MS? Lyme? What is going on?

[jack12325]

Hi everyone,

Here is my story. Sorry if it's a bit long.

About 4 years ago when I was 20 years old I had horrible chest pains. Sometimes they were accompanied by slight numbness in the fingers of my left hand. I had every cardiac test done, all normal. I was sent to a neurologist who did an MRI of the brain w/o contrast that came back normal. The pains very much subsided and eventually pretty much went away.

A year or two later, I came down with shingles above my left eye on my forehead. They gave me awful migraines as well as pain in my lower left leg and muscle twitches along my face and body. I went to a neurologist and again had an MRI of the brain w/o contrast. It was normal. They treated me for nerve damage due to shingles. My migraines became much less frequent and severe, but never totally disappeared.

Fast forward to about a month and a half ago. I got horrible migraines, the worst in years. They were accompanied by numbness and tingling in my fingers and toes. I went to the ER. They gave me a CT scan (normal) and I was given a migraine cocktail. Basically all symptoms immediately subsided. After the drugs wore off, they came back.

I then started to get the numbness and tingling without the headaches, along with muscle twitches, sweating and a light feeling in my legs. (I can feel and move my legs, they just feel very light) Chest pain has somewhat returned. Went to a neurologist who did a FLAIR MRI of my brain and C-spine. Both were normal.

I am still getting the symptoms and have no idea what's going on. Stress has been suggested as I am going through a very stressful time in my life. Also, I do remember about 4 months ago being bitten by what looked like a tick to me. I do not remember if I had a rash.

Again sorry it's long. Any ideas anyone? Am I looking at Lyme? MS? Shingles nerve damage? Any help would be much appreciated. I am seriously worried about MS.

[jack12325]

Thank you both for answering me so quickly, I really appreciate it.

Yes, I am getting tested for Lyme disease and will have the results sometime next week. We shall see.

I have seen two neurologists about the problem. Both of them state my chances of having MS are relatively low as all my MRIs have been clear over the past years. I don't know what to think.

[jensequitur]

I would recommend testing for Lyme.  There's a specialized test that they do - I think it's called ELISA.  It's more reliable than the standard testing.

[Lulu54]

Hi Jack,  Welcome to the forum here.  You weren't long at all - sometimes it takes a lot of words to explain the situation.

It sounds like your doctors have taken all of your concerns seriously - that is a good thing

Have you asked the doctors about doing the test for Lyme disease?  It is known to be a very good mimic of MS.  Stress and also viruses can cause this type of tingling/numbness also. And believe it or not, migraines are an MS mimic.

The difficult thing about MS is it is a diagnosis of exclusion - the doctors test for everything and find out what it isn't and then looks at what is left.  It also can take a long time for lesions to become visible to the MRI technology we have available at this time.  

I hope that you can put this worry aside and get on with enjoying yourself and hope that the symptoms stay away.  Stress can be a horrible thing to live with and it is hard to lower the stress when you are worried about being ill with any major disease.  

Stay in touch and ask all the questions you want - we're more than happy to answer them if we can.

be well, Lulu