Anyone know?

[insomniac]

Say if you ONLY had 3 bouts of foot numbness in your MS, and in 20 years your doc said you have Secondary Progressive MS , does that mean your MS is going to progress only in your spinal cord(which was responsible for foot numbness), or is there still a chance of brainstem and optic nerves involvement too?

The progressive part is confusing.

[SNOOPY]

MS can progress any way it wants. That means the spinal cord, brain and optic nerves.

There is no way to know what the disease will do regardless of the "type" you have.

[JerryD]

If you are expecting to get an answer that MS will do something predictable, you are mistaken! MS does things to your physical condition that are completely unpredictable but almost always disabling. If you know that you are dealing with MS, even if your MS is slightly disabling, you should prepare for the worst. Good luck

[1936siols]

Progressive MS

I think once you get MS it will always remain progressive. I have had MS just a few months short of 50 years. I have lost control of almost all body systems including kidneys, digestive system. Vocal cords have frozen so I can no longer talk.. I can understand why there is such a high rate of suscide among folks with MS. I think maybe that is the easy way out.

MS is just another one of those things we hove to learn to live with. We have to relearn to do many things and how to ignore those who do not understand what we are going through. Hopefully some day there will be a cure but I don 't think it will be in my lifetime.

[Marco]

There is also no way for your doctor to be certain you have SPMS. There's no test, no biomarkers or strict criteria to diagnose SPMS. Your neurologist may be labeling you as SPMS only because you've had MS for 20 years.

If you were initially diagnosed as RRMS and have moved to SPMS, you may experience fewer relapses and less inflammation damage. The disease will still progress and the rate can vary from very slow to very fast. In SPMS, damage is more often nerve loss or damage. Both RRMS and SPMS can attack the identical parts of the body.

[Thinkimjob]

How numb were your feet? Are we talking tingling or foot drop?

'Cos, from what I've read over the years, one is sensory (mainly brain) and the other is motor (mainly spinal).

And no, I am not a doctor, or I wouldn't be sitting here shivering. I'd have the a/c on high.