"numbness"

[Cc1]

Hi
Random question! When people describe numbness, are you talking about full anaesthesia, like no sensation etc, or reduced sensation or that slightly “muffled” feeling you get from pins and needles when it’s not in the tingly stage of pins and needles?! I don’t know if I’m describing this well but I had been thinking “no, I haven’t got numbness, only a sort of dead pins and needles feeling in my right arm, but it’s not numb because I can feel touch” (though in some parts that nice sensation you get from gentle touch has gone, I wouldn’t be able to differentiate what is touching me, touching wood or plastic or paper etc all feels the same to my fingertips, but I can feel that I’m touching something/something is touching me!). But now I’m wondering if that is what people class as numbness??

Thanks!

[TheresaB]

Hi Cc1

Although it varies from one person to the next - the pre-pins and needles weird sensation is, I think, what most of us describe as numbness.

[alison100]

You are describing very well something that I have experienced and do experience. I have also had the sort of numbness where someone can move about the affected part and I don’t know they’re doing it if my eyes are shut. In my experience, MS can do both.