What else could this be, apart from MS although i know it sounds exactly like it!!!

[sammycung]

I have so many symptoms, where do I start.
Ok, so it started when I was 17, I started to get a strange white cloudy vision that lasted months, I told somebody about it and they said it could have been from the eye liner I was wearing, so I stopped wearing it all together and it still stayed there for weeks. I went to an eye doctor and she checked everything and all appeared fine so I described how it felt exactly and she started asking me if I had tingling on my other skin and I knew why she was asking me. The foggy/cloudy vision lasted for a while and then went away and I didn't experience in again until now (20 years of age).

Ok, so I had my daughter 7 and half months ago and all these strange symptoms started to appear when she was about 3 months old. The first symptom was I was sitting on the couch with my legs on the table as a rest and I started to notice a jerk in my legs occasionally, then it progressed to the rest of my body over days, so then I have jerky involuntary movement’s everyday and I still have today, 4 months later. Not long after, I started to experience muscle twitches all over my body and again I’m still experiencing them. Then I started to notice waves of tingling over my body, the main area was my scalp, arms, legs and face. That went on for ages and then slowed down and instead of it being every day it was only every few days to now just occasionally.  I started to experience a different type of tingling it feels like little tingles that would come for a second and go, kind of like little zap/tingles, it just happened then on my thigh & It seems to happen in the same places every time, like I get one on my armpit, my thigh, the one I just talked about, my arms feet etc.

I sometimes get buzzing sensations around my body, mainly my thighs. Very often I get very painful pins and needles in my heels and on the tops of my feet.

For 4 weeks I experienced really bad balance/wooziness to the point when I was standing in the chemist I had to hold onto a box that was next to me because I could hardly hold myself up. When I would stand still I would sway uncontrollably and feel uneasy. That has just in the last few days started to clear but I don't feel 100% stable still. I often get extreme bouts of vertigo, so bad that I have to sit or I will fall, this happens allot when I am in the kitchen cooking. To elaborate on the vertigo, it isn't the spinning vertigo it is the sensation of swaying when you are still. I very often feel very woozy/lightheaded and I don't suffer from low blood pressure, it's strange it just come on and because it make me woozy it tends to make me feel nauseous and feel just generally unwell. If I am sitting down and I lift my foot up into a tipi-toe position my foot/ankle starts to tremor uncontrollably until I put it back into it's normal position; also the same thing happens with my hand, shoulders and other parts of my body when I do certain moments.

I sometimes get severe itchiness around my body but it is not the normal type of itch, I have never experienced it before, it's like an electric stinging type of itch???
I get extremely easily fatigued just when I go down the road to get some things. I always wake up through the night to pee like 10000 times and I pee so many times during the day; half the time I got to the toilet and a drop will come out, or I will finish and stand and feel as though I still need to go. I also get an urgency to do number two's and I get there and nothing happens even though I had such a strong urge. I sometimes get hot pains and cold sensations around my body, mainly arms and legs oh and get a numb patch on my thigh.
I had weakness in my right arm for like a month and lost fine movement in that hand, simple things like reaching to turn the CD player down was hard and I would miss the button when I reach for it. Oooh and one last symptom around the time all of this started, I started to get derealisation chronic for the whole time up until a few weeks ago, in case you didn't know "derealisation" is the feeling of being in a dream constantly and being detached from reality.  

Another few symptoms i forgot to mention. My thigh muscles on both legs have increased muscle tone, i beleive it is called hypertonia, i also get a tight squeezing sensation in them. I get muscle aches around my body, especially my arms and also legs. When i run my hands under boiling hot water they get a buzzing sensation in them for like a minute after.
*I get facial pain in my cheeks.  
*I get strange goose bumps around my body when i'm not cold.
*I "very" often have problems with words, i stutter, say the wrong words or can't even think of words, this has also only been going on the last few months.
*I have had restless leg syndrome twice in the last 3 months, i have never before expirienced that in my life.
*I have overreactive reflexes.
*I often smell bad smells that nobody else smells, i beleive this is called phantom smells.
*I sometimes have something weird happen to my right hand, my fingers seem to move on there on, like a reflex in  that hand is pulled, i dont know..?
I have many more symptoms but can’t bring them to mind.

I have had a MRI on my brain and that appeared clear, i have all the blood work in the world done and that’s clear.

I am awaiting a Spinal MRI and a Spinal tap.

I do have back problems that could account for some of my symptoms:
I have scoliosis
I have neck lordosis
I have spondylosis
And i also have spondylothesis
But not all of the above back problems even cause symptoms.

Ever since I found out there was a possibility I could have MS because a stupid doctor mentioned it, i have had anxiety and depression over it. I have been on anti-depressants for a like 2 months now and the anxiety is gone, but the symptoms are still there.

If that doesn't sound like MS to you, well ill be damned!

Sammy....

[sammycung]

Hey, yeah i am getting a spinal tap and spinal MRI soonish. Can i ask you what your MS symptoms are???
all of them please

Sammy xx

[maggs970]

hi sammy i think it would be a good idea to get an mri of your spine, i have had alot of similar symptoms to yourself but others as well, i have a few lesions in my spinal cord but none in my brain i was diagnosed last friday with rr ms im not saying you have ms but think to rule it out you should maybe request an mri of your spine all the best maggs.

[sammycung]

Yes, thank you very much :)

[Karen99]

Hi.  It is believed that hormone fluctuations after giving birth, or the stress of having a newborn is the cause for worsening of symptoms of MS.  As you probably know, your body releases some type of hormone so the fetus is not recognized by your body as  foreign and expel it.  Once you give birth this hormone decreases rapidly and sometimes caused the first manifestation of MS, a worsening of symptoms, or a full relapse.

I've had a busy day and am very tired.  I hope I've explained why the worsening of symptoms often happens after giving birth.

Be well.    

[sammycung]

Hey, yeah i have had an ANA test done. I'm not really sure what you means and why your more prone to MS after having a bub?

[scaredguy309]

By wait and see i mean keep trying to get your diagnosis and don't give up. Your best chance of getting it is testing when you symptoms are most intense. Also forgot to mention that just after giving birth, you are more prone to autoimmunes such as ms. Its cuz during pregnancy your immune system is suppressed hormonally. After the suppression stops, its prone to going into overdrive.

[scaredguy309]

Hey sammy, all of what you mentioned could be ms but maybe you should consider researching all the mimics eg. b12 deficiency and lupus. By the way, have you had an ana done or tested for lyme's disease (another mimic)? The thing with many autoimmune is they're just hard to diagnose as sometimes the associated inflammatiry processes aren't great enough in the beginning to yeild positive results. So in many cases ya just have to take a wait n see approach.