Hey Roxanne, Relapses are funny things, and while they can do a lot of damage very quickly, they can take a while to sort out, like when kids make a mess, they will take a lot more time to tidy stuff back up. Firstly, I'd ignore the newspaper article, they generaliise far too much. The three days of steroids are quite normal to treat relapses, they help to bring down the damage of the nerve, but normally it can take many weeks, sometimes months, for the damage to finish repairing itself, and it is not always fully either, unfortunatly. Second, the meds that you hhear people talking about on here are called DMDs or disease modifying drugs, there are 4 main licensed types and they work my reducing your relapses or flare ups by around a third, so if you were, statistically speaking, experiencing 3 relapses a year, then they would expect you to only experience 2 in any given year and they are each administered by a self administered injection, much like the types diabetics get. There is a fifth DMD that is twice as effective but you need to have experience 2 disabling relapses in a year to qualify and it does come with risks. I must point out thought, that even if you were to start one of these drugs tomorrow, it would make nno difference to the speed of or how fully you recover from your current relapse. Have you been given an MS nurse? They would be the first people for you to talk to in regards to drugs for MS. I hope that has helped you, if you need to talk you're welcome to message me :-) Gav

Thank you so much for your response, it has stopped me feeling so confused. I have an ms nurse but not due to see him untill I have seen the neurologist which isn't until the end of may. thanks again for answering my questions and clearing up that part of my confusion! Best wishes Roxanne