Just out of interest has MS affected your hand writing? I’ve not been able to write properly since I was diagnosed 10 years ago. It’s messy and looks like a 5 year old has written it. I try with my left but that’s not much better
Fiona
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My inability to write properly was one of my first symptoms (it deteriorated to spider scrawl over a fortnight and gradually got better) but I don’t think my writing has ever returned to the way it was. It’s much scruffier than it used to be and it annoys the hell out of me. I can’t write with my left either. At least I can communicate now. At the time, my speech was really slurred too so I was struggling to communicate at all and that was really frustrating 
Good job we can still type, eh?
Tracey x
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I lost all my speech after a bad relapse about 9 years ago Tracey. I couldn’t write things either. I had speech therapy for a year. I’m fine now 
x
Small handwriting is considered to be a symptom of Parkinsons Disease. Since getting PD, my wifes handwriting has gone small and spidery to the point where she sometimes cannot read what she has written.
My handwriting was never good, but it went downhill when I started to use computers. Now, the l/h tremor has me making an awful lot of typos, and for some things I have reverted to handwriting. As a general observation, I find I write better with a sharp, soft pencil (say 2B) - but that’s better, not good.
Geoff
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Totally agree, I am embarrassed by my awful hand writing, thank goodness for email! Trying to think how to spell simple words can also be a problem, very annoying at times. Sarah x
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Me too. Horrid, isn’t it? MS went for my hands early and relapses left permanent damage I don’t have enough fine motor control left to do more than scrawl untidily. I can still type fairly well, though, although I am much slower because my outer fingers aren’t great at knowing where there are in space as well as having lost some sensation, so touch-typing is a bit approximate. But typing requires much less finesse than hand-writing, and that is why it still works reasonably well for me. So far. Touch wood. I hate the feeling that even the capacity one has left is hanging by a thread, but that’s MS!
Alison
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Me too. My handwriting is shocking. I still do the crossword (in pencil) but sometimes the letters don’t look like they should and I’m trying to fit answers in with letters that are wrong (if you know what I mean?) And as for my signature. Thankfully we live in a world where signing cheques etc is mostly a thing of the past. If we lived in a world without computers, and especially tablets, that don’t have keys as such, I’d be lost with no means of written communication.
Sue
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Yep, I used to have very neat handwriting, but I’ve noticed it’s getting very small and sloppy these days. I’m just not worrying about it… I type more than I write, and I can still do that reasonably well…!
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yes, absolutely.
was handy when filling in my PIP application though 
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My handwriting has certainly gone downhill in recent years. I find I can still do a pretty neat job with a good old fashioned fountain pen, but with a ballpoint I just produce an embarrassing scrawl. Maybe I should try a quill.
Ben
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I work as a test engineer and have to write all my results on a test sheet with stupidly small boxes! As the day goes on it gets really hard. I have suggested we have tablets but it falls on deaf ears
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hi fiona
i have had appalling handwriting since january 2015- handwriting, speech and strength in RH became crappy overnight. i now don’t handwrite at all, and unfortunately it has affected my piano playing ability (i as/ was a musician).
ask your MS nurse/consultant if you can have some steroids as these can positively affect use of hand.
try not to worry- you’re in good company
fluffyollie xx
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i write every day and it was noticeably worse during my latest relapse. it proved useful to help monitor the deterioration and then thankfully, the subsequent recovery.
In fact many things proved problematic; it was impossible for me to put on a glove without two or more fingers going in one hole.
spatial awareness was zero - i could feel like i was making a fist, but my fingers would be straight; trying to do the spock hand sign resulted in my little and ring fingers flexing towards the palm; not bending, just going at right angles to the hand.
all very strange, but again, all things which thankfully were temporary. it was disconcerting at best, terrifying at worst. but i was determined to adapt and overcome. it became a focal point for my determination to get over this ‘hurdle’. and although my typing was reduced to single digit punching of the keyboard, i persisted in all things, inclusive of going to work as per usual and telling no one.
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I can quite see why being unable to do the Spock sign would give you a real problem …
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I used to pride myself on my handwriting. Not anymore but I shall be thankful I can still write at all however awful it is.
Mags xx
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Particularly when he wants to convey to his recreational horticulturalist “Live long and prosper”.
Geoff
I am waiting for a diagnosis, but 90% risk of developing MS,I find out in January. My handwriting and typing have got worse. Thank goodness for spell check!
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I’m dreading writing Christmas cards maybe I should start now and write one or two a day
In 2008 nobody got a Christmas card as it was the run up to Christmas when I had my first ever relapse which affected my handwriting. I think I lost a couple of friends that year and have never had a card from them since. They obviously weren’t true friends in the first place if they get the hump over one missing card and never wondered why … I sent them one the following year but didn’t get one back. Oh well …
And I had forgotten the dilemma of trying to put gloves on. It used to take ages because the fingers wanted to be together.
The following winter I started yoga and when we do movements with our eyes closed I still had some numbness in the left hand. If we had to circle our arms around our bodies and bring our hands together, I had to sneak a peak because I didn’t always know where my left hand was unless I could see it …
It’s surprising the things I used to take for granted.
Tracey x
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I use moonpig or funky pigeon. Costs me a fortune though