This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

Hi everyone.. My name is Joey and I am a 42 year old female who, since April, has had a major change to my health and was wondering if anyone has experienced the same thing... I was living my life and one day in April all of a sudden my I had really hard spasms along the inside of my forearm that was moving my pinky uncontrollably.. Then for about a minute I couldn't move my pinky.. Then it went away.. I also began noticing tingling in my head and left arm and fingers... Along with jerks and spasms all over my body... I then began feelin this fatigue I have never felt before and burning in my back an neck... So my gp said to go to er and i did...i was tested for many illnesses and had a brain mri without contrast and they were all negative... I was out of work for 3 weeks with the fatigue and confusion where I couldn't comprehend what was going on... In Mid may i felt ok and went back to work and was pretty good thru the summer but then Aug 20 I began feeling the tingling and burning in my back again and it has slowly progressed.. Some new symptoms are extreme burning and weakness in arms and legs.. The fatigue isn't as bad and i have no confusion this time but have been taking Zoloft since June.. I went back to neuro who specializes in ms and am having another brain mri with contrast along with a cervical and thoracic mri.. She also prescribed me elavil for my burning... I have many other symptoms but was just wondering what u, the experts , think.. I so admire you all for going thru this disease...i also seem to be sensitive to loud noises and my weakness comes and goes along with my burning and pain in my legs... Just wondering if any of u had some good insight.. Thanks

Hi Joey, and welcome -- although we're also sorry you have reason to visit us in the first place! The problem with MS is that its symptoms mimic many other diseases (especially neurological ones) and there really is no definitive test. And... to confuse things further, every single one of us has a completely different set of symptoms. And... most of us have enough additional medical conditions that no matter what symptom you come up with, there's bound to be someone here who has that exact one, whether it's due to MS or not.

Personally, I can't attribute any one of my many symptoms directly to MS but more likely to one of my many other medical conditions. Sigh.

Although using contrast will light up "active" lesions on an MRI, they show up without it. My first MRI with NO contrast showed my brain was jammed full of MS-type lesions. MRIs 1 year later, and 2 years later showed the exact same lesions and none of them "enhanced." It's good that they're doing a cervical & thoracic MRIs for you, though, because often that's where MS lesions hide.

Good luck to you and keep us posted!

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Dx'd with MS & HNPP (hereditary peripheral neuropathy) 7/03 but must have had MS for 30 yrs before that. I've never taken meds for MS or MS symptoms except 1 yr experiment on LDN. (I found diet, exercise, sleep, humor, music help me the most.)