Numb feet actually, probably my most pesty symptom of the moment. The numbness has been in my feet since I did the Portland Marathon two years ago. At first I attributed it to training and some sort of nerve injury, then I attributed it to a side effect to the cholesterol meds I was taking (it actually went away when I stopped the lipitor, but then it returned about a year later) and now finally we are attributing it to the ms. I guess I am happy (happy?) with that, seems to make the most sense.

It really isn’t that bad and often I forget all about it. But then I remember it is there and I focus on it for awhile only to once again forget about it. Running with it isn’t a problem at all and it doesn’t bother me one bit. I don’t know if it is the pressure on the feet of running that makes me feel them more acutely and therefor allows me to forget the numb feeling or if it is that I am concentrating on other pains instead. Maybe a combination of the two. But it doesn’t cause any sort of coordination issue either. I think at one point I yacked about how the momentum of running carries me along and allowed me to run through my spells. Well it may sort of be the same thing with the numb feet, the momentum carries me along and I am able to move forward just fine.

I am glad to not have any pain when I run. Occasionally my feet will ache a bit after running and ice helps a lot. But at least it isn’t the sort of persistent pain that some folks with ms have. Stretching my feet back and forth while laying down on my back seems to help this as well. I’ll pull my toes forwards with one foot and push them down with the other. I do the movement slowly and then hold them for a few seconds. I generally try to do ten repetitions of this. I have also heard that placing a marble down on teh ground and covering it with a small towel then picking the marble up through the towel is a good exercise as well. I don’t like it much thouhg, it cramps up my toes!