Numbness
Share your experience with numbness. Get the conversation started.
I woke up on my 50th birthday 4/12/13 numb from the waist down. I finally went to a doctor and was misdiagnosed with a stroke. Doctor shrugged his shoulders when i asked why i was numb on both sides, sent me on my way and said see you in a year. On January 2014 I was diagnosed with MS, through an awesome doctor, but even she didn't know why i have been numb for so long. No one can seem to answer the question I have, so i am hoping someone with MS can help explain. In 11 more days (April 12) it will be two years that i have been numb from the waist down. It feels like when you go to a dentist and he gives you a shot. You tap on your face, knowing your are tapping, but feels numb. Has anyone else had this problem for this length of time? And if so did the numbness finally go away?
18 years ago I woke up with numbness -sensory numbness -from my chest to my toes. I had an appointment with my regular doctor a week later and he suggested I have a brain MRI. It was enough plus the fact that I have a daughter diagnosed with MS three years earlier with same symptom so likely it was MS. I then had a brain and spinal MRI and there were typical MS lesions that showed up, 2 on spine and more on brain. Most of the numbness I felt did go away, but permanently my toes and the balls of both feet have this sensory type of numbness I have felt all these years. I was told at the time I have transverse myelitis and with the MRI results I was given a diagnosis of MS. My numbness in both of my feet has remained permanently. I can ignore it most of the time, especially when I wear shoes. The other numbness I initially had went away. I am 76 ½ now. My other 4 adult children show no signs of MS ( yet). No other relatives have MS that I know and I have no siblings.
I have been numb from knees down & elbows down since 2009.
I woke up last March with a totally numb right arm. Fearing that I too had suffered a stroke, I sought out medical attention. Great Dr. who referred me to an even greater Neurologist in October who diagnosed MS. She had ordered 4 MRIs (2 on my neck & 2 on my brain.) the cervical ones revealed 2 different lesions. The higher one (around C3 or C4) is probably responsible for the arm numbness. If I sit in a straight-backed chair and lean my head down between my knees, way down slowly stretching my neck, my right leg immediately goes all pins & needles. Neurologist says that it's prob due to lower neck lesion (near C7) I wonder if your numbness stems from neck lesions......
For me, here we go..... Tysabri every month at the hospital. I call it a "Spa Day."
Today, Dec 1 and the numbness is mostly in my hand & lower arm. My hand feels like it was emptied out and filled with sand. Intense, really intense internal itching. I have scratched my skin open in places without realizing I'm doing it. There's also some loss of motor control. It just feels weird. My grip is strong, really strong but don't ask me to pick up a fork because it'll go flying across the room! I'm a dog groomer. Thank God I'm left-handed, huh? My right hand doesn't get to handle any of the sharp, pointy tools but I still need it to be a team player. Had to teach my left hand to operate my computer mouse for the days when my right hand doesn't wanna play ball. Some days that tactic works better than others. Fighting back the fear is a daily goal.Thank you for your posting on numbness. I am sad that you are experiencing the numbness also. You are the 1st person i have spoken to that is also numb. Yes i do have lesions on spine, neck and brain. I am going on 3 years of this numbness. Nothing has changed, and none of the feeling has come back. It has creeped up to spots in my back also. I am also teaching my left hand to work for my right hand, as in addition to being numb waist down, my whole right side is very week. I fear waking up again, and more of me is numb. As for the itching, i have same problem. The itching feels like it is deep in my legs. And I have to scratch hard. I have also scratched my skin open.
i also had teach my left hand to do stuff both sides numb but for some reasons left stronger
Your experience with "waist-down numbness" reminded me of my own experience when I was 19. Woke up to that same numbness. The Neurologist my parents took me to suspected I had GBS (Guillain-Barre Syndrome), that my over-extended system (school/work) had simply skipped over mononucleosis and went straight to GBS. This was in the 70's (I'm 4 years older than you 😀 ) and an MRI wasn't suggested. I had a spinal tap & a Mylo-gram. Not fun & my symptoms eventually went away without conclusions. Probably not relevant.
This fear of waking up to more symptoms is so real, isn't it? Everybody tells me that sleep is SO important for MS patients but who can sleep through the night not knowing what tomorrow may bring? For me, the numbness ebbs & flows. When it's more acute, I suspect sleeping wrong somehow exacerbated the neck lesions, I dunno.
Do you do any exercises to push your muscles? I find myself stretching my fingers or tightly gripping pillows or furniture cushions, just to feel like I'm exercising these muscles, get the blood flowing in my hand. I have no idea if it does any good overall but the fighter in me thinks it's better than wringing my hands (ok, bad pun!). I'm also pumping my self full of Vitamin B (nervous system food) through juicing as well as vitamins. Again, I have no idea if it's doing any good. Just trying to be proactive.
