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Can this be MS?

Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2016 5:04 pm
by WorriedJohn
Hello, my name Is Joao and i live in Portugal. :smile:

I am new here, and i've read some posts here and there. Never been on a forum before!

Last month, starting June 11th has been complicated for me. Here i go to tell my story, in a nutschell: i am afraid of possible ms, and i dont know if this can be anxiety too.

Fisrt things first: i am a father of a beautiful boy, now 3 months and a half. Thank you very much..:P

This months had been tiring! The schedules, preparing the milk, some sleep deprivation..but i think now we have a more organized routine!

Ok, now the worries...i'll try to be briefly because "overdescriptions" of symptoms can be boring. On past June, 11th i went to the Health Center, i got an aunt working there. I told her about some tingling sensations i felt over my body. Yes, my major complains are sensitive symptoms. I felt this tingling on left foot majorly, but sometimes bilateraly in the right sole foot too. She told me could be my spine, and passed me an X.ray to my column (all of it). She told me too to take some suplements like magnesium and etc, which i didnt. At the end of that day..not feeling completely satisfied..i went to an Hospital nearby, actually to an E.R. I was attended by a young medical doctor which did me a brief neurologic examination and said i was fine. She tested my balance, reflexes, pupils, etc.

Still worried, i talked my father about all this and he gave me the contact of a Neurologist. I went there 14 June. My complains were the pins and needles/tingling, some little sharp pains like a needle in various areas of the body (eye, arms, both sides, etc). I told him too about some lack of strenght i felt in my legs, majorly in my left leg, and some stifness there too. After this he did a complete neurologic physical exam, he told me the exam was normal, and didnt thought i should do exams or even an mri. He told me he thought i had this relation with my body, like somatic relation, because i told him when i was 17 i had a depersonalization episode after smoking some pot. In that episode i didnt felt my body, and went panic attacks from there. Since 17 i had some panic attacks here and there, at 21, 25 i guess..27..with sometimes depersonalization/derealization too. Ok, the neurologist told me to send him an email, 2 days after, but to go home in peace.

16 June - i send him the email and described again more symptoms, some different, some the same, but all sensitive symptoms i guess. The numbness, tingling, sharp little needles here and there in the body, some left side lack of strenght. He answered me saying he still thought my complaints didnt present a structural problem in the CNS, but that it was probably better to do an mri for him to tes his hipothesis. So he left the requisition to do the mri in the secretary.

19 June - i went to the Hospital at night again..on a Sunday; this time they passed me some blood tests, which were normal. I went t the ER again, worried if i had some spinal cancer or ms. They said they thought i was tired, that i was in a tired momento of my life, and to go home and rest. The thing is..i went to google searching for tingling and pins and needles symptoms and what appears is like ms, cancers, and some scary stuff.

21 June - I had another ER consultation in a different Hopsital. I felt some back pain, near the sacrum, some numbness on left foot, from the knee to the foot, and sometimes on right foot too. The medic suggested more specific analysis, which were ok. He testes B12, sugar, etc. My sugar was low, like 53..but i repeated the analysis of sugar and were normal, like 79.

22 June - I did the mri - Brain and cervical spine. The neuroradiologist said everything was normal.

After this i went to the neurologist again to show him the mri. He told me that he was surprised with the quality of images of the mri, because it was an "open" machine. I read somewhere that this open machines were less powerful in the magnetic fields..and i told him this worry but he told me the images were pretty fine, and that if i had lesions they would appear. He told me somewere too that with all the different complaints i told him of symptoms, that something would appear on the neurological physical exam.

Fact: i am an anxious person. The panic attacks..always expecting the worse..the catastrophic scenarios..so i spent most of this days like scanning my body. Actually is the first thing i do in morning, to see the legs, the tingling, etc. Sometimes in the middle of the night i wake up, feeling i am shortend of breathing air. So this to say i can be pretty much a scanner with my own body. Last year i didn an endoscopy, cause i was worried about some symptoms in my stomach. I did it and only had some sort of gastritis.

So..back to the last symptoms..i woke up and sometimes when i lift my left foot from the ground he tingles..sometimes i have pains too, little pains of 2-3 seconds in my left calf. Like a cramp feeling , some seconds. Oh..another symptom, sometimes i feel my arm pits like irritated..with a mild burning sensation. and sometimes in my arms i feel some hot too..as if i am near a hot stove but im not.

In the past sometimes i felt some thingling in my legs, and feel all the tension goes to legs too..when i am stressed, etc. I remember in 2012 feeling both my calves pretty tense, with a tensing feeling.

My questions are:

Could this be a Clinical Isolated Syndrome? With all this extension in time, like one month?
Could all these abnormal sensations be anxiety?

I only wish to be good and normal..so i can refocus my attention and energy back to my life, my kid, my wife and relax more.

Thanks and all be well,

João

Re: Can this be MS?

Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2016 10:16 pm
by NHE
Welcome to ThisIsMS Joao,
WorriedJohn wrote:21 June - I had another ER consultation in a different Hopsital. I felt some back pain, near the sacrum, some numbness on left foot, from the knee to the foot, and sometimes on right foot too. The medic suggested more specific analysis, which were ok. He testes B12, sugar, etc. My sugar was low, like 53..but i repeated the analysis of sugar and were normal, like 79.
Do you know what your B12 test results were? Sometimes, you can be in the low end of the laboratory's test range, be labeled as "normal," but still be deficient.

Re: Can this be MS?

Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2016 7:57 am
by lyndacarol
WorriedJohn wrote:Hello, my name Is Joao and i live in Portugal. :smile:
...
19 June - i went to the Hospital at night again..on a Sunday; this time they passed me some blood tests, which were normal. I went t the ER again, worried if i had some spinal cancer or ms. They said they thought i was tired, that i was in a tired momento of my life, and to go home and rest. The thing is..i went to google searching for tingling and pins and needles symptoms and what appears is like ms, cancers, and some scary stuff.

21 June - I had another ER consultation in a different Hopsital. I felt some back pain, near the sacrum, some numbness on left foot, from the knee to the foot, and sometimes on right foot too. The medic suggested more specific analysis, which were ok. He testes B12, sugar, etc. My sugar was low, like 53..but i repeated the analysis of sugar and were normal, like 79.

My questions are:

Could this be a Clinical Isolated Syndrome? With all this extension in time, like one month?
Could all these abnormal sensations be anxiety?
Welcome to ThisIsMS, João (WorriedJohn).

The first symptom you describe is "tingling on left foot" – numbness/tingling/pain in the extremities (arms/hands or legs/feet) is called "peripheral neuropathy." It is a common symptom in many conditions.

In my opinion (I have no medical background), if you feel that things are not quite right in your body (pins and needles/tingling, sharp pains, weakness in your legs), you have reason to investigate the cause. I suggest you find a GP and start with a general physical exam.

In investigating the cause of peripheral neuropathy, the University of Chicago suggests the following:

http://peripheralneuropathycenter.uchic ... #bloodtest\
Blood tests

Blood tests are commonly employed to check for vitamin deficiencies, toxic elements and evidence of an abnormal immune response.

Depending on your individual situation, your doctor may request certain laboratory tests to identify potentially treatable causes for neuropathy. These include tests for:

Vitamin B12 and folate levels
Thyroid, liver and kidney functions
Vasculitis evaluation
Oral glucose tolerance test
Antibodies to nerve components (e.g., anti-MAG antibody)
Antibodies related to celiac disease
Lyme disease
HIV/AIDS
Hepatitis C and B
You mentioned that B12 was tested on 21 June; if you have not had the other tests, consider discussing them with your GP.

Although I understand that Portugal is a sunny country, it is still possible to be deficient in vitamin D. For this reason, I suggest you also ask your doctor for a vitamin D blood test (the "25-hydroxy D" test).

Do not take supplements before testing because this may skew test results. Also, request your own copy of any test results – it is important to have the actual numbers.

In answer to your specific questions… In my opinion, your symptoms could be Clinical Isolated Syndrome, but I think the probability is small; there are other more likely causes for your symptoms that should be ruled out first. Anxiety can cause physical symptoms, but anxiety itself can be a symptom of other conditions (for one example, vitamin B12 deficiency).

Re: Can this be MS?

Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2016 1:56 pm
by WorriedJohn
Hello People, before all..thanks for the advice and the inputs.

Just thought i could give you my last descriptive sensations..

Right now im here in the living room, drinking a glass of red wine, making myself to the relaxing zone.

This because today my legs are with muscle aches..yesterday i did some mornign exercise, and i sweat a little but maybe pushed myself a bit hard, for someone who doesnt make much exercise.

Anyways..sometimes i got this momentums when i feel my legs like constricting..tensing up..the calves and thighs.

Im gonna tell you my last symptoms for you to tell me if they can be a CIS/MS or more anxiety related:

- left calf tensing up
- tingling left sole foot, sometimes bilateral on right but majorly left.
- little cold needle sensation rarely on body, mostly left side, arm, leg.
- little blurred vision on right eye (i think i always had this one), i say little because on a scale of 0-10 is like a 2. i can read things, but with a little more bright.
- sometimes i feel a little lightheaded. I am a very tall person and here in Lisbon its hot temperatures this time of the summer.
- i scan my body --- i find something ----i evalue the possibilities of being a dangerous symptom, etc..the anxiety cicle.
- some light back pain, mostly when i wake up in the morning.
- i feel leg weakness, but do jumps to test me if i am ok and can do jumps.
- as i said before i am an anxious person. I dwell on possibilities, i scan all the symptoms, im alert. Oh and by the way, i work in the mental health departmente, not saying were...:) i am embarassed!
- itching/burning armpits sensation, some days ago, not now.
- i have some itching on the forearm/bicep division, but theres a kind of rash there, little tiny red bubbles.
- oh and i would forgot this one..i feel my left hand is kinda dry? i dont know how to put this..it has this slighlty vibration. Again on a scale from 0-10 its like a 3. and on my left foot too. A slight vibration. i have it on the right side hand too but less.
- i got hot chills sometimes.
- i have De Quervin syndrome, on my left pulse, i read and they say its common on young dads, people who have babies and carry them.
- i am worried about all this, can this be anxiety related? I more than anyone here (maybe) could answer this, explaining with somatization problems or syndromes, but...like the saying "when something appears to the doctor, he's no longer an expert.." :)

i feel a little alone, that sometimes i exagerate, but afraid is something preocupying. I feel i am being a pain in the ass to my wife, not enjoying so much moments at ease with my little kid because sometimes the worry is in the back of the head.. and embarassed to be like this right now, but..i feel all this stuff..

having a reading on wikipedia on ms symptoms clusters:

vision - i feel ok, only a eye floater, maybe on each eye. I think i always had them, but maybe now i am more alert, to everything!
urinary - its ok
bowel - i always had irritable bowel, but i feel ok.
sensation - paraesthesias, some little pain in muscles, but rare.
musculoeskeletal - i dont think i have spasms - only in my back but they are rare, cramp like. a couple of twitches, on eye (in the past i had some times with days with eye twitches, in the corner), and leg muscles but rare and like 2 seconds. the weakness i feel slightly in my left arm and both legs, but doesnt stop me to walk or do things.
Central - i do have some fatigue, but can this be to worrying about all this and scanning 24/7? i am with this symptoms a month from now, and always think about what it is, what is not..this is it, something bigger is coming, is now..etc..

I am trying to relax and go for relaxing..

What do you think?

Thanks People!

Be Well, all of you.

Re: Can this be MS?

Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2016 2:03 pm
by WorriedJohn
Oh and my vitamin B12 level is 625.0 pg/ml on an interval range of 211.0 - 911.0

Joao

Re: Can this be MS?

Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2016 9:27 pm
by NHE
WorriedJohn wrote:Oh and my vitamin B12 level is 625.0 pg/ml on an interval range of 211.0 - 911.0
That's a reasonable number which greatly reduces the probability that your symptoms are related to B12.