New to forum, think I may be having my first flare up?
Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2012 10:31 am
Hi, I am new to the forum and think I may be having my first flare up since first being diagnosed.
First, I guess I should let you know about me and my history. I am a 25 year old mother of 2 boys.. after giving birth to my second son is when all of "this" came about. Almost a month exactly after having him I started getting severe pain in my eyes when I looked anywhere but forward, two days later I was completely blind in both of my eyes. Unfortunately my eyesight was gone for an entire 2 months because I was with a VERY incompetent doctor who treated me with the wrong IV medicine. Long story short, after seeing specialist at several different hospitals, a neurologist diagnosed me with Optic Neuritis and immediately started me on a 5 day IV of solu-medrol. A week later I could see moving objects, it was one of the best days of my life, just to get that small amount of eyesight back. She did another 5 days of the solu-medrol and my eyesight was almost back to 100%. Throughout all of the "investigating" to find the cause of the loss of eyesight they did an MRI and found the lesions and also diagnosed me with MS. The doctor hasn't put me on any medication since I haven't had any symptoms / flare ups.
That was 15 months ago, and I believe I may be having my first flare up. My husband and I have been fighting A LOT lately, someone burnt down our detached garage, the transmission in my suv went out, and my oldest son had to go in for surgery a couple weeks ago.. so needless to say I have been under an ENORMOUS amount of stress.
First question, does stress trigger flare ups?
My flare up symptoms..
Since I was diagnosed I have always has an extremely low tolerance to heat, which my doctor said was normal, but lately it's been even lower.
My hair is falling out by the handful, like I've never seen before.
Since I was about 16, my left shoulder has tingled / gone numb / ached, off and on, but never lasting more than a week. I always thought it was a pinched nerve, but it has been acting up since all of my other symptoms showed up.
I've been more forgetful than usual.
I suffer from chronic migraines, but I am on topomax which has decreased my migraines from 3-4 a week to 1 every 2 weeks, however I have been getting them at least twice a week lately, even with the topomax.
The last symptom, is the most embarrassing, but I don't even care anymore, I have found it almost impossible to "hold it in" when I need to go to the bathroom. I can hold pee in, but the other, If I don't make it to a bathroom immediately then I'm in trouble. It's the most embarrassing thats ever happened to me. So I've found myself staying at home pretty much all the time.
I know this is long, and I'm sorry, its just, it's nearly impossible to get in to see my neurologist, so if these all sound like flare up symptoms then I will make sure I get in to see her, if it just sounds like "too much stress" symptoms then I don't want to bother. Any input is MUCH appreciated! Thank you!
First, I guess I should let you know about me and my history. I am a 25 year old mother of 2 boys.. after giving birth to my second son is when all of "this" came about. Almost a month exactly after having him I started getting severe pain in my eyes when I looked anywhere but forward, two days later I was completely blind in both of my eyes. Unfortunately my eyesight was gone for an entire 2 months because I was with a VERY incompetent doctor who treated me with the wrong IV medicine. Long story short, after seeing specialist at several different hospitals, a neurologist diagnosed me with Optic Neuritis and immediately started me on a 5 day IV of solu-medrol. A week later I could see moving objects, it was one of the best days of my life, just to get that small amount of eyesight back. She did another 5 days of the solu-medrol and my eyesight was almost back to 100%. Throughout all of the "investigating" to find the cause of the loss of eyesight they did an MRI and found the lesions and also diagnosed me with MS. The doctor hasn't put me on any medication since I haven't had any symptoms / flare ups.
That was 15 months ago, and I believe I may be having my first flare up. My husband and I have been fighting A LOT lately, someone burnt down our detached garage, the transmission in my suv went out, and my oldest son had to go in for surgery a couple weeks ago.. so needless to say I have been under an ENORMOUS amount of stress.
First question, does stress trigger flare ups?
My flare up symptoms..
Since I was diagnosed I have always has an extremely low tolerance to heat, which my doctor said was normal, but lately it's been even lower.
My hair is falling out by the handful, like I've never seen before.
Since I was about 16, my left shoulder has tingled / gone numb / ached, off and on, but never lasting more than a week. I always thought it was a pinched nerve, but it has been acting up since all of my other symptoms showed up.
I've been more forgetful than usual.
I suffer from chronic migraines, but I am on topomax which has decreased my migraines from 3-4 a week to 1 every 2 weeks, however I have been getting them at least twice a week lately, even with the topomax.
The last symptom, is the most embarrassing, but I don't even care anymore, I have found it almost impossible to "hold it in" when I need to go to the bathroom. I can hold pee in, but the other, If I don't make it to a bathroom immediately then I'm in trouble. It's the most embarrassing thats ever happened to me. So I've found myself staying at home pretty much all the time.
I know this is long, and I'm sorry, its just, it's nearly impossible to get in to see my neurologist, so if these all sound like flare up symptoms then I will make sure I get in to see her, if it just sounds like "too much stress" symptoms then I don't want to bother. Any input is MUCH appreciated! Thank you!