I need some advice. I am diagnosed with rrms and have had at least 3 relapses. One of my first symptoms was one sided numbness, this has improved in some areas but not in others. I take a high dose of gabbapenten and have tried pregablin also but Nothing helps some areas of the numbness. Is this permanent nerve damage or progressive symptoms?
Hi, You don’t say over what time period this is. Some relapses take many months to recover from, so I’d say if it’s not been a year yet, there’s still room for optimism. Perhaps even after that - I’m not sure there’s an absolute limit on how long it might take, so my guess of a year is a bit arbitrary. Alternatively, most people find that eventually, with successive relapses, they do get accumulated damage, that never goes completely. I suppose this IS “progression”, but doesn’t mean the MS itself has become secondary progressive. It’s just a build-up of imperfect repairs from previous episodes. Remission is relative: it means better than it was, but not always better full stop. Tina
To add to Tina’s reply, I don’t believe that gabapentin or pregabalin (or similar) typically helps numbness. They reduce activity in the nervous system which is very helpful for pain and sensory symptoms like pins & needles and burning which are generally caused by too much neural activity, but numbness is already a lack of activity. Unless you are taking it for something else too, I would try to come off gabapentin (slowly!) and see what happens, if I were you. Progression causes symptoms to get worse over time. Symptoms from relapses either improve (to some degree) or remain the same; they don’t gradually get worse. Karen x