Numbness after effects. - Spine MS progression?

Hiya my friends

I would love people’s advice or experience of a type of numbness and after effects.

I’ll start with the end of May this year and after coming back from holiday I can only assume I was suffering a big relapse. Over the course of several months a ‘thick dentist’ numbness travelled around my torso and carried on right through my left side to the end of my toes – including all the ‘good dangly bits’ in between! This has now receded leaving me less sensation and a tightness around the left side and abdomen that worsens when stressed – like selling my house!

I don’t seem to suffer back pain anymore and I wonder if the MS has hit something further down in the spine?

Is there any meds for this? Has anyone else had this experience/symptom and what have you done to combat it?

Looking forward to hearing from you all if you can relate to this one?

Take care,

Marty

Hi Marty,

Don’t give up yet - I had one like this (sensory stuff including pain all gone wrong below the waist). I could still walk - just couldn’t really feel that I was - LoL.

It took me many months to regain the sensation completely. I reckon I eventually got it back about 98% - or as close to “normal” as makes no real difference. If I really dwell on it in a morbid way (which I try not to, obviously), I don’t think I’m quite as good as before it happened, but the difference is not worth crying over.

A spinal cord lesion can affect any function below the point of the lesion. It’s because the nerve signals are having trouble getting past the site of the damage. My lesion turned out to be surprisingly high up (thoracic, or chest area). But pretty much all the symptoms were below waist level. Dunno quite how the bits between chest and waist ended up escaping, but the relationship between lesions and consequences isn’t a very precise science.

There are meds that can dampen down unwanted sensations, such as tingling, buzzing and the like, but none (that I know of) that can restore feeling that has been lost.

If the loss of sensation is due to a relapse (as in your case and mine, apparently) a course of steroids might restore it quicker, but the end result won’t be any better than if you let it heal naturally. You just might get there a bit faster.

As the relapse that sparked it all was as long ago as May, it’s probably a bit late to bother now. I think steroids work best if they’re administered promptly. I was never offered them, as I didn’t get diagnosed 'til months after it had happened.

Tina

Hi I found a high dose of steroids speeded up recovery from the numbness hope this helps take carexx

That is almost the way mine started (just over 4 years ago).

Mine began at the toes > ankles went stiff > the tingling an numbness spread quite quickly up to the waist > then up to the chest.
Then it slowly faded away. This may have been helped by a course of B12 injections, suggested by a very thorough Neurologist (well, I did have to go private to get seen quickly), and the ankles still feel the same. The left leg is worse than the right one, but I have been driving automatic cars for several years, so that was no problem

I did notice how much information the brain had been getting from my sides leaning against the car seat when cornering. As the numbness went up to my armpits, I had no feedback from my sides as to speed. When the numbness went away, the feedback returned.

The Neuro identified the problem as between the T4 and T6 vertebrae (thoracic - see Tina’s post above), and a second examination when I was back in the NHS system confirmed this. I had the transparencies from a private MRI scan, and an NHS Neuro showed me just where the problem was and what it looked like.

It gets slightly worse with each relapse, but prompt steroids will speed recovery - they just won’t repair all the damage.

Geoff