Multiple Sclerosis - a typically incurable and fatal condition, characterised as either progressive or relapsing/remitting, characterised by muscle wasting and neuropathy.
Around 2 in 1000 people suffer from this condition. It's diagnosed by finding the scleroids, or plaques, in the spinal cord or brain (or both), previously at autopsy (which is a bit late!) but now by MRI scan.
First let me get this straight. We at B12d.org recognise the pain and suffering that sufferers go through - many people who have a diagnosis of MS are members. I'm just asking if it's a known condition, and far from being incurable, if it actually can be cured in many cases!
The strange crabwise gait (sometimes people are accused of being drunk) was characteristic of Pernicious Anaemia in the 19th Century. SubAcute Combined Degeneration of the spinal cord (SACD) is exactly the same thing - loss of sensation and mnotor power, resulting in muscle wastage, as a result of neuropathy). These could be cured in many cases by B12, which according to Scalobrino re-enables the remyelination of nerve cells which restores their function so you get your feeling back, your motor functions back, and the muscle can start to grow back.
So perhpas - and I'm being provocative here - MS is a simple description of the symptoms (detection of multiple scleroids or plaques in the spinal cord), but isn't very helpful when determining a cure. Perhaps we should go back to calling it SACD or neuropahty, and treat the person (and they are always a person, not a disease or a patient) for neuropahy. Of course wasted muscle takes a huge length of time to grow back. Of course once a nerve has actually died (often a long time after the myelin sheath degenerated, so there is usually a window of opportunity for treatment) it can't be replaced, but in many cases it can regain full function.
I'm afraid the first thing you can expect is Fortitude. It's going to be painful - as your nerves start to function again, you will feel all sorts of signals that your brain hasn't had for ages. Any unknown signal the brain interprets as pain, so you will feel pain in your arms and lets, hands and feet. It won't be real pain, but your brain will interpret it as pain.
Then you'll need Patience. Are they the same thing?
Damaged nerves and muscles will take time to recover. You will need to rest so you can devote your ne-found energy tot he healing process rather than gallivanting off (although a bit of gallivanting never did anyone any harm).
But in many cases, and we've seen it in our own practice, people diagnosed with MS recover fully and go back to a normal life.