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Is numbness permanent?

Posted: Sat Jun 01, 2013 5:01 pm
by Kimber0705
I have had left leg numbness for 4 months. I must use a wheelchair. My question is this...

When does numbness become permanent? When do I look to make modifications to my home/car?

Anyone with helpful hints?

Re: Is numbness permanent?

Posted: Sat Jun 01, 2013 5:16 pm
by lyndacarol
Kimber, I hold unconventional opinions here. I do not think that any of our symptoms are necessarily "permanent." When scientists find the cause for MS, and the cause can be removed, I think our bodies will heal and symptoms will go away.

In the meantime, I think we make accommodations or modifications, when possible, in order to improve our life at this moment.

Re: Is numbness permanent?

Posted: Sat Jun 01, 2013 5:22 pm
by sardi
Have you had an mri recently? Sometimes ms symptoms can be directly linked to an inflammation or 'active' lesion. In that case a steroid treatment is often used. I've had intermittent numbness, the longest of which took about two months to dissipate, although I have it very slightly still.

I don't have much knowledge at this point, I would ask your neurologist if anything could be done.

Best of luck with this.

Re: Is numbness permanent?

Posted: Sat Jun 01, 2013 5:47 pm
by HarryZ
Kimber0705 wrote:I have had left leg numbness for 4 months. I must use a wheelchair. My question is this...

When does numbness become permanent? When do I look to make modifications to my home/car?

Anyone with helpful hints?
Kimber,

MS symptoms are unpredictable. They can last for days, months or years or they can come and go randomly. A lot depends on what kind of damage has been done to the axons in the affected area of the brain or spine.

Generally, the longer they last the more permanent they are. And of course, there are exceptions to this. It makes the disease all that more frustrating.

Harry

Re: Is numbness permanent?

Posted: Sat Jun 01, 2013 9:25 pm
by eric593
You never really know if something will be permanent unless looking back on it. I've had sensory issues disappear years later, some, months later, some, just days later. Doctors told me early on that a symptom that lasts months is permanent, but my actual experience is very different.

I don't know if this is common, but for me, motor function deficits tend to be longer lasting and less transient than sensory. The longer I live with MS, the more symptoms tend to stay. Just curious how numbness affects your mobility? I had one leg completely frozen with numbness for many months but it didn't affect my mobility, I'm interested how a sensory problem can affect movement.

Since you can't really determine how long any symptom will last, I'd make accommodations after a few months just so you're not putting off living your life and instead in a "wait and see" and "hold" pattern. MS results in very much a fluid and always changing health state so it's important not to put off living your life hoping your health may improve. While you're waiting and hoping, it may just worsen, and you might have just missed out on a period where you could have been living your life with accommodations. Many people have a closet full of various mobility aids so they can still have mobility at whatever physical point they're at on any given day. Plan for the worst and expect the best.