Weakness in BOTH legs

[JemmAus]

Most info says MS generally affects one side.

My legs - BOTH - are getting inceasingly weak. I don't have any lesions in my spine at all, just masses of 'em in my brain, including cerebellum.

I've also got that "bilateral subependymal nodularity" thing happening that I am yet to ahve a decent explaination for from anyone, my neuro included.

Any clues anyone? can MS cause both legs to feel very weak, wobbly, and just plain 'odd' inside?

[shermay]

Hi Jem,

I do have lesions on my spine, the most notable being on the T10.  

Yes I have severe weakness from the waist down, but mainly on my right leg. My feet are totally numb, and I too am walking like I am drunk.

The pain is dreadful, my Neuro called it deep nerve pain (brain fog, can't recall the proper name - sorry)  and gave me something for it ( can't remember off hand what that was too), but he said because such a large part of body was numb, that it probably wouldn't work - and it didn't.

I think that with MS that "odd" just about sums it up :))

Debs

[JemmAus]

Thanks for the help guys.

I'm in Aus, so we don't have the medical insurance bollocky nonsense to go through to "prove" anything. Getting to PT is just a physical difficulty right now - all my friends and family work, and I just couldn't manage getting there on my own.

I know the MS society here does PT. If I get the energy I should ring them and see what they can do to help, cos I know they come to the house for most things. And for free!! YAY!!

Oh, the legs aren't so bad today. No comment on my balance though. I have that drunk look happening yet again.....

[Guitar_grrrl]

Wow, thanks, Bob, for the great explanation!

My lesions are in my cortex, around my venticles, and one on my brainstem.  My spinal lesions are AWOL, though my neurological exam says they're there according to my neuro.

And yes, Jem, my weakness in my arms and legs is bilateral - well, OK, maybe a little more in my left...but basically bilateral!  So sorry you're going through this cr@p!

[drsdonthelp]

I forgot to mention ,,, I am not dx'd with ms, so do not know the cause.
Pam

[drsdonthelp]

I too have had the heavy "dead" legs feeling while lying in bed. Thank God I was not up on my feet because I physically had to lift my legs up with my hands to role over in bed. This also only lasted for the night or I dont know because I fell asleep!! Better by the morning and never said anything to my doc. until 2 years ago. This happened 9 years ago or something like that.

Pam

[COBOB]

MS in the cerebrum of the brain will generally exhibits one sided motor and/or sensory symptoms.  If you have a transverse spinal lesion, it can effect everything below the level of the lesion.  Lesions in the pons and brainstem can have all sorts of strange effects.  

All lesions are not equal.  It has been said here before, but the name of the game is LOCATION.  A small lesion invisible on MRI wiped out the vision in my right eye for a week (twice.)  The other lesions that show up on MRI are no where near the optic nerve.  

There are special imaging techniques that can show some lesions that conventional MR does not show.  The one I was most familiar with is called MT-MRI (Magnetization Transfer MR Imaging).  It is through techniques like this that many neurologists will tell their MS patients that: "We can't see the lesion on MRI, but your symptoms tell us there is something there."  It is a Catch-22 for the Doctors.  The insurance companies demand proof in the form of lesions.  Once you are diagnosed, they tell you that they know your symptoms are from lesions that don't show up on conventional MRI.

"CONCLUSION: The MT ratio reveals progressive focal abnormalities in MS that antedate by up to 2 years the appearance of lesions on T2-weighted MR images."
http://radiology.rsna.org/content/215/3/824.short


Bob

[Ojibajo]

That ***** that you can't get to PT. I wonder if your insurance will pay for anyone to come into the home? That would be ideal or perhaps they could give you and at home rehab plan. I had one of those and it was just 3 or 4 exercise that I did 10 counts of 3 times. It wasn't anything too major because they didn't want me more fatigued. (I think the fatigue frustrates me more than the weakness and spasming.)

Again, I hope that you get some relief soon.

[supermum_ms]

Hey Jemm,

You can take this with a grain of salt if you like, but from my perspective when i'm experiencing Lassitude (thanks lulu for giving it a name) the mother of all fatigues, i cant destinguish one side from the other, in terms of weakness. The weakness is all encombasing, i am just weak, period!

I can though destinguish the usual left side issues from the right side issue, the spasms and tingles are still in there usual places just more of it, and sometimes there is another added but this is imho seperate to the feeling of weakness. My right leg is not stronger than the left, they are both qwivering sticks of jelly and yet they are still totally different to each other.

My left leg is the one that spasms, has ancle clonus and feels weird everyday, but it 'looks' normal because my right leg still (for reasons of its own) does the string puppet walk. The right leg over lifts, my knee lifts like i'm climbing up double steps, foot doesnt really lift its just going along for the ride. My right leg actually feels normal but looks totally abnormal, and yet my left feels abnormal and looks totally normal lol

And yet when i am in fatigue mode they both feel too weak to hold me up, the left will do its protesting with spasms and the right will lift on the first step instead of its usual, regardless of how either side reacts, i still feel weak jelly legs. lol Funny but i cut up a huge watermelon using my right hand and arm strength but it was my left arm that was weaker from the exercise, its weird and i think MS is just that, weird!

Does that make sense at all?

Cheers............JJ

[JemmAus]

I'm stuck at home. I doubt right now I could get to PT if I was having it. Feeling very miserable actually.....my carer is my 14yo son and he's at school.

This S U C K S!!

[Ojibajo]

I have only been diagnosed for a short time but from what I have read and from various testimonies it sounds like this crazy disease does whatever it wants too, so I would say it can make both legs be weak. If if can make both of mine numb and tingly, I don't see why not.

My left side is my "bad side". So that side is usually weak but I have bilateral spasticity. Yesterday it was so bad in the right side that I was awoken by sever spasming. I was  laying in bed thinking, "great I am having enough trouble walking with a weak left leg. Now I have a contracted right leg. Work tomorrow should be fun!"

I am in physical therapy. It does help but it is a SLOW process. Are you in physical therapy at all? Are you able to get any? I wish you the best and hope that you find some relief soon.