Just got up to speed on this - no matter what, it is scary - my thoughts and prayers are with you.

This sounds bizarre and not necessarily related to numbness in the hands but to MS symptoms overall

A coworker of mine was exhibiting a lot of strange symptoms, one of which was numbness, she ran the gamut of tests and nothing conclusive was found but the docs were suspecting and watching out for MS. In the meantime all her symptoms were continuing to worsen

Somehow, somewhere she got some information on Aspertame, she was a regular diet coke drinker, and the article told about the effects of aspertame on some people's systems. She immediately quit using all things that have aspertame in them. It took 6 months but all her symptoms went away.