I've been on oral pred since saturday. I havent noticed any improvement since starting it. Feeling in my left hand and left foot actually seem to be worse.

If the pred was going to work, wouldnt I be noticing something by now?

Sometimes I'll get a sensation that feels like the numbness is lifting, but it doesnt last for more than 5 or 10 minutes and then things are totally numb again. I dont even know if I'm actually feeling the numbness lifting, or if it's a breeze on my arm or just some weird MS sensation going thru my arm. My left foot just feels more weird than it did before I started the steroids. Like more of it is numb than it was on friday. Numbness there hasnt really increased, just seems like more of the foot is affected.

I'm noticing it's a lot more difficult to type with my left hand now. The pinky finger misses a lot of the letters that it's aiming for.

This is starting to irritate me. I want the stupid prednisone to start working.

I called the pharmacist, and she told me it should be working by now. I called my neuro, but he's out of the office this afternoon.

I hope that I dont need to go get IVSM. It's a lot more expensive than a $6 bottle of prednisone.

My Neuro won't prescribe Prednisone for numbness. He says it doesn't help that sx. I've taken it before (had some left over 20mg pills) but it didn't seem to help the numbness. I usually just wait for it to run its course. Both my feet and lower legs are numb right now but it seems to be easing up ever so slowly. My right hand and arm has been numb for close to 2 years now....Neuro says it's permanent nerve damage. I've gotten used to it, though, and aside from a little aching when I've overdone it I don't pay much attention to it. I can still walk and get around....however gimpy I may look......so I'm happy!

well....crap!

This better not end up being permanent. I've never been depressed that much about the MS, until now. I NEED my hands...both of them! I crochet and knit, that's what keeps me sane, and while I can still crochet and knit with this numbness, it's not as enjoyable as it usually is.

Maybe it's not doing anything for the numbness, but maybe the pred is helping whatever spot it is that's got the inflammation and the inflammation will clear up soon and maybe the numbness will go away then??

It's not just hand and foot numbness, but the entire left side of my body below the neck. (would that be transverse myelitis?) I did feel some numbness in the left side of my face last week, but that seems to have gone away. It also seems like in the left hand, it's not just numbness there, I think there's a problem of some sort with my ability to move the pinky finger and the ring finger to some extent.

I'm pretty sure this is from the lesion that I have on C4.

I had a really really sore neck for a month or so, the pain started to get better a couple of weeks ago, but that's about when the numbness started. I wonder if there's a connection between the neck pain I had and the numbness now?

I have spinal lesions, too. Yours may not be permanent but it's always taken my bouts with numbness at least a couple of months to clear up. At least with my legs it has. My first experience with numbness was before I was dx and I thought I had a pinched nerve. I was numb from the waist down.....totally. Even my behind was numb! It went away (slowly) on it's own after several months. That was my first major "flare". My next one was a couple of years later and it was double vision. Again, it lasted several months and cleared up on it's own. That, however, I had to address more thoroughly than I did the numbness. Strange thing....each time it began in Sept/Oct and lasted through December.

I've had to relearn how to use my right hand. It was difficult at first and I couldn't even blow dry my hair using that hand (I can now, though). Good thing that came out of that episode is that now I can use either right or left to do just about anything!

I hope you feel better soon.

I can use a hair dryer with the numb hand, but I cant use the numb hand to move my hair around while the other hand is blowing hot air onto my head and that hand...makes the hand more numb. (yay for uhthoff's phenomenon...argh!)

I can knit and crochet with the numb hand...the yarn just feels horrible to my hand tho. Yarn feels yummy to the non-numb hand tho...just feels craptacular to the left. That's what I'm really hating. Not enjoying my hobbies as much with this.

That doesn't sound enjoyable. Sorry to hear this Erin. I hope this subsides for you.

From someone who's lived with chronic pain now for many years as a result of this crummy disease, here's one of these wishing you well