yes, Frank !!

maybe we should suggest that they explore the ramifications of the LOSS of the sense of touch, considering how important it is.

part of the reason I found the article so fascinating is that, like Cherie, I once considered becoming a massage therapist...

I'm *really* a touchy-feely kind of person, and used to give a lot of massages.

my husband doesn't seem to mind that the backrubs he gets nowadays are from the "memory" of knowing how to do it, and NOT from actually being able to FEEL what I'm doing.

oddly enough... I can feel *some* input from my left hand - the numbness isn't as deep as it is in my right hand - it's sort of like I'm wearing gloves...

or maybe, one latex glove on my left hand, and a cotton gardening glove on my right... so, I can feel pressure and force, but not the tactile sensations of skin against skin... which is what I CRAVE.

touching makes me feel connected, and present on the planet... makes me feel, oh, I don't know... ALIVE ??

and so, I think the numbness is one of my greatest losses due to MS.

I know, I know, I *should* be grateful that my right arm is no longer simply *dangling* like cooked spaghetti, and that I can USE it to some degree, but I guess I just want my sense of touch back.

what I miss most is caressing the piano keyboard, arpeggios and trills, glissandos and crescendos, yeah, tickling the old ivories... that's the thing that MS has taken from me that makes me the saddest.

I have major motor control, but lost the FINE skills, and delicate touch necessary to blast out a little Chopin, or float through some Beethoven... and that sometimes brings me a deep abiding sorrow, and a burning hot little nugget of resentment.