Hi Lisalu,

I will PM you with my email address, because I don't pop around here too often, but I read my email every few days, usually.

Infection is bad for some people with MS, and it seems to be especially true for those of us where we are impacted moreso in the spinal cord.

As I mentioned, most people do try steroids, but I opted not to. I was told that although it will knock the inflammation down, with this type of attack it will inevitably come back. That is how I've witnessed it play out for every person I've talked to with this kind of attack too ...

An advantage to using steroids is that they do seem to make the relapse not quite as severe compared to what I went through. However, I have yet to find one person that didn't end up with the same relapse flaring up and being very aggressive again, when they opted for steroids.

In my case, the relapse was very difficult (I know all are, but ... as bad as it gets), but at least it was over and done with. Everyone else did the steroids, and MOST did steroids again when it re-flared. I can understand that because it is very scary, but since the steroids do not change a person's outcome, I'd rather just "suck it up" the first time, even if it is more extreme.

After that initial 6 weeks, and the 6 weeks of initial recovery, I did continue to have ups and downs for 18 months to 2 yrs, and they weren't pleasant. They were nothing like the initial attacks ... though equally as scary because we don't know what's going to happen, and we do know how bad it can get while we are there.

However, all three times nothing was nearly as bad as the first time, once my body went through the main/major inflammatory period.

This thread pretty much describes every step of the way, fortunately (or not ) because Joe was wanting to know everything that he could at the time. I'm glad you find it helpful.

Have you been tested for Devics/NMO?

Cherie