Hi everyone hope you are all keeping well, for the past week I have been experiencing numbness in the soles of my feet. It first started in my right foot then the next morning it was my left then the morning after that both feet! And has now stayed like it. It is a very strange sensation to walk on. This is a new symptom to me could it be a relapse? Thanks for reading. Nicola x
I am very interested in the responses you get to this message.
I have the same feeling in my feet too.
I experience this sometimes, as well as tightening sensation that I can only liken to walking on lego/marbles. Left side is more numb, right side tightens up.
Bloody strange thing this illness we have.
I’ve had a weird thing like that too felt like I was walking on cotton wool! Lasted a few weeks then went away?! Very odd! you wonder what next?..hope it goes away soon Emma x
Hello there and just to cheer you up it is getting darker by two minutes a day and will do until Dec 21,then it gets lighter.Oh,your question,I don’t think it’s a relapse starting,but I advise you keep off your feet as much as possible and if bigger shoes are more comfortable,wear them.If you can twist steroids IV or Oral out of our caring NHS, I would advise you to do it,and if you tell a small ‘porkie’ to do it…So what,the NHS works for you.
I had those symptoms, about eight years ago,and I’ve never had a second without discomfort in MY feet.For three years I’d call it chronic, worsening neuropathic pain running at 7.5 - 9 out of 10.Haven’t been able to walk for 10 months and can bear to weight bear for ~ 60 seconds if holding something and then my legs fold,not particularly neatly.
This is my experience and the left foot/leg was worse at the outset,but the right has caught up really nicely.All the problems are caused by severe demylination in my brain stem and I have severe stenosises in my right and left Jugular veins.The NHS refuse to even MRI me regard the stenosises as nothing and wish I’d leave them alone. The NHS very considerately gives me a variety of drugs to play ‘pick’n’mix’ with,I get 15 minutes of fame annually and THAT is THAT.I’m 50 next month and was diagnosed 12 years ago as R+R with incomplete recovery.
These are MY experiences and you should NOT think this is your fate,but with ‘Handy Hindsight’ eight years ago I’d do what I’ve said and would have learnt to walk on my hands.
Good luck,
Wb x
Another member of the numb feet club. I thought I would feel better when the hot weather subsided, but from nowhere I get the feet which feel like built in platforms. Aghh! Peter
I’ve had this for about 3 months niw!. It also feels like I am wearing long tight socks! I still have full strength but can hardly feel my feet. Wearing shoes is horrible they feel like they are 3x too small and my toes ache even my toenaiks feel like they are going to come off!. I don’t think it’s a relapse, just spasticity or sensory issues. I feel like I’m walking on sand one minute, then pebbles the next. Wriggling my toes makes the skin on the sokes of my feet feel like it’s all loose and that it can be peeled away. My toes feel tight and rigid. I hope it goes away xx
I had the numb feet/legs and Its what led to my diagnosis. I couldn’t wear shoes, they hurt to bad. I started wearing the toner sandals/ flip flops as any other footwear made my feet feel as though they were in a vice. Luckily, it didn’t last forever. Although it was painful and uncomfortable, it did eventually clear up. I was told that mine was a sensory relapse. I had dolly shoes in he car, for driving, my feet were that numb at one point hat I couldn’t even feel the pedals when driving!! However, as horriffic a it was, it did get better and I didn’t need any treatment. Hopefully yours will run the same course and disappear all by itself. Good luck Debs xx
It could very well be a relapse if it is a new symptom or a return of a previous symptom and hasn’t abated now you have rested a while. You may want to contact your MS nurse and consider whether you need steroids. It all depends if your mobility is affected or if you have any pain as well.
My feet are numb on and off to varying degrees and have been for the past 4 years since my biggie relapse when I was numb from the waist down. Mostly it is just a couple of toes but if I am hot or fatigued it can be quite a bit of the sole. I think it means my nerves are damaged and I have got used to it now. When my toes aren’t numb, they burn so I’d rather they were numb.
I had a new numb patch with the 2 latest relapses. I had an area about 2" square on the sole of my foot just before the heel which went numb. First the right foot and then the left foot to coincide with each relapse affecting right leg and left respectively. It was like having a large plaster stuck to the bottom of my foot and was horrible.
Btw, Debs, if your feet are so numb that you cannot feel the pedals you really shouldn’t be driving. If you have an accident and it is because you couldn’t feel the pedals, you will not be covered by your insurance and you stand a very real risk of losing your licence. How do I know this? Because I drove my car home just 3/4 of a mile just before I went into hospital with the exact same problem and when I told my neurologist he told me that he would happily tell DVLA I was okay to drive as long as I never drove with such severe numb feet again. Of course, I knew at the time that I wasn’t really safe (as I expect you did too) but my car had been locked in the staff car park just 3 months before when I was admitted to hospital unexpectedly with my first ever symptoms and I didn’t want my little car to be stuck there again. I knew I was looking at another hospital admission so I drove home very carefully using the engine noise as an indicator of how hard I was depressing the accelerator. Yes, it really was that bad!! No feeling at all in my feet 
Tracey x
Hi Tracey, I expect you’re right. However, mine was what led to my diagnosis. At the time I had no idea of what was causing my numbness. It was really bad, i could walk find hut rhe numbness and tinglimg was extreme. Luckily it only lasted a few months and everything went back to normal, well barring the odd tingling! Hopefully it’ll never return quite that severe again! I will keep in mind what you said about my insurance though as it never crossed my mind at the time!! Quite scary really looking back. Debs xx
Hello, My feet became altered in sensation last July and have never recovered. I find it strange to describe because they are numb but I can still feel, just less so but then they are equally very sensitive, I.e. if I stub my toe it hurts way more than it used to. Then there is the lumpy feeling behind my toes, like someone has inserted an egg in there. I’m guessing it was part of a relapse that led me to being diagnosed but I have never recovered. Have you mentioned it to your Nurse/Neuro so they can at least make a note of it? I miss feeling the floor and carpet properly. Sam x
Do you all find that your feet feel a lil bit less weird first thing when you wake up?
My son was numb from the waist down to his feet in January,he had to look at his feet when trying to walk because he couldn’t feel the floor.This lasted about 4-5 weeks.He’s Neurologist said it was a relapse,in his latest report from his Neurologist she says his MS is highly active at the moment.
Hi Debs
I could walk too right up until that afternoon when my legs suddenly seized up. My GP hadn’t told me that resting was the best thing to do so I had carried on rushing about (I’m a single parent so haven’t a choice) like I used to do. I know better know and, when a relapse hits, even if I can still go into work I take it easy at home.
I joked that I knew how Scott of the Antarctic must have felt because I didn’t know if my feet were there or not unless I looked down and of course they must have been there or I would’ve fallen over lol.
Yes, looking back it was quite scary for me too. Not so much the creeping numbness right up to my waist but the long hard slog to get my legs working properly again and the fact that my toes and soles of my feet never recovered completely. I wish my GP had signed me off sick that week. I dread to think of the damage I did whilst I was still rushing about
Tracey x
PS - my biggie relapse was what led to my diagnosis too. The earlier hospital admission was diagnosed as demyelination ie CIS. They told me I would probably be okay for 6 months/a year/5 years or I may never get any more symptoms. Ha ha, not me, I was back in just 3 months.
T x
Hi Nicola,
I have this and was one of the first symptoms - like walking in snow. or squashy feet. Still have it.
Hope yours clears up soon.
Jen x
I have this it feels at times like I was walking on sponges but didn’t realise it was my feet until at my recent neuro exam he found I had reduced sensation to the soles of my feet under my heels. I can feel something but its almost like I’ve got a layer of plastic/glue or something over them so that whilst I can feel its just not the same as elsewhere. I’m a limbo person though waiting mri A xx
Hi guys thankyou so much for the response so far x it’s good to know I’m not alone with this and I’m not going mad! And thankyou for all the advice. Hope you all keep well. Nic x
I have it too in my left foot. Someone asked if it was better in the morning and my foot and toes definitely are. It is interesting to hear that you are supposed to rest during an episode, as I have been told to move about as much as possible as I also got a blood clot min my left calf which is extremely tight due to spasticity and I am on warfarin. I’m now a bit worried that by moving around I am prolonging my episode. Anyway I hope your numbness stops soon. It is a very strange feeling.
I didn’t mean that you should stop moving completely but I have now been told by my nurse that we sholuld rest up and take it easy to give our bodies a chance to recover. Her exact words were ‘We don’t give you steroids so you can be superwoman!’. Unfortunately that is how they make me feel
Obviously we need to exercise the muscles a bit otherwise they seize up a bit more. With my biggie relapse I was still working full time and then going home and blitzing the house as my son had severe psoriasis and was like a mini snow storm so I had to vacuum the house every day to keep on top of it. I was also standing and cooking a proper dinner every day when I have now been told I should have taken a few short cuts here and there. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
With the two relapses this year, I had to drive to work as I couldn’t walk. It’s a desk job so that wasn’t strenuous and when I got home I made sure we had quick, easy dinners. I did yoga stretches twice daily to keep my legs moving and I think that’s why I am still mobile now. Still no sign of a physio …
Tracey x