Chris, most of my bad lesions are in the spine too, and I am still RRMS 17+ yrs into this disease process. However, even after 12+ yrs with this disease, I still had only 3 small lesions in my brain, and two BIG, BAD ones in my spine.

People can have spinal lesions, even lots of them, and not experience a whole lot of problem from them. I know someone who's had spinal lesions for 35+ years, and she swears that spinal lesions do not cause pain. Obviously hers have never been inflammed to any large degree . . . but that is just her experience.

My very first clear-cut experience with MS occurred in my spine, and I was initially paralyzed from it. At the time they called it "Transverse Myelitis", and I was advised that only TIME would tell whether it was idiopathic, as a result of MS or Devics, or ... That I healed very well, and went on my way with no BIG/new problems for another 12 yrs, I was actually given a "clean bill of health".

I did have symptoms throughout 12 yrs, but obviously no major inflammation. Had that first attack caused considerable permanent damage, and had the symptoms from that permanent damage escalated (as it often does with spinal damage, even without inflammation), then chances are that I'd have been labeled PPMS (few lesions, progressive disease process, etc.).

In retrospect though, I was actually probably Benign MS over that 12 yrs, eventually leading to RRMS in 2003. At one point, in 2005, they were going to recategorize me as SPMS because I was continuously accumulating disability (but still relapsing, which those with SPMS often do for a few years anyway), UNTIL I went on LDN. That helped stabilize me, and in fact reduced my EDSS by one point.

After dx, some people are quickly categorized as SPMS. That may be because the MS didn't cause considerable difficulty over the years, but in retrospect, they did have "relapses" (when undx).

Old autopsy studies show that 8% - 10% of the general population have MS lesions upon death. I doubt it is that we are just the "whimps" who can't handle the disease like those who never know they have it . . . It really depends on where it attacks us, how mean the MonSter is, and whether it continues to get progressively worse over our lifetime (for whatever reasons ).

Cherie