How high heels and yoga revealed MS symptoms

The signs of MS: high heels

It started with a pair of YSL Tribute high-heeled shoes.

I was in New York City during the 4th of July to celebrate my friend’s birthday. On a fabulous night out in our fanciest outfits, I was glammed up, wearing those surprisingly comfortable high-heeled platform shoes. As I left the taxi and walked to the bar, I started to feel unsteady. By the end of the night I could barely walk up the stairs.

I put it down to the mix of cocktails and those gorgeous shoes.

A month before, I’d seen my GP and told her about some strange sensations I was experiencing in my right hand and foot, along with feeling tired and a little wobbly. Off I went for an MRI on my brain. All clear.

A week after I returned from NYC, I was dealing with constipation and then blood in my stools. At first I thought it was related to a different diet in the US. But I’d dealt with bouts of being backed up throughout my life, and this felt different.

Blood tests found iron deficiency anaemia. My GP thought that explained why I was feeling as though I was walking through quicksand. Off I went for a pandendoscopy and colonoscopy to look at my digestive tract. All clear.

By August, I was struggling with foggy, unfocused periods during the day and feeling super tired at night.

At work I tried to ignore the dizzy spells. The fatigue. The wobbly walking – now in flat shoes. The vertigo when standing at the top of escalators or stairs. The claustrophobia that engulfed me at the train station. The numbness below my right knee. The occasional trip on my right foot. The way my right hand didn’t seem to feel as strong or dextrous as I turned the pages of a book or magazine. I started using my left hand to open jars or lift bags. There was a heavy feeling in my legs, like I was walking through snow with ski boots on.

I put it down to stress.

The signs of MS: impact on my yoga practice

Over time the culmination of my symptoms caused my yoga asana practice to become more challenging.

I felt off-balance on my feet, even in Tadasana (Mountain Pose). Every standing balance was difficult. I felt weak. I could no longer do Chataranga or easily lower down in a half-plank. Sirsasana (headstands) and Adho Mukha Vrksasana (handstands) were completely out of the question.

Then I started to feel odd while sitting in Sukhasana (crossed legs) to practice pranayama or meditate. Even lying down in Savasana (corpse pose), I would feel short bursts of hot and heavy sensations – like an electric shock – moving from my right thigh down to my foot. Sometimes it would last for 10-15 seconds, repeatedly moving up and down.

It didn’t seem to matter if I was standing, moving in poses, or sitting quietly. There was constantly something going on in my body. Numbness, tingling, electric shocks. And the fatigue. It was a different kind of tiredness to anything I’d ever experienced. A kind of foggy, muffling lethargy.

All of it hard to make sense of, and hard to explain.

By the time my GP referred me to a neurologist in September 2015, I was spilling stuff with my hands. Both legs felt weak, but the right leg would drag and my foot would catch, even on flat surfaces. Falling over is scary at the best of times. In a public place – really not fun.

Off I went for a barrage of tests.