I have had a general weakness and pins and needles which has spread since July round my whole body. I have no grip in my hands my eyes are twitchy (not sure how else to describe). i have a numb tounge and lips, achey bones, i have had a few episodes of fequency and urgency in urination and have had a few embarassing episodes where ive been too late, once at work and once whilst out!! shooting pain in hips, i get noticably more tired than usual. coordination is getting worse.forgetting simple words( coat for example.) Pain in ribs, freezing cold most of the time.
a few weeks ago i seemed to recover getting almost all use of my hands back and didnt feel so tired and achey. the pins and needles remained. I had had that episode for about three weeks before any kind of recovery, but now two weeks later my grip has gone again and my eyes are twitchy and seeing spiders…not good.
please excuse the long explanantion now to my question.how long is a relapse meant to last? and how long should there be inbetween each one? and is it taken from the start of the last relapse or from when it ended?
Thanks in Advance
If it’s MS, then a relapse can last anything from 24 hours to many months. My average is probably 4 months, but I’ve had shorter and longer.
A relapse is generally considered to be at least 24 hours and that starts at least 30 days after the start of the last relapse. The reason they add the 30 day bit is because relapses can fluctuate - coming and going and/or new symptoms sort of cascading from the start. So if something new happens more than 30 days since the last attack, it can be counted as a new attack. It’s sometimes hard to really tell if it’s new or a continuation of the last one though, e.g. my 2010 was either back to back attacks or one big long one.
Recovery from an attack isn’t in a straight line: it’s usually two small steps forward and one back (sometimes two or even three!). A very slow, frustrating process 
Karen x
Hi Anon,
I’m afraid there’s no fixed answer to your question. Clinically speaking, a relapse MUST last at least 24 hours (otherwise it isn’t counted as a relapse), and “average” length is supposedly four or five weeks. But having said that, all mine have been longer, and I’ve had one (my biggest) which was definitely still making itself felt a year later. I don’t mean there was no improvement at all before that - things started improving quite soon after it happened. But I didn’t reach maximum recovery for a year.
I don’t mean this to sound disheartening: on the contrary, relapses CAN still improve after a pretty long time, so don’t assume you’re necessarily stuck with things forever, just because they haven’t cleared up in a few weeks.
Again, clinically speaking, I believe there has to be at least 30 days between relapses. If what seemed to be a new one happened sooner than that, it would be presumed to be all part of the same episode. I’m guessing, if there was only two weeks gap, it’s all part of the first one still, and it hadn’t really gone away yet. Sorry!
Tina