This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Knowledge & Support Community

Hello all!
I am new to this forum. I am not diagnosed yet and would like to tell you about my symptoms and see if someone will comment on wether they sound like ms symptoms or if they behave in an ms kind of way. Sorry for the very long description! My doctors have not asked about details like, how long the symptoms have lasted and how they have developed and I find this kind of strange. I will have the visual evoked response test soon. One doctor thought my MRI showed signal changes that merited ruling out ms, but another thought not. Contrast was not used. I think they ruled out almost anything else now, with blood tests. Headaches have been my biggest problem but for the past year especially, other symptoms are coming along with them. Some of them I know from before, but many are new.

This is the story of the past year:
February: After really good 3 months, headaches started abruptly one morning and came every day for 2 months. I had horrible two weeks with exhaustion and difficulties thinking, and then slowly the headaches became less severe. A couple of weeks into february I got for the first time tingling, pins and needles and vibration, first in the palm of left hand, which started suddenly, and then the following days both hands and both soles of feet. Single pinpricks that where stronger, started in the left palm and soon came anywhere on the body. I don´t remember exactly how the pins and needles developed, but I remember that the tingling was never the same throughout a hole day, some days where worse than others, and it was worse when I had exerted myself. It never travelled up the arm or leg. One day my left foot started moving upwards by itself (no pain, about half a minute) and when it stopped I got pins and needles on the sole of that foot and the muscle on the front of the lower leg was stiff and sore.

April: a couple of weeks with partially changing patches of numb skin all over my body. Not complete numbness, but the kind where I could hardly feel a light touch, as if there was a film over the skin. In april my eyesight also got blurry, there were a few very blurry days and then it got slowly better. I have had periods with blurry eyesight before, sometimes for a longer time, but never as blurry as now. As with the pins and needles, it was never exactly the same throughout the day. I had some problems with hand tremor and being clumsy/un-smooth movements of my hands. Not so much that anyone else would notice, but it bothered me in the kitchen, when writing and buttoning a shirt.

In May, everything was getting better, headaches, pins and needles and my sight and movements. In the end of June headaches suddenly got worse again. In the end of July and in August my bladder was very overactive (this has happened before) and I would sometimes loose a bit of urine.

Headaches and bladder was better from the middle of September until the end of October. Then the headaches came back. Pins and needles came back, but not as strong as before and now only in the left sole and palm. I had big problems with thinking and concentration in the beginning of November, for a couple of weeks. Again the exhaustion and I got a feeling of the left leg and arm being heavier than the right. Started to have action tremor, worse than before (more on the left side) and again un-smooth and un-precise movements, especially of left hand/fingers, especially ring-, and pinky finger. Some days I felt generally very weak and for a couple of days my hole left side felt weak and jellylike, and the left side of my face was itchy, tingly and shaky. Since then I sometimes have dull aching in the left leg. Now I feel like the eyesight changes constantly, one day fine, the next blurry, worse when I'm tired. Also my hand shaking and pins and needles are different every day, some good days, some worse days.
I'm sure I am forgetting something. Again sorry for the long post, and my best wishes to everyone here!
Sola

Hi Sola as you have probably worked out by now there is no definitive test for MS and as there are a lot of other conditions that present in the same way the diagnosis is a process of elimination of all other possible causes . It means a lengthy period of time waiting and wondering what is really wrong with you, and of course doctors are very cautious about what they say.

What you can do in this time is take really good care of yourself physically and emotionally, it is a really stressful period of time for you. If you do get a diagnosis then what follows is such a huge journey of self education...what is this disease? What drugs are available? Do they work and do you want to take them? What diet and lifestyle measures can you implemement? What supplemants can you take? Do you and how do you tell your friends?....and it goes on!

There is a wealth of information and support here, please feel welcomed. Take care.

Another test you might want is the lumbar puncture or spinal tap. This will look for two indicators of ms (ogliconal bands and IgG index).

90% of people with MS have positive results on one or both of these tests. A positve test is an indication of increased antibody production in the central nervous system. This means your adaptive immune system is more active in your brain and spinal cord than the rest of your body.

As far as some of your symptoms, the seem familiar but in my case the hand trembling and pins and needle seem to be constant for the duration of the attack. Also my headaches are restricted to behind one eye. This is called optic neuritis and most people with ms have bilateral optic neuritis meaning it only effects one eye.

I have permanant urinary retention but many people with MS incontinance.

I would say dont panic at this point. I know it is a scary thing to think you might have ms but it is not the end of the world and you might not even have it at all.

Good luck.

Thank you Okasan and CVfactor! My neuro did not want to order the spinal tap before he sees the outcome of the VER, so I will see what happens in January.