I'm so sorry you are going through all of this, and I wish I knew what to tell you. I've wondered the same thing... if the pain is because the lesions are worse or deeper into the myelin? I don't know. Lately I've had more numbness than pain, but I really don't think I'm doing anything different than usual. This disease definitely has a mind of it's own.

I believe the lesions are located at different circumferences in the spine, back- front ect. I think lesions on the posterier side of the spine are responsible for feedback sensation to the brain and on the anterior are the motor control...carrying the command from the brain.But don't quote me, I don't remember what is what. I know when I was googling it which side of the spine the lesion was on was important. Anterior and posterior were important to what symptoms resulted. I read a post that pain was better than numbness from a woman who had numb legs for quite a while, then one day had pain in them Her neuro saw that as a positive for her MS treatment.....

I don't have either, but it didn't sound like a big positive. Numbness to tingling sounds ok, but numbness to pain doesn't.

And I don't in any way know which is which..I only know what side of the spine the lesion is on is important.

My doctor said i was better off with pain than the numbness but he also understood the PAIN is very difficult to live with too. Pain is more debilitating in its own way, of courese numbness i imagine would be difficult as far as mobility, i dont know which one is worse ( So far al my lesions are on the brain which really is not a "text Book " to having so much lower limb problems but ive also heard the mri s dont pick up everyting, i could have some small ones on the spine or like you say on the other side. All I know is i have pain 24/7 and varies in intensisty from day to day, not much of meds have helped either :(

Spinbe lesions are the most difficult to catch...MRIs are improving but I heard in the past docs would assume a spine lesion by the symptoms, because an MRI was much more untrustworthy. The spine is a denser material than in the brain, which the MRI reads with greater difficulty. Plus the breathing motion a person has to make during an MRI makes the lesions less distinct.

MRI strength is improving and that may not always be so.

I think yoyur right carolinaq..you probably do have a small spine lesion that the MRI is missing. Sorry about the pain.. I have low pain tolerance, so I can just imagine how difficult it is to live with.

Here is an interesting site that seems to explain the spine..anterior and posterior,,front or back of spine along with axial views showing that the depth with in the spine the lesion is located affects symptoms too.
Sagital view would be longitudual, axial is an XY cross section and shows depth of lesion.

http://www.chirogeek.com/000_Disc_Anatomy.htm

Not sure if it's where the lesions are or how bad they are...I have both the numbness and pain. The pain is more when I stay in one position, like lying in bed at night, for any long periods. I have lesions in both my brain and c-spine. That is the weird part of MS, everyone has different symptoms.