Aa
Could it be.....?????
Hi everyone - I am a 41 year old mother of 3, living in South Africa. I had a headache 3 years ago with slight visual loss that would not respond to anything and eventually found myself in the emergency department. A CT scan showed raised intra cranial pressure which led to a lumbar puncture being done. The pressures were high but the pathology was normal as far as I remember. An mri was subsequently done which showed increased T2signal in the brain stem bilaterally (have no idea what this means!) and 3 UBO's in the left cerebral hemispheres. I was refereed to an opthalmologist who said I had optic neuritis. After IV cortisone for 10 days eventually went home feeling slightly better. The neurologist mentioned the 'possibility' of the start of MS but was reluctant to make any firm diagnosis based on just this incident and said to look at it as an isolated case.
Since then I have suffered from trigeminal neuralgia and was put on neurontin for a while. I have aches and pains everywhere typical of a sort of fibromyalgia. Terrible mental fuzziness, forgetting words and getting very muddled with words much to the hysteria of my children I might add! I also had a once off incident where I kept looking at the microwave and couldn't understand how to open the door.....very weird! I had some weakness of my arms which I was convinced was going to be the 'next incident' it turned out to however be a herniated c6-c7 disc which has been pinned and plated and seems fine now.
Since March 25th I have had another 'headache' located above my eye, it hurts to move my eye in any direction and even to close it and I have no peripheral vision. I saw my local doctor who put me on some antinflammatories and cortisone but they have not helped at all. It is worse in the mornings and the trigeminal neuralgia is back with a vengeance. My sleep pattern has gone for a complete loop but that has been since last year when I think back on it. I could only get an appointment with the neurologist for Monday 26th April and it can't come sooner.
I keep trying to convince myself that surely its only a sinus problem nothing major but at the back of my mind I am concerned that it could be MS. The only positive thing will be a firm diagnosis so that I can get my mind right and face whatever it is and start moving forward.
I was just wondering if anyone else has had similar symptoms and just wanted to get it off my chest so thank you to anyone who takes the time to read this!!
Will send a follow up post after Monday :)
Since then I have suffered from trigeminal neuralgia and was put on neurontin for a while. I have aches and pains everywhere typical of a sort of fibromyalgia. Terrible mental fuzziness, forgetting words and getting very muddled with words much to the hysteria of my children I might add! I also had a once off incident where I kept looking at the microwave and couldn't understand how to open the door.....very weird! I had some weakness of my arms which I was convinced was going to be the 'next incident' it turned out to however be a herniated c6-c7 disc which has been pinned and plated and seems fine now.
Since March 25th I have had another 'headache' located above my eye, it hurts to move my eye in any direction and even to close it and I have no peripheral vision. I saw my local doctor who put me on some antinflammatories and cortisone but they have not helped at all. It is worse in the mornings and the trigeminal neuralgia is back with a vengeance. My sleep pattern has gone for a complete loop but that has been since last year when I think back on it. I could only get an appointment with the neurologist for Monday 26th April and it can't come sooner.
I keep trying to convince myself that surely its only a sinus problem nothing major but at the back of my mind I am concerned that it could be MS. The only positive thing will be a firm diagnosis so that I can get my mind right and face whatever it is and start moving forward.
I was just wondering if anyone else has had similar symptoms and just wanted to get it off my chest so thank you to anyone who takes the time to read this!!
Will send a follow up post after Monday :)
Thank you everyone for your welcome - feel so much better knowing you are all there!!! xx
Welcome! You've found the right place.
Good luck Monday, I look forward to your report.
Mike
Good luck Monday, I look forward to your report.
Mike
Hi Ma_of_3 and welcome to our little corner of cyberspace. I'm sorry you haven't been properly welcomed by more of us yet. (And thanks John for keeping this bumped up.) It can get a little quite around here when Friday evening and the weekend rolls around. We're all such party animals you know. (yeah, right...)
How wonderful that you got that 3 year respite since your last go-round with optic neuritis but it would certainly appear you are back to neurological syptoms now. A lot of what you mention is consistent with the usual findings in MS but there are many mimics and it often takes some time to get them all ruled out. I am glad you're getting in to see the doctor so soon although I realize Monday can't get here soon enough to suit you!
There's plenty to keep you occupied here as you wait. The Health Pages (icon above and to the right of these discussion boxes) are full of information if your eyes are up to reading much.
I've got to hit the bed now and rest up for my leg of the MS Walk in the morning. It's nice to have you here with us, even if the circumstances could have been nicer. I'll be looking for your report after Monday and be thinking all good thoughts for you.
Mary
How wonderful that you got that 3 year respite since your last go-round with optic neuritis but it would certainly appear you are back to neurological syptoms now. A lot of what you mention is consistent with the usual findings in MS but there are many mimics and it often takes some time to get them all ruled out. I am glad you're getting in to see the doctor so soon although I realize Monday can't get here soon enough to suit you!
There's plenty to keep you occupied here as you wait. The Health Pages (icon above and to the right of these discussion boxes) are full of information if your eyes are up to reading much.
I've got to hit the bed now and rest up for my leg of the MS Walk in the morning. It's nice to have you here with us, even if the circumstances could have been nicer. I'll be looking for your report after Monday and be thinking all good thoughts for you.
Mary
Hi Max3- welcome to our community here at MedHelp - I trust you will find the information here useful and the company pleasant.
You do have several of the classic MS signs - the ON, TN, and the lesions. However, I must add tht I am not a doctor so am speakly purely from my partially educated collection of guesses.
Please keep in mind that the image of the typical MS patient has changed dramatically in the past 10-20 years. Only the extreme cases now end in wheelchairs. Our life spans are not significantly shorter than the non-MS population. There are several therapy drugs approved for use, and if your doctor should be happy to tell you about those options.
We have great health pages here - yellow icon on the upper right side of this page - that were written by our members and not some hard to understand doctor. I hope you can take some time to read more about this MySterious disease.
Good luck Monday and please let us know how it goes.
be well, Lulu
You do have several of the classic MS signs - the ON, TN, and the lesions. However, I must add tht I am not a doctor so am speakly purely from my partially educated collection of guesses.
Please keep in mind that the image of the typical MS patient has changed dramatically in the past 10-20 years. Only the extreme cases now end in wheelchairs. Our life spans are not significantly shorter than the non-MS population. There are several therapy drugs approved for use, and if your doctor should be happy to tell you about those options.
We have great health pages here - yellow icon on the upper right side of this page - that were written by our members and not some hard to understand doctor. I hope you can take some time to read more about this MySterious disease.
Good luck Monday and please let us know how it goes.
be well, Lulu
Welcome,
Others will post answers to your questions, I'm sure you'll find this forum very helpful.
I joined last May, I've learned alot & have many of my questions answered.
John..
Others will post answers to your questions, I'm sure you'll find this forum very helpful.
I joined last May, I've learned alot & have many of my questions answered.
John..
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