Temperature Sense Reversal
in Multiple Sclerosis
Hot feels Cold
This is a symptom I have experienced but have been unable to find a clinical definition for. In it, my extremities experience temperature in reverse. Hot feels cold and cold feels hot.
The condition only lasted for a matter of weeks, and it only affected my right leg. One evening I took a hot bath, as is my wont, and upon immersing myself in the water, my left leg felt the water as hot, which it was, but my right leg felt as if the water was cold. This was peculiar but I had become accustomed to the vagaries of MS by this time. The following morning I walked out of the front door, I can't remember why, and there was a cold wind blowing. Again my left leg felt the cold, but my right leg felt it as a warm breeze.
I decided to look on the Web to see what this unusual symptom might be, and drew a complete blank. The closest I came was a page by a Mrs Gina Wolfe who had developed arachnoiditis adhesions, scar tissue around the spinal cord, following some back surgery. She described experiencing very similar sensations. It also seems that tetrodotoxin, the toxin from a puffer fish, can produce similar sensations.
Cold Wind Blowin'
In MS, the lesions that develop on the nerve fibres are a form of scarring so I assume there are parallels here. I guess that, due to the complete dearth of information, this must be quite a rare symptom.
References:
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