This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Knowledge & Support Community

Hello there! This is all extremely new to me...I'm 32, and just left Arizona at the end of October to move in with my boyfriend in Iowa City, IA. A few days before our departure in AZ, I felt a tingle in the bottom of my feet that, within a matter of days, prevented me from walking correctly with horrible numbness. I was told it was sciatic pain in the ER (the MRI they did was of my lumbar spine, so all looked clear) and the bloodwork they ran seemed normal.

After a few weeks here, first seeking a massage and then a chiropractor, I was told to visit a general physician again who promptly told me to see a neurologist. A few days later, I was diagnosed with MS and while it was a shock, I'd prepared myself for the worst. The hard part is being far from mostly everyone I know, but my follow-up visit with the MS specialist at the University of Iowa neurology clinic isn't scheduled until January 12! I was in the hospital for 3 days, and finished 3 days of IV drip of prednisone, and can still barely walk.

I've called my GP again to get a neurology referral...2 months seems a long time to wait after such a horrible flare up. I can only walk with forearm crutches or a walker at this point, and for very short distances. I'm scared I might never walk again, which I suppose is possible, but I've committed to some diet changes and am just curious how long other's 'flare ups' with MS and numbness/walking lasted? It's been nearly a month now, and not too much has changed, even with the steroids i took a week ago.

I'm on the right path now, at least! I'm reading as much as I can, and trying to stay both realistic and positive, but am worried that this is doing permanent damage. Thank you! I look forward to going through people's comments re: drugs and treatment plans.

Best,
Samantha

welcome sam, sorry to hear you're going through this at a distance from most of the ppl you are close with.

i remember that scared feeling of urgency, and wanting to know what is going on, NOW!

based on your comment re diet changes - if you suspect that diet has anything to do with it, i can tell you that i got my biggest single improvement of the whole time since diagnosis, by making diet adjustments and doing a short term megadose of essential nutrient supplements. the protocol i tried to follow was too difficult for me at the time, so i simplified it basically to vitamins, and ignored the mineral side of it beyond the multivitamin. in hindsight, i would make some pretty major adjustments to the protocol, not just because i know not to ignore minerals at this stage, but also because the regimen is old can be vastly improved by taking advantage of studies published since the regimen was originally designed (1971 i believe it was).

although i had full body numbness and gait issues, i don't remember how long that part lasted exactly. i do remember that my sensory ataxia in my hands cleared up after three days on the high protein vitamin megadose routine. it made a lot of sense for me, given the way i had been eating previously. i was left with some apparently permanent numbness, but other than that function pretty normally

i am curious about the diet changes you describe, whether you have a copy of the blood work done to date, and if so whether that covered any nutrient tests?

glad to hear you are reading. the learning curve can really be the silver lining to getting such a crappy diagnosis. lots to read here on the site, and lots of ppl available to answer questions

samarama82 wrote:Hello there! This is all extremely new to me...I'm 32, and just left Arizona at the end of October to move in with my boyfriend in Iowa City, IA. A few days before our departure in AZ, I felt a tingle in the bottom of my feet that, within a matter of days, prevented me from walking correctly with horrible numbness. I was told it was sciatic pain in the ER (the MRI they did was of my lumbar spine, so all looked clear) and the bloodwork they ran seemed normal.

After a few weeks here, first seeking a massage and then a chiropractor, I was told to visit a general physician again who promptly told me to see a neurologist. A few days later, I was diagnosed with MS and while it was a shock, I'd prepared myself for the worst. The hard part is being far from mostly everyone I know, but my follow-up visit with the MS specialist at the University of Iowa neurology clinic isn't scheduled until January 12! I was in the hospital for 3 days, and finished 3 days of IV drip of prednisone, and can still barely walk.

I've called my GP again to get a neurology referral...2 months seems a long time to wait after such a horrible flare up. I can only walk with forearm crutches or a walker at this point, and for very short distances. I'm scared I might never walk again, which I suppose is possible, but I've committed to some diet changes and am just curious how long other's 'flare ups' with MS and numbness/walking lasted? It's been nearly a month now, and not too much has changed, even with the steroids i took a week ago.

I'm on the right path now, at least! I'm reading as much as I can, and trying to stay both realistic and positive, but am worried that this is doing permanent damage. Thank you! I look forward to going through people's comments re: drugs and treatment plans.

Best,
Samantha

Hello, samarama82, and welcome to ThisIsMS.

Since you are in Iowa City, you may find the Wahls Diet Discussion in the Diet forum especially interesting: http://www.thisisms.com/forum/diet-f9/topic17276.html

You will find videos and information about Dr. Wahls, her diagnosis with MS, and dramatic improvement with her own plan of diet and neuromuscular stimulation (NMES).

Dr. Terry Wahls is an internist:

Terry L. Wahls, MD, MBA
VA Iowa City VAMC
U of I Carver College of Medicine
601 Highway 6 West
Iowa City, IA 52246

For details of her regimen, consult the website http://www.TerryWahls.com

You may be in the best place to investigate Dr. Wahls' program and report to all of us on your findings. We wish you all the best, Samantha; please let us know how it goes with you.