Numbness

, hello and welcome! While I wish you weren't dealing with a diagnosis of MS, I am glad you have found our community.


Please know everything you are feeling right now is normal and ok! It's okay to feel all kinds of feelings, or to feel completely numb. There are no wrong feelings.


Almost every member of this community has been where you are right now and I hope some of them chime in here. I wanted to share a couple of articles with you about being newly diagnosed. Here's one -- https://multiplesclerosis.net/living-with-ms/advice-for-newly-diagnosed. And here's another with a compilation of tips from our community members -- https://multiplesclerosis.net/living-with-ms/tips-for-the-newly-diagnosed.


You can do this!


As far as your numbness, I think you will have a better idea of how to manage that and whether it will hang around after your appointment with the neurologist. I hope that appointment is relatively soon, so you don't have to deal with waiting and wondering! I can say that many of our members experience bouts of numbness that are not permanent -- they come and go.


I don't want to overwhelm you with information when you are probably already feeling overwhelmed, but this last piece has some helpful tips for making the most out of your doctor's appointment. I would definitely write down your questions and maybe even take another person with you to just listen and maybe even take notes for you. You may get a lot of information thrown at you during the appointment and it can be hard to process it all at once. https://multiplesclerosis.net/living-with-ms/coping-accepting-ms-diagnosis.


Don't hesitate to reach out anytime if you have further questions. We can't offer medical advice, for your safety, but we are happy to help in any way we can.


Please know you're not alone in this! You have a large, diverse community here that knows what you're going through and we're here for you!


Best, Erin, MultipleSclerosis.net Team Member.

thank you x

Welcome to the club no one wants to belong to. The sense of dread and doom is sadly a part of hearing this diagnosis. I find it usually lingers for about a year until you become accustomed to your new 'normal.' The thing about MS is even though it is a life long diagnosis (for now until a cure is found) it won't end your life. We know MS progresses slowly and the drug options you will be presented with can slow or even halt that progress. You have plenty of time to figure this out.


As bad as this may sound, there has never been a better time to be diagnosed with MS - there are 23 approved disease modify drugs so if one doesn't work for you, you can change to something else.


If possible, please see an MS specialist. I know they can be hard to find but are well worth the extra effort to see someone who specializes in this disease.


And I hope you will be kind to yourself and not try to learn everything about MS in one short period of time. There is a ton of great information here on MS.net and also on the MS advocacy organization sites. Get your information from reliable sources and please ignore all the well intentioned people who will give you their free advice on how to cure MS.


Come back often and ask questions and share your experiences - we are all in this together!
Laura, MS.net moderator

Hi and welcome! I'm sorry this has happened to you, but I want to remind you that you aren't alone, you'll find on this site many people who actually understand what you are going through. We are here for you. I also want to let you know, that while there is never a good time to get MS, in the grand scheme of things, this is the best time. There are many new and extremely effective treatments and many more on the way. It's a scary time, but remember that there is a lot of reason to be hopeful!


Please do keep us up to date on how it's going and don't hesitate to reach out with any questions or even to just vent!