MS/neuro symptoms after childbirth?

[MRSNURSE69]

Hi all,

Sorry if this is a bit long but I just want to see if I can get anyone's feedback as to what I am going through and whether or not it sounds like MS, as I am being tested for it and I am very nervous...

I gave birth in early September of this year. I was in labor 19 hours but ended up having a c-section. While in the hospital when I got out of recovery and into my hospital room, I experienced trouble focusing my eyesight on things which I assumed was from all the medication I got. A few days after getting home from the hospital, I began feeling tightness/pressure/squeezing in my upper back that would radiate around to the front of my chest right under my rib cage and sternum. This pain would come and go and last anywhere from 15 minutes to 1 hour and it went away after a few days. After looking online could this have been an "MS hug?"

After a few days I felt okay for the most part minus some tingling in the legs when I woke up in the morning that went away as the day went on as I walked more (I had 25lbs of fluid retained from childbirth from my hips down to my feet and couldn't even bend my legs from how swollen they were- lasted about 1 week then swelling went away)

About 1 and a half months postpartum, I started feeling weakness in my legs in the morning like they were going to give out on me but gradually got better as the way went on. The serious weakness only lasted a day or so, but my legs still don't feel very strong up until now. Then out of nowhere a few days later I would feel little twitches randomly all over my body(fasciculations ). They come and go rarely and I would mostly feel them after going for a long walk in my legs, but at rest they come (again rarely) in arms, eyelid, face, thigh, shoulders and all over basically.

Another symptom I had was a strong feeling of a pulled muscle in my right hip that had lasted a day where I was basically limping, again-this went away too. Eventually the same thing started happening in the left leg/hip and that went away too.

Yet another symptom: Mostly when I sleep, I'll wake up and my body feels like its burning up inside but my skin is actually cool to the touch. I also cannot really tell when my bladder is full like I used to before the operation.

Once or twice since surgery, I have had tinnitus in my right ear and I also had the same sensation I had in the hospital of my eyes not being able to focus on objects (when I go to look at an object, my eyes feel like they sway back and forth like jello for 1-3 seconds before it actually focuses on the object).

I also have this sensation of burning in both buttocks (sometimes 1, sometimes both). It's like a burning/stinging paint that comes and goes. I don't think its sciatica because it doesn't radiate down legs...

My Neurologist has sent me for MRI of cervical and lumbar spine (Lumbar came back normal, cervical came back with a few pinched nerves and a small lesion- he then ordered an MRI of brain which I am waiting for results.) I had an EMG test and EVP test done as well (awaiting results).

Do any of these symptoms sound like MS? I am very worried.
Thanks for any advice.

[HVAC]

Usually MS symptoms do not occur right after birth. Usually women with MS have symptoms go away during pregnancy and come back 6-9 months after giving birth. Researchers
have even tried to recreate the pregnancy hormones to give to MS patients to help with the MS.
Alex

[supermum_ms]

Hi and welcome to our little MS community,

As i was reading through your experiences i honestly didn't see anything really that stood out as MSish, you've basically  described the red flags that point away from conditions like MS eg too many different issues for a first presentation, too wide spread all over symptoms, multiplying in a short time frame, lasting seconds, changing from one issue to another, unrelated (swelling), bilateral/symmetrical etc

In a short time frame your body is trying to recover from an operation and get back to normal, your body is having to also deal with being sleep deprived, hormonal fluctuations and possibly vitamin deficientcy if your also breast feeding too.....it genuinely sounds like what can happen after a C section combined with spinal issues affecting your peripheral nervous system, it's not surprising your spinal MRI found pinched nerves.

The small 'spinal lesion' may be significant in relation to MS but 'spinal lesion' is a term given to an abnormal change which occurs in tissue or organs, and can be caused by a disease or injury, so it really depends on what type of spinal lesion it is and it's location eg benign Schwannomas are outside the spinal cord, demyelinating MS lesions are inside the spinal cord. Do you know what type of lesion it is?

Try if you can to not worry too much, it can be very scary but it genuinely might not be a neurological condition like MS....get lots of hugs and breath!

Hope that helps.......JJ