new and ms suspicious

[BeHeYb]

I know it could be 1000 other things, but I keep coming back to ms. How long are typical periods if remission? I'm doing better than I have in the last 2.5 years. Plauged with fatigue, widespread pain, tingling in left hand, myclonus in left shoulder/neck, weakness,balance problems and seriously foggy at times. Ongoing intermittent for last 2.5 years. Today at rheummatogist had an absent knee jerk on the left. Of course that's all I noticed out of the ordinary. He took a lot of notes and basically said I'm to young to need Hus services, 44F. I do have degenerative disc disease in my lumbar spine. Gp sent me on referral. Hubby says I'm hypochondriac ;) which I'm beginning to think I am. Thanks for any feed back.

[BeHeYb]

thanks. Im over what ever it was for the moment. maybe it was nothing. ill just move forward from here. i do have something along the lines of lhermitties sign occasionally. but there are other causes.

[HVAC]

You probably are not a Hypochondriac. We know our bodies.I was 46 when my GP found my MS. I had MS for over 40 years before I was finally diagnosed. I was diagnosed as mentally ill because they could not figure out what was wrong. They knew I had damage to my brain stem. Two Psychiatrists have now said I am not mentally ill it was MS all a long. It also took six years to be diagnosed with Cancer. I was labeled a hypochondriac now they call me stoic because I was not believed about the Cancer. I kept saying something is really wrong. I could not eat and kept throwing up. Not sure why you do not believe a person who is losing weight.

The problem is doctors specialize and you have to get to the right doctor and have the right tests. There are so many doctors and so many tests it can take awhile. The most important thing is to be your own advocate and believe in yourself. Husbands do not want anything bad to be wrong with us. My husband could not understand my MS or Cancer even after I was diagnosed. Denial was his coping mechanism.

On remissions. In MS you have inflammation. When you have inflammation you have symptoms, when the inflammation dies down symptoms go away. Some people have remissions that last months some people have remissions that last years. It is a case by case thing.

Then there is nerve damage. I have a kind of MS which has more nerve damage Primary Progressive MS. I had a bout in 1965 which resulted in nerve damage.  I was hospitalized. Since then I have had permanent double vision, vertigo, left side weakness, tremors, fatigue, cognitive problems, and headaches. Because I have had all these symptoms since I was a toddler I did not know I had a problem. This was normal to me.

Alex

[Lulu54]

Do you think there is something wrong?  Listen to your body and your instincts and not your hubby.   :-)

You are better off without that rheumy if he thinks these problems are only for us older folks.  

i am not doctor, but this is probably not MS from what you have written, but it sure sounds like something going on.  If you want to be sure, ask for a referral to a neurologist to get a good exam and go from there.