Need to Know: The Hug You Never Want to Receive

My MS hug is usually around my chest, neck upper back and nape. I know that aI am having a "flare up" when this is happening. I tend to take baby aspirin or a muscle relaxer to help ease the symptom. This episode usually occurs when I am tired or feeling stressed out or anxious. Sometimes I don't know why they come on.

Thanks so much for the relief ideas!
My hug isn’t painful. It’s just uncomfortable with lots of tingling and sometimes I sweat just where it occurs. It only goes up to just above my belly button and is usually isolated it to the front, but sometimes it likes to take a tour all of the way around. It started right after my second son was born. For years I disregarded it.
Four months after a bilateral oophorectomy I got pregnant (they said I wouldn’t be able to for at least a year)
Myself and doctors thought the hug was a result of the pregnancies impact on my abdomen which hadn’t recovered from the vertical and horizontal incissions.
This disease is sooo hard to diagnose

I have used CBD with one small "hit" of an indica strain of cannabis to ease the symptoms of and MS hug. (Who was the sick ba$&ard who named it a hug? It's more like a vice grip around my ribs!)

When I described what I experienced to the ms nurse she said ‘oh that’s called a hug’ but listening to others, I’m not sure it is.
For me it’s like a muscle tightening below my breast line. It felt the same as when I was pregnant braxtin hicks contractions. It’s not painful at all just feels weird. There’s also a slight sensation like irritation/allergy of my skin in various places around my bra line. If I tap on the area it goes away. I’m not sure now if this is a hug or just a symptom I have? Does anyone else have this?

I occasionally get the typical MS hug of a spasm of some of the intercostal muscles, but fortunately not too badly. However the thing that is a constant irritation all day, every day and which is worse some days than others, is the feeling of having a broad tight elastic band around my chest just under my breasts. Women will understand it when I say it's like having a bra on which is several sizes too small, and the sensation is there whether I'm wearing a bra or not. For men just imagine having a luggage strap wrapped around you and done up too tight. Oh the joys of MS - it has endless ways of playing games with you..............

I get the sensation lower, right under my rib cage. Heat is definitely a factor. Usually I am outside grilling when it hits, and I usually can't eat when its happening. Once I cool off it usually fades over an hour or so. Occasionally I have it lady for a full day or more. That's the worst because I have trouble sitting comfortably, so driving is out.

BI-PAP MACHINE MADE MY MS HUGS BE A THING OF THE PAST!
I'm glad you wrote about the MS hug. However there is a treatment that for me has been 95% successful. When I got first diagnosed my Ms hugs kept increasingly getting worse and it started to decrease my dead today breathing. Example would be harder to read my child books or talk in a conversation. I even went to a pulmonologist and found that my lungs kept decreasing in lung capacity. I was at 85% and at the worst was 44% lung capacity. So the MS hug those intercostal muscles wer severely reducing my lungs ability to inflate and deflate. I started to wake up at night gasping for breath. The MS hug sent me to the hospital because I couldn't breathe . I went to the Mayo and thank goodness my neurologist told me to get a BiPAP machine to wear at night! I wear my BiPAP machine at night and with any muscle spasm the importance is to stretch the muscle no matter where it is in the body. And so the BiPAP stretches the intercostal muscles forces my lungs to fully inflate and deflate. After two years of use of my BiPAP my lung capacity increased to 85% . I now don't have Ms hugs now I would call it a little tightening. And if I feel that I just take myocalm which is a natural muscle relaxer with magnesium. Magnesium is a great for the muscles. I don't know why I never read treatment for Ms hugs a BiPAP machine. Because it makes total sense. Tight muscles muscle spasms what does a physical therapist tell you, stretch the muscle, work the muscle and that is exactly what a BiPAP machine does. And also the addition of magnesium is important for the muscles. I hope one day when I read about the MS hug the treatment or suggestion will be a BiPAP. Because it has been transforming for me because before I had the BiPAP the MS hug got so bad it sent me to the hospital. And now with the BiPAP, it's not a part of my day anymore

I have found that my "MS Hug" is very brutal and sometimes scares me when it localizes in my upper chest. This was very worrisome for me for quite some time as I have also had a quadruple heart bypass surgery (CABG) just 5 years ago. I've lost a significant amount of weight since then and gotten my Type II diabetes under control since then, and had already quit smoking a year prior, but it was SCARY when I thought I was having ANGINA or actual HEART ATTACKS! My MS Doc (neurologist) upped my dose of Baclofen and it helps, but now that I know *what* it is, I'm not as afraid of it, but certainly still quite bothered and sometimes crippled by it. It's not a fun time.

That too tight bra analogy is perfect. What I find though, is the area in my back, sort of under the shoulder blades sort of "shorts' out the muscles there used to hold your body upright. After the hug this instability lasts for a while, and it really affects everything I need to ambulate under my own speed. I often wondered if I had a lesion there, but ms follows no rules so who knows?

Thank You all for posting your stories and experiences. I have been to multiple specialists for over 3 years with this pain in my flank. In November 2018, my GB was only functioning at 17% and was removed. I guess with the anesthesia, I thought the pain was gone. Was I wrong, the pain traveled with evengents to the left flank and I thought I was going to die. Every test that could be done on my body was completed, still no answers. Until my breathing became more and more difficult and my oxygen levels continue to drop to dangerous levels. Finally after many years I got the answer as to why I was having so many problems with breathing. I was diagnosed with SPMS in September 2019, and been getting treatment. "THE MS HUG" is real... I am new to all this and at times very scared.

My 'hug' feels like a truck parked on my chest just above the breast line. It gets so tight I can't breath or swallow. I find the only thing that helps is burping. I know stress causes it. Sometimes it is feeling tired yet I don't experience it with the exhaustion I tend to have regularly. Those symptoms are in a league of their own. Usually this vice-like crushing grip around the base of my throat tends to take me by surprise and when I least expect it. I am sad and happy I am not the only person suffering with this. Karen

Hi Rachel
Glad I can shed some light. So sorry it took that long to solve such an awful pain mystery. I wish there was more available to help people with SPMS, but at least now you know the "why" and can take some action to find symptom relief. Good luck to you!
Tamara

Hello everyone. I am 38 years old and have never been diagnosed MS, but what you describe here is the closest to what happened to me yesterday. I felt a sudden pain in the right side of my chest and upper back. I couldnt breathe properly without feeling excruciating pain that seemed inside my lung. And I couldnt stand straight or totally fill my lung with air. It has been like this since yesterday and i keep feeling this pressure on my rib cage right side which sometime almost makes me cough. It doesnt feel like an actual lung issue, more like something squeezing and putting pressure... I wonder if i have MS, but now with the COV issue, going to a doctor is a challenge.

I have not officially been diagnosed with MS but I sure do feel like I meet criteria. Several years ago, I went to ER after having trouble swallowing and diagnosed with dysphagia which went away. A year and a half ago, I was diagnosed with herniated disk after severe back pain.

Not long after back pain dissipated, I developed numbness in my lower right leg along with spasms that come and go. Several months ago my right eye started twitching randomly. It started out as small twitch that came and went quickly then when I sneezed or coughed the twitch became more pronounced. Then it disappears for a bit then twitching returns. I am getting headaches frequently. Now I have a pain radiating from my back, right shoulder blade to my right armpit. Not a sharp pain, just an uncomfortable tightness and aching. I find it more uncomfortable and constricting when wearing bra.

I am 52 years old and have read that MS is less common at this age, so I'm not sure. Doctors keep suggesting it's hormonal due to perimenopause and stress but I'm not so sure.

I have had MS for almost 20 years now. About 5 years ago, I would get very painful, crushing symptoms in my right upper chest and the right front portion up to my neck. So painful that my husband was comforting me. I thought I was having a heart attack for real. I could not catch my breath. I would grab a pillow and squeeze it until it was gone to help alleviate the pain. This would last from 1/2 hr to an hour every so often. When I broke my ankle April 2020, had to go to the emergency room. While we were in a room waiting for the doctor, I had an MS hug. I sat still and watched the EKG reading. It only showed that my HR went up a little but normal. That's how I know it was not a heart attack (thank God). But, September 2023, I had pain inside the right side of my chest behind my breast, some at my shoulder and neck. It was not as debilitating and painful as the previous ones that lasted a very short time. This was an annoying pain with sharpness with it. The pain would get worse when I stood up from a sitting position and affected my breathing. This lasted 4-6 weeks, IBU seemed to "soften" the pains to a more tolerable level. The hug came fast, stayed for weeks and left as fast as it came. I am a Medical laboratory scientist and it effected the way worked, not in a good way either. My past and present neurologists kept telling me that MS doesn't include pain. Thank ypu for reading about my hugs.