on the skin, called allodynia, and prolonged pain responses after only minor stimuli, called hyperpathia."

Whether painful or just simply annoying, these strange sensory disturbances are commonly found among MS patients. In my experience, if I sit in the same position for too long (for instance, in a movie theater seat) the tops of my feet will begin to itch intensely. There have been numerous times after sitting through a movie when I've had to rush to the car, take off my shoes and socks and vigorously rub my feet to relieve the itch. There is never any rash or visible change in the skin itself. For some reason, the itch only occurs if I've been sitting in the same position for a couple of hours and if I'm wearing shoes with laces.