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Could my symptoms be MS?

Posted , 5 users are following.

delortv
delortv

Symptoms started about 3 yrs now. I had been running and cycling for the past 2-3 yrs when I started feeling lower back aches, knee,and ankle pain after excersing, that slowly got me to stop running, eventually cycling too. For the past 3 years i have had a lot of coming and going back and joints aches and acid reflux, but in August started having episodes of confusion( loosing sense of where things are, and getting lost driving to communly visit stores), blurred vision, stabbing headaches, chest tightness, severe joint aches on hands worst on my right hand and middle finger, Bad spasms on my back and cramps on my feel and legs, frequent urinations(sometimes over 10 times a day), i have bad concentration and i have notice that when i try having a conversation sometimes I just dont make sense at all, and awful pain on left side of the abdomen.  In november my Physician diagnose me with severe vitamin D deficiency( put me on 5,000ui daily), and said it looked like i could have fibromyalgia and  my thyroid was slightly elevated( put me on meds)told me to come back in 3 months. In the mean time I saw a neurologist who did some MRIs and Physical therapy, therapist  told me I have torticollis and scoliosis, and possible arthritis. The neurologist said he had a list of 10 possible diagnosis but want it to wait for test results. In the meantime I started walking, trying to get relieve from the stress of feeling like I cant take care of my self( cant even open a jar or hold open a door with the same hand) after a month walking, one day  my ankle started swelling, my physician did Xrays, US, and MRI shows a lot of inflammation, sprained ankle(its been a month still hurts), and MRI of my knee shows Mild Chondromalacia Patella, My dr told me to rest for 2 weeks and that i should be fine. Now my other knee is hurting too. AND THIS week I was driving and lost eye sight on my right eye. Called my Neurologist the same day and all she offered was a 2pm appt 3 days after with the assitant( explained that 2pm iits impossible for me) and said that dr is booked until july now, so i hung up the phone. I was talking to a friend about how I feel, and she said a closed friend of her was diagnose with MS and she had very similar symptoms. Im very frustrated, and starting to feel depressed. Any help is greatly appreciated... im starting to think Im loosing my mind.

1 like, 17 replies

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  • delortv
    delortv

    Posted

    Sorry for the long post, and the misspells. My english skills are def getting really bad. 
  • wendy80842
    wendy80842 delortv

    Posted

    Hi, I'm sorry that you're going through all of this. Don't worry about any misspelling, hell, I keep calling my son by my cat's name, unfortunately, the cat's called Molly. I'm very surprised that you're not being seen quickly, after losing sight in your eye, IF it's MS that you're dealing with, the eye problem is more than likely optic neuritis (ON), it's VERY common for people with MS. IF it's ON,the standard treatment is a course of steroids (intravenously) this tends to shorten the length of time of the bout of ON. Steroids don't improve the overall outcome, but it's much better to get it over with. Perhaps you should go to A&E (in the UK) or the ER (in North America). it might speed up you getting your treatment.

    General tip: keep a journal of everything your dealing with, it will very likely be useful for medical appointments.

    Take care.

    • delortv
      delortv wendy80842

      Posted

      Thanks! i started a journal back in Nov. Im now starting to feel somewhat "better" again, but the next time I get really bad again I will Definitely go to the ER> I will be moving to a bigger city(Orlando,FL)  in 2 months; and I hope to find better care there. Im 30 yrs old and mom of 2 kids, over all I have been healthy.  I love outdoor sports, and and active life style and its becoming a challenge simple task as just to do groceries, or pump gas... 
    • delortv
      delortv wendy80842

      Posted

      My RA factor was 9, so my physician dont see it a problem... Said it could be going up due to my Vitamin D deficiency lab was 22 after 4 months on supplements.
  • Treezie
    Treezie delortv

    Posted

    I cannot write too much tonight, but I thought I was losing my mind, too, when I first found out I had MS in Nov 1999.  I have relapsing remitting MS and back then I was exercising and sweating and now I have mobility issues and cannot seem to start excercising again.  So, do not stop or go a bit more slowly or you will put on a lot of weight and start losing some of your abilities that you have now.  Because as bad as MS is, it is not nearly as bad as obesity--which is what I am known for now more than my MS.
    • wendy80842
      wendy80842 Treezie

      Posted

      Unless 2delortv finds that exercising results in being in a lot of pain, which is what happens to me. I know that a lot of people would feel exactly the opposite way to how you do, in that MS is far worse than obesity, I know that I do. I was ALWAYS very slim, until the last few years, where I've gained a lot of weigh., Compared to fighting both muscular AND neuro pain, pretty much every day since 2003, to me weight gain is less of a problem. We have to find a way that works for ourselves as individuals, it's perhaps best to make suggestions rather than prescriptive statements.
    • delortv
      delortv wendy80842

      Posted

      Yes, its painful to simply go for briskly walk. Also i was doing 4 miles and started cutting it down. Now im walking the dogs less than 1/2 a mile and everything hurts. And when i get back home Im so exhausted i have slept 3-4 hrs after walking. Spasms and cramps are pretty bad and regularly. Im now just following physical therapy stretching excersices from home which i can't even complete the sets. I have been watching what I eat, but im not much hungry at all. I got steroid shot on my left side on Monday from my Physician for the patella problem and it did not help... It made me feel worse, im bruised, and there still a bump in the insition; And i was feeling pretty slow After it. Even monitored my glucose but it was fine!
    • Treezie
      Treezie wendy80842

      Posted

      I tried to not be prescriptive in my comment--I am sorry if it was, but when I found out I had MS, I had very little pain, but I overheated really fast and got confused.  Numbness is something I can hardly feel any more. Now my obesity is something I cannot escape because I get so clumsy, dangerously so, and am so hot I cannot sleep even in air-conditioning.  I used to ride a bike, an exercise bike and now I cannot anymore.  I have difficulty using a walker and I work full-time.
    • wendy80842
      wendy80842 Treezie

      Posted

      Yes, we're all doddering along with an, ever increasing list of MS related woes, but once you start talking to someone else who has it, it's so easy to find things in common.
    • Treezie
      Treezie delortv

      Posted

      Brisk walking was a joy to me that I enjoyed right up until my MS diagnosis!  I never was athletic in any way except for that love of walking!  Now I have difficulty even with a walker and if I try yoga on a mat I cannot get back up again after.  I love the sit-and-be fit shows on PBS now.  Having spasms at night keep from sleeping, but still no pain.  Now there are no MS treatment suggestions for me because none of them worked except in 1999, a clinical trial with Tysabri, but it is not recommended now for me.

      I started crying back in 2001 from the tysabri injections, but now I know how to relax and not look at the needle when it is being inserted.  I feel for you that for such an active person as yourself, it must be so hard to get slowed down when they cannot tell you anything for sure.

      Good luck on the search for answers.

    • delortv
      delortv wendy80842

      Posted

      Another new thing... I was doing a french braid to my daughters hair and could not finish... My finger werent strong enough, and the pain was so bad.
    • delortv
      delortv wendy80842

      Posted

      Another new thing... I was doing a french braid to my daughters hair and could not finish... My finger werent strong enough, and the pain was so bad.
    • wendy80842
      wendy80842 delortv

      Posted

      While, on here, it's obviously not possible to know quite what it is that you're dealing with, it does sound like neuro symptoms. I've kept a copy of a post that I've put on here before, because I kept retyping the same things over and over, I'll add it to this post, just in case it might help:

       

      i have ms, i was diagnosed (abbreviated to dx) in 2004, the problem with pinning down an ms dx is the wildly varying experiences of each person with the condition, and how we report our experiences also varies a hell of a lot. our nervous systems are so complex, of course. generally, it's not just about the results of 1 mri that are used, but at least one more, at a later date, this is to see if there's progression over both physical space (lesion/s) AND time. there may or may not be a change, even then, which doesn't necessarily rule out ms, as even if it IS ms, it might not have been actively progressing between mri's, OR, if it's remitting, it could even have improved. you can see why so many of us have a long time to wait, to see if we have ms or not.  it's also accepted practice to do a lumbar puncture to look for oligoclonic bands in our cerebrospinal fluid. a full examination will almost certainly be carried out by a neurologist, to test your reflexes, balance, response to stimulae (hot, cold, soft, sharp etc) and so forth.

      i would always strongly advise anyone with ongoing health concerns, to keep a journal of experiences: symptoms (any and all) , dates when they start OR end, concerns, questions for medics, anything you think might relate to your health problems. take your journal with you when you go to appointments with any medics, and, if possible take someone with you, it's handy to have another person listening, as it's easy to miss things.

  • tracy35015
    tracy35015 delortv

    Posted

    Get your B12 tested if you haven't already. It should be in the upper half of the normal range. Anything lower is cause for concern, as neurological symptoms can appear below 500 ng/mL (370 pmol/l).
    • delortv
      delortv tracy35015

      Posted

      My B12 was tested right after my Dr put a boost shot and it was slightly high. But have not been redone. At this point I dont want ANY meds at all, i thinks the meds just hide the symptoms temporary. Saw the eye doctor he does not see anything wrong with my eyes, but based on all my symptoms he sent me to see a neuro-ophthalmologist.
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