How do relapses work

Hi! I am new here.  Just want to start out by saying I'm glad I have found this forum.  I have found so much useful information and it's great how supportive everyone is of everyone else!

So my question is...How do relapses usually work?  Does a new symptom have to show up with each new relapse and is it just one symptom or can you have a relapse that are are things that happened in the last relapse and be a bunch of random sympoms?

  I think I may possibly have MS (but not sure yet, getting the usual "nothing is wrong with you", "it's stress", "you're depress" even though I know I'm not :/).  I've been dealing with a lot of random symptoms since 1998 (almost all of them seem to be the same exact things other people with MS have) and for the past couple of years I thought I was having what I thought could possibly be "Relapses" but now I'm not so sure.   The 1st one, for months on end I had really bad back pain, and other join pain along with really bad fatigue (I've been dealing with fatigue since 1998) but this was worse than usually.  It last for months but then come fall 2009 everything completely dissappeared.  Then, this past July all those same symptoms came back but also a bunch of other symptoms like dropping things, running into stationary things, foot not working when trying to brake while driving :/ (just to name a few) then come November the disappeared again except for this time the back pain stayed (but not as sever). Then just a couple weeks ago after doing serious exercing a lot of the same symptoms of last summer have returned but most of them aren't as bad as last time except for my speech problems seem to be worse.  But ever day is different.  The past 2 or 3 weeks, not one day has gone by that I don't experience something weird or feel like complete crap but each day is never the same.  Like maybe every other day I have really bad speech problems, then another day I have really bad back pain, another I keep getting electrical surge feelings, etc. Do these sound like relapses (or stuff that is common with MS or does it not sound like MS at all.

Thank you
:)

[COBOB]

For most docs, a "relapse" is a new symptom lasting more than 24 hours or the return of an old symptom that had resolved more than 30 days and lasting more than 24 hours.  Most docs don't look at symptoms like general pain or paresthesias.  

In my case, my last relapse was another round of optic neuritis, about 10 months after my first round.

Bob

[sllowe]

Hi there,

Welcome! I'm glad you like it here! I for one feel it's fab, lol

Where MS is concerned the answer to your question is all of the above. Symptoms can come, they can go, they can be a return of the old, they can be brandy new altogether. I have to say that these symptoms you describe are not exclusive to MS.

Key to MS relapses is that you and your doctor deciphering the symptoms/issues and determine if it's a relapse or a pseudo exacerbation that can go away not long after the trigger is removed, etc.  

Have you been to a doctor to describe what is going on with you?

Thanks for joining us,
shell

[LisaJF]

Welcome to the wonderful Medhelp forum world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Here you will find the coolest of people and, AND the smartest, and AND the most compassionate!

Relapses schmelapses.  They $uck the big one. (You can tell by my intelligence by how I can maneuver the filtering of bad words by using $@ signs).  Heh.

I will not repeat what the gurus already have told you.  I know you're not a slow person and you understood the second time around.  Remember, everyone is different and their experiences are not often the same "all" around.

Again, welcome to the forums!!!!

Sincerely

Lisa

[iambus]

Thank you for your responses!  

Those were just a few of my symptoms (didn't want to go into a long rambling about everything I experience because it would be a book lol).  Some of the main reasons why I feel I might have MS is, aside from just the general symptoms that msers have (like fatigue, sever muscule weakness, cognative problems, pain on one side of my body, numbness in hands, feet, arms and legs and so on) but over the past couple of years I seem to feel sick when it gets hot (and being someone who LOVES the heat and LOVES summer time) it has been frustrating :( Also, I don't get sick when normal people do, during winter or when "bugs" are going around but only seem to get colds during the summer and if I try to exercise more than 2 or 3 times a week (I love being active and exercising but any time I try to join a sports team that involves a lot of physical activity or I start exercing 4 or 5 times a week, every single time, about 2-3 weeks into it I get a really bad cold that lasts several weeks :/).  And the dropping things, tripping, running into doorways, my right foot not working when I tell it to kind of scares me.  

I had read a couple of articles that with relapses a new symptom appears, which the last two times I had stuff happen there were new things that lasted months but while some of them were constant every day, others would come and go within those months I was expereincing them.  This time around I don't think I've had anything new happen, just same as last time :/

I've seen many doctors trying to figure out whats wrong with me.  They usually just say "there's nothing wrong with you so it must be all in your head".  The last dr I saw the first thing I mentioned to him was the fatigue and right away he was like "oh, you're probably depressed" but I told him I wasn't. (with much resistance from him) I continues telling him some of the things that I was experiencing.  He asked if I dropped things and I said yes and then he asked if I ran into door frames and I said yes.  He responded by saying that it could be MS but he thinks its just depression but he'll order an MRI to rule MS out.  (I really got the impression that he thought I was making a lot of that stuff up).  He ordered a brain MRI, no contrast. It came back normal.  So he diagnosed me with depression (which I don't have) :/ He was very rude to me so I'm a little apprehensive about spending more money I don't have to go to another dr in fear that the same thing will happen :/ But I've been experiencing such bad fatigue, pain, speech problems, etc that it really is hard for me at work and I've been having to miss class :(