Hi. My husband was taken into hospital on Sunday with a suspected stroke, ct was clear but MRI showed demylation so he’s being treated for and told its ms. Since Sunday his weakness turned to a total inability to use his right side and his speech is dramatically affected, its slurred, he can’t find words and misses words. She on it steroid but I’m hoping someone can give me an idea how long it might take to start recovering from this?
Thanks
Hello, I am sorry you are having to go through this it sounds really tough. I would think the doctors have given your husband steroids (At least that’s what I get during a relapse to help things move along). I tend to see a recovery during this time, I then show myself at trying to keep fit (not easy) spending time with physios does help. I hope it starts to recover soon and the right side starts to improve
Good luck
Hello @katie_anderton i have never been given steroids but I do know that
MS causes damage to the nerves in your brain and spinal cord
In general this damage becomes noticeable when the immune system suddenly attacks and destroys some of the myelin around nerves and this results in loss of function
During that process the nerves become inflamed and it is this inflammation that results in a lot of the loss of function. Over time that inflammation will die down , your own body will do what it can to repair the damaged areas and much but not all of the function will slowly return
Sometimes, particularly in the case of a bad attack, some of the nerve itself is lost in which case the function will never return
Steroid treatment speeds up the dying down of inflammation ( leading to some return of function) after which the body will try to repair the damage leading to return of most but not all of the function .
From what I know ( which certainly isn’t comprehensive) steroids speed up the reduction of inflammation but don’t make any difference to the end result. The rate of the process varies from person to person
The following is mainly guess work but you might see some results within a couple of weeks or less but it could be a couple of months or more before you see the final results which, as mentioned, are likely to include some permanent loss of function .
My first major attack resulted in loss of vision in one eye. I didn’t have steroid treatment but my vision returned slowly over the next few weeks . I think it was perhaps 3 months before it returned as much as it ever would to something like 85- 95% of its previous abilities
I expect that your husband is , or soon will be in the process of discussions with his neurologist about MS Disease Modifying Treatments/Drugs. The general consensus these days seems to be that its best to go for one of the most effective ones first ( there was a time when people would be started on a lower efficacy one and then moved up if that wasn’t working- to me that seems like a totally bonkers approach!)