I definitely have aches and pains pretty often; however, my most extreme pain centers in my back and spinal cord area. I notice mine hurts worse right before I have an attack. I will be in extreme pain, struggling to bend over, or pick up my son for a week and then I will wake up one morning and my legs won't even come close to working right, and my trunk area will be so numb that I no longer have any pain. I do really struggle in the colder months too. I have a much harder time walking. As far as my other joints, I really ignore a lot. I know it sounds crazy, but sometimes I can be really oblivious to what is going on with my body. My doctor gets on to me all the time and tells me I should be more aware of whats happening with my body instead of tring to ignore it.

I am not glutten free; however, I am really trying to watch my intake more. The "MS Recovery Diet" swears that MS can be maintained by a strict diet. Not eating glutten, legums, sugar, sat. fats, yeast, eggs, and dairy. I tried this diet and honestly did not have the will power to stick with it. I try to be very concious of how much of it all I am taking in though. They really focus on food allergies and its relation to MS. I have considered going Paleo which is similar with the exception of eating eggs and some legums. People also swear by its healing properties. I just LOVE food! It makes it hard. I also want to say thanks for sharing your experience with the eye pain. I also started to notice eye pain a couple of weeks ago after ignoring a constant headache for about a week. Finally I put it all together and realized every time I moved my eye it felt like it was pulling or straining behind it. And it really hurt. At least I don't feel like i'm crazy now, because when I brought it up to my doc. last week he made me feel like maybe I was over reacting or something. He said I should go ask the eye doctor and that I should not be experiencing optic neritis yet.

huds_mommy:
You know, I asked a lot of questions and did a lot of reading when I was first diagnosed - about diets and whether there was a specific correlation to MS. What I basically was told was that no diet was going to be a cure for MS - the best advice I got was to stick with the Canada Food Guide basics (am assuming the US Food Guide is same) and to monitor my personal dietary needs. For instance - I cannot go without eggs - I've tried and I just can't. I get dizzy, unco-ordinated and just not me. And I have to eat protein in the morning before I go to work or I'm absolutely useless by 10 am.:laugh:

The comment from your doc about you shouldn't have optic neuritis yet - I have a problem with that. A large number of people with MS also have optic neuritis and frequently the eye problems are the first symptom that is noticed and is what leads to the MS diagnosis. Having said that - he is probably right about seeing your optometrist - if he is any good he is going to keep notes on what symptoms you are feeling and it was the Optic Surgeon at the hospital when I went in as an emergency case that diagnosed my O.N. and it was he who referred me to an Opthamological Neurologist/MS Specialist. (sp)

Some of the other symptoms with my eyes that I had before the emerg were: a black circle surrounding what I was looking at (kind of shadow-like) and spots drifting before me. The extreme pain in the eye socket. And I also had severe vertigo - to the point where I couldn't go to the grocery store because there was too much colour and sound and movement. I didn't drive because if I got on a busy road I'd see double or triple or just feel like I was falling off the roadway. It was really bad for awhile.
I also started to lose my colour vision - and am now unable to tell the difference between black/dark grey/navy blue unless the light is really bright and I can stand and look at things without moving.

My wife does experience days of intense joint pain (one of her primary symptoms is pain) and it seems to be related not so much to the weather conditions, but to the rapid change in weather conditions. A day when it starts clears and warm and a storm blows in and then blows back out are by far the toughest on her joints. Also it seems to be worse when the weather if generally warm, and we are outside of air conditioning.

I often get joint pain, had it so bad for several months that my doc tested me for Rheumatoid Arthritis, since people with one immune disorder often get others. Several of the tests pointed to it, but others didn't. They couldn't rule it out so they sent me to a Rheumatologist who treated me for possible RA (great another alphabet disease to go with my MS!) I stayed on the meds for a few years but stopped taking them after awhile. Things are better but I still have some tough days. Obviously dieting, exercising and losing 35lbs have helped!

I got diagnoised with Fibromyalgia for the joint pain and went to an arthrits Dr who determined this disease that alot of times goes along with MS. just keep moving like exercise if you can keep you mobile!