Possible MS or Stress and Anxiety?
Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 6:09 am
Hi there,
My name is Chris, i have been lurking on this forum for a while now but this is my first post. I am from London and 28 years old.
Approx 6 months ago i started experiencing sympoms that could possibly be due to MS. Initially i went to see my GP who suggested that i see a Neurologist for further investigation. He also did general bloodwork, all of which came back normal. I was later informed that i would have to wait four months for this appointment. At this stage i decided to go and stay with a friend in Thailand to have some tests done privately (cheap but very efficient private healthcare in Bangkok) I could not really afford to do this but waiting 4 months to just have a consult (any tests would have been much longer) was not something i was prepared to do, the symptoms were already interfering with my career and family life.
Without going into too much detail, some of the symptoms i have been experiencing include:
Poking sensation on right side of tongue which has been with me constantly for 3 months
Pins and needles in feet and hands
Tingling in fingertips
numbness in right foot
balance problems
nerve pain in left leg and right arm
problem tensing calf muscle in left leg
night sweats
GERD
cramps in calf muscles that wake me from sleep
fatigue extremely quickly
very poor sleep quality
lots of twitching/fasciculations
Some of these symptoms went after a couple of months, other started soon after but are still current.
I saw 3 neurologists in Thailand, all of whom had different opinions, from possible motor neurone disease to Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy.
I had the following tests done:
EMG and NCV - Normal results (pretty much ruled out motor neurone, that and no weakness)
evoke ssep - abnormal on left side (all neuros have stated that this is nothing to worry about, can never seem to expain why?)
evoke vep - within normal limits
mri of brain w/wo contrast - a few non-specific lesions in frontal white matter. Ischmatic like lesions considered
mri of cervical spine w/wo contast - clean
All neurologists did a thorough neurological examination. They all found hyper-reflexia but this is probably normal for me, one said i had Gait ataxia and furrow of the tongue but the other 2 disagreed.
I then came back to london not knowing much more, motor neurone was ruled out but this was never a concern of mine before going to thailand due to so many sensory symptoms and no atrophy/muscle weakness.
I then decided to see a neurologist at the Nationl hospital for Neurology in london privately as my NHS appointment is not until february. The appointment was yesterday and was with a top specialist for MND but someone who is also experienced in MS. The outcome was extremely frustrating for me.
He started by taking my medical histoty and having a quick chat about my visit/tests in thailand. He then went on to do a thorough neurological examination and said that everything was within normal limits (did not see the hyper-reflexia that other neuros noted) He then looked at all the test results from thailand. he said that the Evoke ssep being abnoraml in my left side was not related and nothing to worry about? no real explanation. He had a quick look at the results from my MRI and said no problem there either (would have been nice to see him study the actual images rather than reading another doctors report and concurring immediately, kind of what i was paying for) He then went on to say that MS was impossible due to the MRI and normal Neurological examination. He said that this was all caused by stress and anxiety and that i should see a psychologist as soon as possible. He also said i have benign fasciculation syndrome which would expain twitching/fasciculations, im not really sure how he could know this though, he saw no faciculations with his own eyes and from what i have read on the bfs societys website it can only be diagnosed after any other possible cause has been ruled out.
I have never had a problem with accepting stress and anxiety as a possible cause but only after anything serious has been ruled out for sure. In my opinion it is too early!
I guess my main questions is this. Is it possible to have a normal neurological examination but still have MS? Surely the MRI could be normal due to the lesions being too small? And surely its possible for me to have lesions on my thoracic or lumbar spine, parts of the spine that were not MRI'd. Especially considering that the vast majority of my symptoms would be related to these areas? Neuro said that 'I DID NOT HAVE MS' very firmly whenever i asked these questions.
What should i do now? i am completely stumped! Sorry for all the questions but i really don't know where to go from here. Should i just accept this and move on....
Any comments/feedback much appreciated
Thanx
My name is Chris, i have been lurking on this forum for a while now but this is my first post. I am from London and 28 years old.
Approx 6 months ago i started experiencing sympoms that could possibly be due to MS. Initially i went to see my GP who suggested that i see a Neurologist for further investigation. He also did general bloodwork, all of which came back normal. I was later informed that i would have to wait four months for this appointment. At this stage i decided to go and stay with a friend in Thailand to have some tests done privately (cheap but very efficient private healthcare in Bangkok) I could not really afford to do this but waiting 4 months to just have a consult (any tests would have been much longer) was not something i was prepared to do, the symptoms were already interfering with my career and family life.
Without going into too much detail, some of the symptoms i have been experiencing include:
Poking sensation on right side of tongue which has been with me constantly for 3 months
Pins and needles in feet and hands
Tingling in fingertips
numbness in right foot
balance problems
nerve pain in left leg and right arm
problem tensing calf muscle in left leg
night sweats
GERD
cramps in calf muscles that wake me from sleep
fatigue extremely quickly
very poor sleep quality
lots of twitching/fasciculations
Some of these symptoms went after a couple of months, other started soon after but are still current.
I saw 3 neurologists in Thailand, all of whom had different opinions, from possible motor neurone disease to Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy.
I had the following tests done:
EMG and NCV - Normal results (pretty much ruled out motor neurone, that and no weakness)
evoke ssep - abnormal on left side (all neuros have stated that this is nothing to worry about, can never seem to expain why?)
evoke vep - within normal limits
mri of brain w/wo contrast - a few non-specific lesions in frontal white matter. Ischmatic like lesions considered
mri of cervical spine w/wo contast - clean
All neurologists did a thorough neurological examination. They all found hyper-reflexia but this is probably normal for me, one said i had Gait ataxia and furrow of the tongue but the other 2 disagreed.
I then came back to london not knowing much more, motor neurone was ruled out but this was never a concern of mine before going to thailand due to so many sensory symptoms and no atrophy/muscle weakness.
I then decided to see a neurologist at the Nationl hospital for Neurology in london privately as my NHS appointment is not until february. The appointment was yesterday and was with a top specialist for MND but someone who is also experienced in MS. The outcome was extremely frustrating for me.
He started by taking my medical histoty and having a quick chat about my visit/tests in thailand. He then went on to do a thorough neurological examination and said that everything was within normal limits (did not see the hyper-reflexia that other neuros noted) He then looked at all the test results from thailand. he said that the Evoke ssep being abnoraml in my left side was not related and nothing to worry about? no real explanation. He had a quick look at the results from my MRI and said no problem there either (would have been nice to see him study the actual images rather than reading another doctors report and concurring immediately, kind of what i was paying for) He then went on to say that MS was impossible due to the MRI and normal Neurological examination. He said that this was all caused by stress and anxiety and that i should see a psychologist as soon as possible. He also said i have benign fasciculation syndrome which would expain twitching/fasciculations, im not really sure how he could know this though, he saw no faciculations with his own eyes and from what i have read on the bfs societys website it can only be diagnosed after any other possible cause has been ruled out.
I have never had a problem with accepting stress and anxiety as a possible cause but only after anything serious has been ruled out for sure. In my opinion it is too early!
I guess my main questions is this. Is it possible to have a normal neurological examination but still have MS? Surely the MRI could be normal due to the lesions being too small? And surely its possible for me to have lesions on my thoracic or lumbar spine, parts of the spine that were not MRI'd. Especially considering that the vast majority of my symptoms would be related to these areas? Neuro said that 'I DID NOT HAVE MS' very firmly whenever i asked these questions.
What should i do now? i am completely stumped! Sorry for all the questions but i really don't know where to go from here. Should i just accept this and move on....
Any comments/feedback much appreciated
Thanx