MS or Meningitis?

[AceOrion]

Hi,
I'm a 28 year old female. I have been having neurological symptoms for about 4 years, these last 2 years have shown me periods of memory loss, confusion, balance problems. My legs and arms frequently feel "tired". And I've started to have muscle twitches in all of my muscles including my face and tongue. I particularly have pain/twitches/spams in my midback just below my shoulder blades and sometimes in the sides of my ribs. And terrible cramping pain in my stomach that comes and goes for no reason.

I was diagnosed as having viral meningitis in 2004 and they did a Spinal Tap. Here are the results, "CSF showed a glucose of 57, protein of 100. Gram stain showed organisms, no PMN's, white blood cells 196, with a differential of 95% lymphocytes and red blood cells 4."

I am basically concerned that this could have been an episode of MS, but was misdiagnosed. At the time I did have a splitting headache in the front of my head, but my legs also collapsed on me and I had to hang onto a handrail in order to avoid falling down the stairs. I also was vomiting so badly, from the pain, that they admitted me to the hospital for 3 days.

I had an MRI of my brain with contrast in January of 2009 and was told it was normal. I had tons of blood work done, and the only abnormalities were an IGG level of 42 (shows a positive is >17). I've had a low B12 for over a year, despite taking a supplement. Normal range on my tests is 247-911 and mine is 255. I was tested for celiac and was told it was negative (both blood work and endoscopy). My most recent bloodwork shows a Alkaline Phosphatese level that is 123 (normal range on test is 38-110). Vitamin D, 25-Hydroxy is 9 (normal range 30-150). Free T4 is .7 (normal is .9-1.8). I also was told I had low Calcium and Chloride (?) but I don't have these results at this time.

I'm currently seeing a rheumatologist that I trust. My question is, should I push to have another MRI or spinal tap, do any of these results point to MS?

[AceOrion]

BUMP

[AceOrion]

My B-12 has been low since at least 2009 when they first checked it. At that time it was 300 with normal range of 200-1100. This lab has a note that values below 400 may have symptoms.

I was seeing a neurologist. He basically told me not to come back. He said, "We're not saying that you don't have a condition, but at this time we don't have an answer. Come back if you have more symptoms." His attitude leads me to think that he doesn't believe me. He said to get evaluated for fibromyalgia. That's the rheumatologist I'm seeing, who is a leading researcher in Fibro. He says definately not fibromyalgia and we're still in the testing phase for other stuff.

P.S. I forgot to note that that IGG reference was for a Gliadin Antibody.

[Audrey_M]

Your question is whether you should push to have another MRI or spinal tap to address the overall question of MS or Meningitis.

Reading your post, 2 things stood out.

First, you mention low B-12, despite taking a supplement. Do you know if your B-12 level has been low going back to when you first started having Sx? Low B-12 is one of the great MS mimics.

Second, I noticed that you are seeing a rheumatologist that you trust. It might be relevant to understand why you are seeing a rheumatologist and whether or not you should be seeing another type of specialist, such as a neurlogist or hematologist.