Autoimmune

I am 40 and have a diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder. I have had DBT therapy which has helped me manage it better. I have a birth mum with MS and an identical twin sister with MS. This past year I am experiencing tingling and bubbling in my lower calves and feet which comes and goes. I am very worried I may have MS but have had an MRI scan which came up inconclusive. I have read that it can take years to get an official diagnosis of MS. This has me concerned as I am currently in the process of building my self esteem around a 'sense of mastery' with my studies. I also have epilepsy which I'm told is common to have neurological deficits being an identical twin. I understand that statistics say if you are an identical twin and one has MS the other has a 30% chance of developing it too. I have been told these 'paresthia' sensations I am experiencing could be related to my epilepsy. I have found no evidence through my research on the web that this could be the case, rather, the information I have found points this towards MS. I don't think my worry is due to my 'mental illness', I am sure this would have anyone concerned considering I have such a high genetic predisposition. Any thoughts / professional advice would be greatly appreciated.

[supermum_ms]

Hi Talee,

The first things that come to mind are related to when you were dx with 1) Epilepsy and 2) borderline personality disorder, are either newish dx or are they something you've always had?

Are you on any medications for either of these issues? Some of the medications prescribed for mental health conditions can cause a plethora of adverse affects. We had a situation recently with my daughters partner, he has generalised anxiety, the drug he was on made him have hyper episodes and he couldn't sleep. New Psychiatrist put him on another drug as well to calm him down, he started have schizophrenic episodes, so the psych kept on increasing the dose and he just kept getting worse.

The psychiratrist would not consider the drug prescribed as being the cause of the newly acquired schizophrenic behavior, paresthesia, muscle spasms, etc etc, psychs opinion was wrong!!!!!! Off that drug he's still got generalised anxiety but he is NOT schizophrenic, and his new psych has been horrified by a young patient being placed on that heavy a dose with out ever having a dx that warrented it. My point in retelling this tale is that sometimes the drugs prescribed to help, can cause other problems on there own or in combination with other prescribed medications, its always worth finding out if any of your sx are known side affects of any medications your taking.

You do have a familial connection to MS due to both your mother and twin sister both having MS, though that doesn't mean that you will develope MS or that you do have MS, I totally understand your 'worry' but i'm sure you also know if making more of something than what is reasonable, is part of 'your' mental health condition or not. Still I have more questions than answers for you, things like what do you mean by 'inconclusive' to me that means it wasn't normal, did the MRI find some thing that fits with MS but not enough to dx?

Sorry, i'm not a doctor, we dont have an expert persay, just lots of intelligent people dx with MS or to be dx MSers (affectionally known as limbo landers), we do have a few medical people here but the help offered will be personal opinions not professional, if you do want 'professional advice' you could post in the neurology forum because they do have experts there. Again sorry i couldn't be more helpful!

Cheers.......JJ

[HVAC]

Welcome,
  We are not professionals just folks with MS or those trying to find answers. The problem is no one can give you a definitive answer not even a Doctor. You can go to the top right and click on the health pages. It talks about the diagnosis process. There are many neurological conditions and non neurological conditions with similar symptoms to MS.

First off I aplaud you on working on your self esteem. This is very important. The hardest part is learning to like yourself as you are with any particular condition and to live in the moment. This has been a hard thing for me but I live that way now and am very happy and have lots of friends.

Just because you may have BPD does not mean your symptoms are not real. On the other hand your BPD could make you worry more. So it is sort of a chicken and the egg situation.

My advice is to keep track of symptoms and bring the list to your GP when you have regular visits unless you are going regulary to a Neurologist. I have found that unfortunately Doctors do not listen to you if you go to them in an excited manner.

My GP for example did not even want me as a patient when she found out I was bipolar until she found out I was calm and rational about my health. I bring lists to her of what conditions I have and which are doing better and which worse. She says she wishes all her patients would do the same. Her favorite sayings are "Medicine is more Art than Science" and "I don't know". I accept these answers because they are honest.

It took, in my case a very long time, to be diagnosed with MS. I had to have many tests over many years to rule out all kinds of diseases. No one in my family ever had MS.

You have a 60% of not having MS. Statistics with this disease do not mean much. It is just if you get it.

Alex