DDD with Cognitive Problems?

I'm going back and forth between this forum and the MS forum.

After 8 years of sx and 4 neuros, I finally hooked up with one who specializes in demyelinating disease.

She has diagnosed me with DDD, both in the lumbar and cervical spine. I also have a meningeal cyst in the T spine and a hemaninoma in the lumbar spine. She says that this would explain my parethesia, hyperreflexia and balance problems. Because the last MRI of the C spine was inconclusive in terms of the spinal cord (inhomogeneity), another MRI will be done in 3 months on hopefully a higher power machine.

I also am having difficulty with language and memory, as well as blurred/double vision and headaches. MRIs of the brain show multiple lesions (13+), but the neuro says they are not in places typical of MS, nor are they the shape of typical MS lesions. I have a hereditary clotting disorder, erratic blood pressure and I smoke and she thinks that these factors, in combination with chronic headaches could be causing both the lesions and cognitive problems.

Anybody out there going through the same thing and if so, what is the dx? My understanding is that DDD will cause motor problems, but not cognitive problems.

Audrey

[Audrey_M]

bump

[EdwardPB]

Sounds like, with the smoking and BP (I bet bad diet too?) you probably have cerebral plaque issues.