My hug was a very mild muscle spasm that wraps around the waist from the middle back. Starts as some numbness, then tingling, can become a cramp wanting a massage.

Yep have had this many times, Just like a really tight "bear hug" can only seem to get shallow breaths,tight feeling in chest. Along with varying other things, The name "MS Hug " says it all.

My first experience with the dreaded MS hug came right after I was diagnosed with MS. I could write a dark humor book about that experience but we know you can't eat 12 hrs before a spinal tap, my doctor was brand new and kept not getting me on the schedule for a tap (growing pains) so I couldn't eat for like 3 days which did wonders for my waist line (I'm a glass half full kind of guy) About 2 weeks after leaving the hospital, my stomach muscles suddenly contracted and wouldn't go back to normal and this lasted for days. I had a doctors appointment so showed my doctor my problem. Fortunately, the hug didn't stop me from doing my life and all but my doctor, she was new, called more experienced docs in to take a look. That's how I stood, bare chested, in front of a gaggle of doctors not 1 of which had extensive experience with MS. I swear to you I'm not making this up but 1 would run up to me touch my stomach and then run back to the other doctors to see what happened. The fact that the answer was no change stumped them stumped them so I was told to keep an eye on it. The hug eventually subsided. A little while later I was being treated by an MS specialist and they brought up MS hugs.

For me its the blury left eye, though anoying doesn’t fully affect my sight, the ocassaional needle like pains in diffrent parts of my body, numbness at time in my hands, numbness feeling in my toes though I can still wiggle them and have feelings, it fells like when I walk my brain is not fully locked in my head, more like is moving inside. My Balance is off have to walk slowly, outside the house I use a Cain feel more worn out at time from simple task, other time I can do more task befor needing to rest. Just some of what I experence, I can still drive thought it is the reason I recently retired that and my Wife’s Cancer.