can a relapse last this LONG???

[JoelleB1]

Hey...

Ive been lurking since June when I started having werid symptoms...now its Nov...and I still have the same symptoms.  I have a normal MRI of head...and had a CSpine MRI where they found a ruptured disc a C5-6 with compression of the spinal cord.  My neuro surgeon wants to do surgery since traction didnt help, and he said my symptoms of off balance, clumsy hands, weak arms, numbness mostly on left side of body (which I havent felt in awhile) can all be related to the cord compression, a mild form of cervical mylopethy.  More recently I have had a burning bottom half of my lip, and left front part of my tongue, which he said isnt related to the cervical issue.  Im just worried this is MS.  I hope to God it isnt and would love it to just be my neck, but I dont want to go through surgery only to find out afterwards that the symptoms are MS.  I am having him order another head MRI to make sure it is still clear.  But I guess my question is...with so many initial symptoms, and a clear MRI of head and no lesions in my spinal cord, would it be more probable that the symptoms are from the neck?  Has anyone heard of a MS attack lasting almost 6 months???

[JonM]

Haven't heard of an attack lasting that long.  If you have a ruptured disk up there, that is likely the cause.  I'm not a doctor but it seems plausible that the lip and tongue symptoms could easily be related to the same cord compression.  Any cord damage whether from a lesion or from compression can affect everything below it,  The higher up the spine it is the more of you it can affect.

Jon

[Wobbly]

Hi there, have you had a MRI of you "thorac" spine area...just below you C spine...?  

do your symptoms seem to improve then get worse at times.... I have heard of people having symptoms for this long.... not sure if it can help with any answers though.

maybe someone with more info will jump in too... ask for a MRI of your complete spine too.

keep track of your symptoms ...
take care
wobbly
undx

[JulesL5S1]

I too have a bulging disk at C6.  If your disk is actually ruptured then you should seriously consider the surgery.  There is a difference between a bulging disk or a disk that has ruptured/fragmented.  i.e. is the disk still intact, just protruding into the spinal canal?  I had a disk at L5/S1 that actually ruptured/fragmented in that the disk broke into pieces and those pieces fell into my spinal canal.

My neurosurgeon is not operating at this time because he believes that I have MS.  My meurologist is working to further determine if I have MS.  

However, I did discuss with my neurosurgeon the problems that I had with my L5/S1 disk.  And he will consider operating even if I do have MS, we just need to wait for more tests.

I learned about the C6 disk in September.  Prior to then I was having increasing problems with my hands/arms in addition to my legs.  Knowing now that I have a bulging disk at C6 I am "hoping" that many of my problems relate to that.  I have noticed that in some chairs my arms are more numb than in other chairs.  That suggests the C6 is aggravating things.  i.e. the chairs have different impact on my spinal canal.  Also, I am noticing that in the morning when I wake I tend to roll onto my stomach and put my arms over my head (who knows why?).  Then as I become more awake I notice that my arms are basically numb.  I suspect again that the C6 disk is aggravating things.  And I have almost a constant ache in my upper arms.  It's a constant ache, varies from 2-5 on the 0-10 pain scale.  With my L5/S1 disk the pain was intense, 10+ on the same scale.  So I was not thinking disk problem when this began.  

Review your symptoms and see if certain activities or positions make the numbness worse.  

Talk honestly with your neurosurgeon - which it sounds like you have a good partnership with him/her.  

Feel free to contact me offline if you want.

Cheers, Jules

[Quixotic1]

Hi,  I have a couple of remarks.  First, the sensation in your lips and tongue are handled by cranial nerves arrising from the brainstem - MUCH higher up than the C5-6 problem.  The cervical disc thing cannot cause those problems.

About the relapse lasting 4+ months.  There is no reason why lesions cannot continue to cause symptoms for many months to years.  But, you may be dealing with something other than the usual notion of relapse.  If you read the Health Page on Relapses, you 'll see that a relapse ends when the symptoms improve or resolve.  BUT, sometimes the symptoms merely "stabilize" during a remission.  There is no requirement that the symptoms completely or mostly resolve.  We would like them to, but that is not always the case.

A remission may be going on when the acute symptoms of the relapse merely stabilize in an ongoing pattern.

So, I would say that a 4 or 6 month relapse is quite possible, but also that you may be in a remission in which the symptoms have stabilized at a certain level.  Does that make sense?

Your neurosurgeon sounds good.  I think he is taking good care of you and giving you great information.

Quix

[lbradley35]

Hi,

I have has Ms for 13 years, What I didn't know was that I had three ruptured disk at C2,3,4.  I had a bad neurologist at the time and he has been keeping it from me for several years. As the rupture got worse it began cut the nerve, and was stopping blood and spinal fluid to the right side of my brain.

I thought my MS was just more and more severe, but it was the rupture. I had surgery - they used donor bone and a metal plate - because they had to go through my throat. When I woke up from surgery that night- I felt wonderful. I still have some stiffness, but no severe nerve pain in my body like I had before the surgery.

My mom just recently had the same injured disk repaired on her back. She is 65 and she called me saying I think I have MS - we even were taking some of the same drugs. So check it out, my mom and I are both 100% better than we were before the surgery and you only have to stay one might in the hospital.

Lori