IVSM and no changes yet

[marlousue]

First time experience with numbness and weakness in hand and arm. Did Prednisone for a week and just finished 3 days of IVSM. No change. Now what? I don't expect a miraculous change but a little relief would be nice.

[djprieve]

my experience

from my experience.... I have a progressive form of MS and also degenerative disc disease at an advanced level. Numbness and tingling in the arms and hands may be caused by more than one thing. Perhaps chiropractic or acupuncture can relieve this symptom. I have used them with relief and no side effects. I have not used solumed ever and personally do not intend to. Everyone is different though so use what works best for you.

[0485c10]

A little more patience is needed marlousue.

Steroids effect everyone differently & they are different for anyone each time they use them. Thats been the case with me.

The first 2 times I improved right away during the 5 days of IV steroids that I did. I maintained the improvement until I completed the oral taper steroids, then it went bad again.
The 1st time the doc gave me some more oral steroids and after that I improved and stayed improved. The 2nd time I just waited it out after it got bad and it improved on its own to my new baseline with time. The 3rd time I improved right away and stayed improved. The 4th time I saw no improvement for a month after I completed the oral taper. Because it was so not my normal response, I called the neuro and asked that an MRI be done. I had 1 active lesion on my optic nerve which was why I was doing the steroids & no new lesions in my neck--which I thought was happening. She said the old lesions in my neck were probably acting up in a different way then they had before-but it was old lesion causing what I thought was a "new' symptom. So she ordered that MRI 2 weeks after I completed the taper when I went for a post IV steroid follow up appointment.

It wasn't good 2 weeks after I completed the steroids. She had me read an eye chart & I wasn't able to tell if it was letters or numbers?---I thought it was greek letters. (I'm into engineering and equations use greek letters, I was very surprised that she used them too in her eye chart--my 8 year old nephew just cracks up when I tell him I started reading greek letter when I read the eye chart--I think he's gonna try it too whenever he gets an eye test)

Then a about a month later when I went to my regular scheduled appointment, I was able to read the numbers to 20/40.

It was a steroid response that was not normal for me. It is different for everyone and different for each individual each time the individual does steroids. Be patient & Give it a little more time. I hope it all works out for you with patience & time.

There are symptom meds that can be used to help deal with symptoms when they have to be endured(what can't be cured has to be endured)
I'm don't know if you are using any & I'm not sure which ones might help with your symptoms that you are enduring now. The nmss has a webpage on MS meds. Perhaps you will see one that may help you endure--and as I understand it PT is very helpful in learning how to deal with numbness. Perhaps get an order for PT and you will learn some coping techniques. Or post here to ask if anyone is using something for the same symptom.
And look at the med ampyra which is to approved to improve walking, but it is suppose to improve nerve transmitions-- I know one person using it, a teacher, using because her eyes tire in the day & she has difficulty reading a page after a while. But probably your doc is gonna want you to have a little more patience with the IV steroid response first-before going to that extreme. Maybe a couple of PT sessions?

http://www.nationalmssociety.org/abo...ons/index.aspx

[CocoH]

For me, it took a couple of weeks after the IVSM before I felt big changes. Luckily, after a couple of weeks, I did. Hopefully you'll see some positive changes soon.

[RavenousWolf]

Now what? I don't expect a miraculous change but a little relief would be nice.

The first time I did Solumedrol I didn't experience any relief. In fact, I got worse; more slurring, etc. Another neurologist took me off of more infusions.

But then the original neurologist gave me an infusion every chance she got.

Now I refuse to take Solumedrol because I no longer feel that I am obligated to finance someone's new swimming pool or hot tub. And especially what I feel are the "ups and downs" of MS, then why take something when I am just going to get better without it?