I'm curious too... What exactly does the "s/s" mean, is it an abbreviation for two different words?

signs/symptoms - it is an abbreviation used in nursing... oops! DH yells at me when I use "nurse speak." Its kind like "internet speak." LOL

Ok, I understand this now. My dad is a nurse (CRNA actually...which is a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist) But, for some reason he hasnt used "nurse speak" around us much. But then, he's probably dumbing things down for me...even tho I've been taking classes for medical transcription.


I think I'll go back to feeling uncomfortably tingly and spinny now (please, tell the vertigo to stay away from me. It's icky) The spinnies could be being caused by hunger. I need food.

Hi Erin, I'm sorry you have been feeling all prickly and spinny You're off to eat and I think I'm off to a nap.

This is one of those times when I read something but still don't quite get it....(cog fog I guess and it's happening more and more ) Please bear with me.

None of my sx's have gone away (except ON but I still get the blurry vision, judging distance and trouble seeing at night) I can't remember a day in the last year that I have not had some kind of weird numbness, vertigo, pain, pin pricks, etc. I have days where I don't feel any sx's but they never fail to leave completely.

There have been a few times when a sx or two will be worse than before but nothing so drastic that I feel the need to call the neuro. I went through a few weeks where I fell several times when trying to stand. A couple new sx's have popped up as well, but I don't want to go the steroid route, at least not for now.

I too don't like the labels placed on MS, you either have it or you don't (IMO) but was told I'm RRMS. The problem I have with understanding RRMS (MS in general I suppose) is the flares, and the "remmission". If I continuously have sx's am I still considered in remmission? If the "old" sx's get worse is that a flare? And if new ones show up does that mean it's advancing to a different stage?

I hope this isn't too confusing, it's just that I could never figure all this out and sometimes the explanations don't quite make sense to me. lol

That's where I was confused too. How do you know when you're in remission if you're still having symptoms that are coming and going all the time?

I understand relapsing, that's where you get brand new stuff that lasts longer than a day (the way I see it, if it's a brand new neurological thing that you've never had before, and it lasts for more than a week, it's a relapse or some sort of flare)

If it's like the tingly arm that I had all morning that went away after I had lunch (hummus in pita bread and salt & vinegar potato chips...yum!) That's just some old damage or possibly a little bit of L'hermittes dropping by to remind me that I have MS, or I slept wrong.

If the RRMS acronym doesnt really go with what that stage of MS does, maybe they should change the name, or find a new acronym. Instead of Relapsing Remitting, maybe it should be called MS Lite, or Early MS or something other than what they have that makes people think that all the symptoms will go away until the next exacerbation.

Could you imagine the outrage if people called it, say, “mini-MS”?

A friend of mine, who has since passed (remember us talking about Grassman, Erin?) used to call it “baby-MS” (I think that was the term), and all he!! broke loose on the forum when he said that. Of course, to someone who had very progressive PPMS, that ultimately lead to his death in about 10 yrs, I'm sure he viewed what many of us with RRMS go through as a walk in the park.



I don’t know if you’ve ever shattered a bone, but sometimes it doesn’t heal properly. A joint close to it may never bend again, it may ache in the cold, the slightest amount of pressure can cause it to hurt, we may favor it and by doing so might causes muscle pain in our calf, etc. It is basically the same idea, but because it is nerves that are damaged, the result is more all-encompassing. We will “heal”, but we may continue to have symptoms based on certain triggers.

Cherie