Hi there, I’ve recently been diagnosed with MS. I’ve had right sided numbness on my face and hearing loss in my right ear for about 3 weeks now. These are some of the symptoms I’ve been experiencing along with others. After a supposedly relapse, does anyone know how long they last ? Or how long I should expect recovery to last for ?
Many people find that relapses resolve completely or almost so, particularly in the early years of MS. My experience has been mixed on that front, but I can say that my loss of hearing in one ear was fixed like magic after day 1 of a course of high-dose steroids.
Thanks for the reply! Ok, have you had many relapses since being diagnosed? Sorry it’s just all very new to me, not sure what to expect really!? Still reading through the booklets I was given trying to learn… Ok that’s good that your hearing loss got better, mine is still here and I also did 5 days of high dosage steroids through IV drip. I also still have some numbness on the right side of my face which I’m hoping will eventually go, as I have had it coming up 3 weeks now. Also, if you know, I’ve been getting like a migraine pain behind the one eye quite a lot recently do you know if this is connected? Once again sorry for
All the questions x
It seems that headache is a fairly common problem in MS.
@whammel ok, thank you for that! It’s more the pain behind my eye rather than the head. Any recommendations on how to manage them? As paracetamol doesn’t seem
To work on me anymore, after taken them regularly in hospital.
It might be nerve pain and that’s why paracetamol doesn’t work. Does it sound like trigeminal neuralgia?
This is only a guess though and you need to consult your MS Team for the certainty you need.
" Trigeminal neuralgia, sometimes called tic douloureux, is a type of nerve (neuropathic) pain in the side of the face and can be a symptom of multiple sclerosis. Different people experience trigeminal neuralgia in different ways. It is most commonly felt in the cheek or in the upper or lower jaw but some people experience pain up towards the eye, ear and forehead or inside the mouth. It can feel like it is coming from one or more teeth so many people visit their dentist to begin with. It is usually on one side of the face only (unilateral) although in rare cases it occurs on both sides of the face (bilateral) although not at the same time."
Sorry to say that From my understanding of MS and human biology, your question is a bit like how long is a piece of string. My first major relapse was evidenced by Optic Neuritis which caused near total loss of vision in my right eye. It took weeks , for vision to recover to a significant extent and maybe months for full recovery. But that’s just my experience and I’m pretty sure it varies with age and general health - fitness. Also, recovery frequently isnt full recovery.
My understanding of things is that in general once recovery if that particular area of damage is complete, things stay fairly stable
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Thank you for your reply! It’s good to hear different experiences and views from different people. This is all completely new to me (as it once was for everyone on here) so all advice, opinions and views accepted 
Have been looking at the MS Trust website. I was looking for something else on the site but I noticed that they say relapses and associated symptoms can last anything from a few weeks to months. Guess it’s like everything else and depends on how bad/ extensive the initial damage was
From what I’ve experienced before, the sensory tingling/numbness/pins and needles on my left side is due to lesions/inflammation on my right side of brain, it would be opposite side of brain if it was my right side.
The hearing loss is usually down to build up of earwax, which the body naturally pushes out over time, the darker the colour of the wax the longer it’s been blocking your hearing.
Ok great, thank you for that bit of information @Hank_Dogs
Thank you! @muchthesamemuchness so where I had several hearing tests they said I have no ear wax or any obvious damage ect. They could not see anything wrong with my ear. Just that my hearing in my left ear was good and the right ear was undetectable. They said the problem is in the inner ear or further 
I got offered to have the injection but the risks with that is if it doesn’t work I could end up with an infection or worse, lose my hearing for good. My hearing in my right ear has been gone now since 12th July.
Dear Shainie,
Sorry to hear of the complete loss of hearing in your right ear, I can imagine it must be affecting your overall balance, the tinnitus in my left ear certainly did but it’s lessened over time.
Just to add to my previous post, sensory feelings do lessen over time too, although the lessions/scaring/inflammation my still be pressent on the MRI, the body does eventually try to heal itself, steroids only help speed up the process.
Best regards,
JP
@muchthesamemuchness thank you for this information!
Yes so before being admitted to hospital on 23rd July and having several MRI’s lumbar puncture steroids ect and finding out I have MS, I had severe vertigo start on 3rd July which the doctors kept saying was vertigo and to keep doing certain exercises and medication that did not help as this turned out to be a lot more than vertigo. I had really bad co ordination and balance issues like I almost felt like I was drunk. It was awful. Had it for weeks, along with dizziness fatigue nausea. Thankfully all has pretty much gone, just have a slight bit of off balance here and there. It’s really crazy the amount of things you can get/experience with MS
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I really hope that you are getting better every day. It is hard to be patient, but with luck those steroids are still hard at work, and my experience is that most things take time to get as much better as they’re going to. The immediate fixing of my hearing thing was the exception to that rule for me - it was like magic, but a one-off trick, alas! Sorry, I don’t know anything about migraine pain behind one the eye except that I sometimes get something like it myself but have never done anything about it.
Thanks for your reply! @alison100
That’s one thing I’ve been curious about, if the steroids are still working through my body or if it’s only whilst being in hospital hooked to the IV drip!?
And than you, I am getting better… Most symptoms have gone thankfully, it’s just the headache pain behind my eye that comes and goes every now and then, also feeling the heat not being able to handle the heat like I used too. Just waiting to have my blood tests tomorrow and hopefully get the ball rolling to start my DMT. I hope you are well yourself 
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