Quix...Here's one no one else knows....maybe!!

[NrssAngel]

I understand that MS symptoms are suppose to be transient.  If the lesions are always there, is it possible that the symptoms are present most of the time?  I have also not paid alot of attention to the severity of the symptoms at different times.  I do know that generally my moods are labile and my memory is poor.  Also I usually have some degree of hand numbness.  

Just trying to understand whether the symptoms could almost always be present if the lesions are there.  If not, why?

Thanks in advance.

[Quixotic1]

It is actually a misconception that MS symptoms are "supposed" to be transient.  They most often are, especially early in the disease.  A relapse comes on with it's load of symptoms.  In the most common form of MS, RRMS, the symptoms will last for a while (days to months) and resolve over weeks to months.  Early, most often they resolve "completely".  This means that most days the person will not notice or have those symptoms.  But, under stress (especially fatigue and heat) some of the symptoms might show up again, usually in a milder form.  Sometimes the resolution is totally complete for as long as years.

But, if the damage during the attack was severe enough, some symptoms may linger, like numbness, but often in a smaller area.  Becasue the disease of MS continues even in the face of no relapses, there is a lot of diffuse damage always present, so some symptoms commonly persist.  Fatigue is a big one of these.  Memory difficulties can persist.  Depression may be more persistent.  Actually any symptom can leave lingering marks.  Once the myelin has been damaged, the body attempts to repair and re-myelinate the nerve fiber.  The repair is not a perfect as the nerve was before the MS damaged it.  So if that nerve is attacked again or put under stress, like by a rise in temperature of the body, it may still "speak up."  If the initial attack actually caused damage to the axons (the actual nerve fibers that carry the signal) then that symptom will persist.

Eventually the norm is that more and more symptoms become daily companions, but still there are better days and worse ones.  I, too, still have every symptom that has shown up, with the exception of one.  

Every person's experience is as different as a fingerprint.  But, even when you notice that a symptom has persisted, it will still usually have it's best and worse times. So, Heather's experience is quite typical.

Does that help?  Quix

[Heather3418]

Hope you don't mind me "chimming" in.  I have lesions that are permanent and some that are transient.  Some of my symptoms of MS are always there; permanent disability that is left over from my first attack 12 years ago.

They worsen if I have an infection, get too hot. etc., but are always there.  If I am in a flair-up, which for me last more than 24 hours and usually around 3-4 weeks; I will have more symptoms and worsening of the old ones.  Does this make any sense?

That's my experience.  I am anxious to see what Quix says.

Best Wishes, Heather