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Feeling very heavy - symptom that rarely gets mentioned

Messages
2,125
I have come across anecdotal mention of this symptom but never seen it included in any diagnostic criteria I can remember.
It is something that I regularly experience a lot, particularly as part of PEM.
At the very beginning, I struggled to push the duvet off me in bed.
Nowadays, it is a sure sign that I am overdoing it as everything becomes much heavier. My whole body, particularly my legs; anything I try to lift feels as if it's quadrupled in weight.
It's as though someone has increased gravity.
I'm 5'6 and weigh 8stone but at times it's like I'm more than twice that.
Just wondered how common it was and what reason there might be for it?
 
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Tammy

Senior Member
Messages
2,181
Location
New Mexico
That heavy feeling is what I consider one of the neurological symptoms of CFS. Feeling heavy and other things feeling like they weigh much more than they really do. In the early part of my CFS I went through periods where it felt like someone had placed heavy weights just on the tops of my feet so it was very difficult to raise my foot. Then at other times it was my whole body or limbs. Things that other's thought were light weight felt abnormally heavy to me. I felt those symptoms to varying degrees for many many yrs.................but I should add those symptoms are much better now............thank god.
 
Messages
1,082
Location
UK
I've had this since the beginning too at varying degrees. Sometimes just arms, just legs, just my head or whole body. They weigh a ton sometimes.

When its full on whole body, this is one of my main causes of paralysis. Lasted a couple of years in the beginning now its only a week or so at the start of crashes.

Nothing more irritating than having an itch on your face and not being able to scratch it :aghhh: or crying, and creating a snot fountain that is slowly running down your face and you can't wipe your nose :depressed: so attractive :rofl:
 

NL93

Senior Member
Messages
155
Location
The Netherlands
It's as though someone has increased gravity.
I'm 5'6 and weigh 8stone but at time it's like I'm more than twice that.

I have this exactly and have explained it to numerous doctors like that. It feels like I am on an other planet with much higher gravity, I feel like I am being pushed in my bed when lying down and it makes my entire body extremely heavy. It was one of my first symptoms and absolutely has to do with overexertion/PEM. It slowly resolves with rest for me.
 
Messages
2,391
Location
UK
My wife gets this a lot. Her legs all the time, and her whole body when overdone things.

With my engineer's hat on, I would have thought it inevitable that if your muscles lack available power (i.e. energy cannot get to them quick enough), then your brain is going to perceive things being heavier (including your own body) because it has to tell the muscles to try harder. Even I (who is not the one with ME) find that as I get somewhat older, and not as strong as I used to be, things that I know weigh the same as they always did (mower, bike, etc) feel distinctly heavier to me.

So I would think it will be an inevitable consequence of ME/CFS sufferers' muscles having less energy supply available to them, and therefore weaker.
 

mirshine

Senior Member
Messages
469
Location
Dublin, Ireland
Yes! Thank you. Never knew how to describe it. I also get a heaviness across my chest when I've overdone things. Like my heart is struggling to pump the blood around or something. I guess all muscles are affected. I had all the heart tests done and was cleared, so I'm not worried about it. Just another symptom I guess.
 

Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,824
My whole body, particularly my legs; anything I try to lift feels as if it's quadrupled in weight.
It's as though someone has increased gravity.

Are you perhaps referring to the so called "molasses fatigue" — a feeling of fatigued heaviness in the limbs?

It is a feeling that is hard to describe. For me, it is a bodily heavy fatigue and mild numbness of the limbs. It is a fatigue that seems to arise from the nervous system and the sensations that come from the muscles. Molasses fatigue is a somewhat unpleasant feeling, and adds a further undesirable dimension to the overall ME/CFS fatigue.

Molasses fatigue is very different to the normal pleasant muscular fatigue that you get from doing a good gym workout (if anyone can remember those). In that post-gym workout muscular tiredness, there is a nice relaxed healthy fatigue in the muscles, which makes you feel good.

Whereas the molasses fatigue is not nice or relaxing; it makes you feel like a heavy sack of potatoes.



In terms of treatment, I find iodine 16 mg daily works well to keep the molasses fatigue at bay. It takes a few days to start working, but this dosage of iodine I find prevents the molasses limbs symptom from appearing.
 

purrsian

Senior Member
Messages
344
I hate this feeling and it's one of my most prominent symptoms. It's hard to explain, because I feel weak but I'm not necessarily objectively weak (although probably a bit). It's not like I'm so weak that I can't move, but I feel so weak that it feel horrible and sooo hard to move. Sometimes it's so bad that the effort to move the computer mouse is too much. Although I can still move it.

It's a bit like with PEM, it's hard to explain to doctors when they ask what you can't do, because you actually physically can do plenty of things, but you shouldn't because you pay for it. Hard to explain that just because you're able to, doesn't mean you always can or should.

My weak heavy feeling is tied to PEM, but also happens sometimes randomly. I have it badly today for no apparent reason. Maybe because it's morning and I'm always worse in mornings due to both CFS and POTS?
 
Messages
97
Location
San Francisco, CA USA
This was one of my earliest symptoms. Before I was housebound, I was still able to travel and was visiting Florida. I remember saying, "I know this sounds dumb, but is gravity stronger in some parts of the world?" (I'm not exactly what you'd call a scientific genius.) It has not gone away, and definitely gets worse when all my other symptoms do.
 

xrayspex

Senior Member
Messages
1,111
Location
u.s.a.
I get this more noticeably after overdoing things, like if I push self for several days in row and don't take enough down time (and normally require a lot of down time). Its also really bad during things like the work it takes to move--not that I would try to move furniture myself or something but I did a lot of packing and cleaning the last time I moved and got into a really bad flare and I remember being worried that I had made a mistake moving to a 2 story place because my legs were so heavy, wanted to crawl up the stairs. I wonder too if at onset it was part of reason my head felt so heavy, I attributed that all to an apparent neck injury but could have been a combination of inflammation from ME too
 
Messages
2,125
found this poll on PR:
http://forums.phoenixrising.me/index.php?threads/what-types-of-fatigue-do-i-experience-poll.2747/
it includes 'molasses fatigue' as mentioned by @Hip.
But it implies it only affects certain limbs. What I'm talking about is as I said an overall feeling of heaviness (is that a word?), as also described by others on this thread.
Even I (who is not the one with ME) find that as I get somewhat older, and not as strong as I used to be, things that I know weigh the same as they always did (mower, bike, etc) feel distinctly heavier to me.
The big difference is for you this is relatively constant and as you say, not being as strong as you used to be. I can't speak for the others but for me, the extreme heaviness can come on in almost a wave/surge and will eventually subside (but not so I'm 'back to normal') and is not related to muscle weakness.
I often swear a lot when it happens:aghhh:
 

purrsian

Senior Member
Messages
344
the extreme heaviness can come on in almost a wave/surge and will eventually subside (but not so I'm 'back to normal') and is not related to muscle weakness.
For me, it's often a wave or surge too. At the moment, when I crash, it's mostly just a wave of heaviness/weakness that overcomes me and is a sign to have a rest immediately. When I say weakness, I don't mean I'm actually weaker, but I feel so extremely weak. Like if I'm not already in bed, I can walk to the bedroom without being wobbly or collapsing, but do so very slowly and it feels so hard to do.
 

PennyIA

Senior Member
Messages
728
Location
Iowa
My own body and extremities feeling very heavy I've always connected and referred to as 'fatigue'... and it can build and build until I have no choice but to rest. If I don't it only gets way worse and the PEM is tremendously bad. If I can lay down as soon as it strikes I can usually minimize, if not eliminate, PEM.

Other objects becoming extremely heavy, like inability to lift the blanket or the pencil, etc... I connect to extreme muscle weakness. I usually experience that when I'm struck down already with PEM.
 

Belgiangirl

Senior Member
Messages
108
Myasthenia or muscle weakness.

It is for me also one of my most profound and disabling symptoms. Happily I dont have it continously.

When I push myself beyond this myasthenia I get out of breath very quickly, from just doing nothing!! Even walking from toilet to bed or chair might generate this heavy breathing so I know that's just where my body limit is ...
I'm happy to not have it continuously. But it is very stressing when it happens because you never know when or if it will disappear. When it comes in it is usually something of weeks...