Hi Shawnie,
I slept way too much last night and really have to get moving, but I promise I will come back to this later when I return home. You have lots going on and I know the feeling of having questions but no answers. I'm sure someone else will be along too, but weekends get kind of slow here.
I promise, I'll be back,
Lulu
I'm a new member to the site, but MS and I have been duking it out for since '97. I've experienced most of your symptoms, at varying times. Handwriting issues-1st twelve months post diagnosis, then again when I worked in a very toxic school for two years in 2005-2007 (I got out of there as quickly as possible), which is when the tingling occurred too. After a few years I could "feel a relapse coming on". Blurred vision or a limp in my gait are the calling cards I'm used to. When I feel any of these things, I put my husband and teen ager on alert, so they force me to slow down, or rest-go to bed early. This has helped me side step the Prednisone-which I hate. A mental health day taken on a Friday and/or Monday helps too, because everyone is at work or school,EXCEPT ME, which is best, for me-but everyone's path with this thing varies. Hope this helps.
KeyWestGirl1
Hi there,
Were you diagnosed with MS if so which one?? Did it take long for the Dr's to figure it out?? Would you say it has changed your life?
Shawnie,
I'm sorry you are going through all this. That dr sounds like an idiot. I'm glad you are going to be seeing someone else and I hope you get in to see that person soon and get the answers that you need.
As for your symptoms, I currently have or have had all of them. Currently I would say I'm in remission (my dx of ms was taken away-long story) but I still the following symptoms: incontinence, tremors, balance & memory issues which get worse if I over do it or get too hot.
HTH
Hi Shawnie,
Welcome back with your quesitons. I saw your other post but figured I would respond here. There are some days that so many new things get posted that the older ones slip away to page 2 with little notice. We have been slammed with new forum members lately - which is great but really divides everyone's attention.
I have everything you listed in your symptoms except vision problems. My vision is excellent. The whole list you have there sure sounds a lot like MS, but I'm not your doctor and can't make that final call.
Do yourself a big favor and read our health pages about MS - there is a lot of vital information there that will help to take the mystery out of this disease and the diagnosis process. If you find things there you don't quite understand, be sure to ask and some one will jump in and help.
July does seem like a long wait - perhaps you can call them and ask to be put on a cancellation list in case something opens up sooner?
My best to you,
Lulu
Hi, and thanks for answers our questions.
All of the things you list can and are seen commonly in MS. This, though, does not mean they show that you do have MS.
As we said before, your internist is sadly lacking in education about a common neurological disease. Why would he send you to a neurologist if your MRI looked okay? Well, at least he does recognize that your symptoms are neurolgical in nature. So a referral to a neuro is appropriate whether he thinks you have MS or not.
A 4 month wait does seem like a long time, but it also appears that you are seeing a true MS specialist. I'm impressed that at least your internist wants to send you to someone who is really knowledgeable. Why don't you call and see if you can be put on a "cancellation list?" Lulu had a good idea there.
I hope the blood work that your internist sent you for is for some of the mimics of MS. Most of them are diagnosed by blood tests. these include Vitamin deficiencies, autoimmune diseases like Lupus or Sjogren's, clotting disorders, infections like Lyme Disease, and other assorted disorders. In MS you would expect these blood tests to be negative.
When a person with other neuro symptoms has visual symptoms, I always recommend that they see someone more skilled than an optometrist. I recommend that you get a referral to an ophthalmologist. Blurry vision can be from many things, but does need evaluation. An optometrist hardly has the training to truly evaluate for eye diseases. They are becoming trained in screening for them, but this is more serious. Until recent years, they were mostly technicians who determined your prescritpion for glasses. (personal bias and opinion).
There are a couple ways to look for other good MS Neurologists if you don't want to wait four months. One way is to look for ratings of them like on msneuroratings.org. This is not a huge database, but there are ratings of docs in many countries. I recommend all of us who have good and bad experiences with docs to document these on this and other sites like "ratemd." The more we document our experiences the better we will advertise the good docs and the more well-known the stinkers will be! This is a part of advocacy.
You can also find the local MS support groups by contacting you local MS society. Attend a meeting or two. Speak up and say you are looking for a good, compassionate, and SMART MS neuro. People (like here) are glad to tell you who to go to and who to avoid.
If you find someone with a lot of good recommendations, then you can see if they would see you first.
Quix