Good Vibrations

Headline from the awesome Lifehacker blog this week: "Phantom Cellphone Vibration is a  Sign You Need a Tech Break." This is when you feel your cell phone vibrating in your pocket, but when you check it you realize there was no vibration - or even worse, your cell phone isn't even in your pocket! So-called Phantom Cellphone Vibration is not a sign of psychosis, but rather an addiction to technology. The cure - take a break!

Tech Addiction or Something More Sinister??

Or - speaking from experience - I suggest it could also be a sign you have MS. During my early days of violently ignoring a range of symptoms from total limb numbness to constantly having to pee to an insanely itchy itch that could not be scratched to jittery, bouncy, jackhammer legs to falling down, I often felt this so-called Phantom Cellphone Vibration. I assumed I was going crazy. I was eventually diagnosed with MS, which explained most of the symptoms. But I still assumed the Cellphone Vibration phenomenon was a sign of being nutso and/or hyper-aware of the idea of receiving calls. When a few months down the line, I finally saw an MS-specialist neuro as opposed to a garden variety neuro I was stunned, startled, and amazed to discover that this was just another quirky MS trick. The neuro showed me that I had failed to realize the connection between head movement and this vibration experience. No phone calls for me - just Lhermitte's sign!