foot drag-but I don't have MS

[thephotobug]

I am 50 female I have had MRI,MRA,CT,EEG,evoked potentials,spinal tap,recently told you do not have MS.  I have white spots on my brain, an abnormal EEG, was told that my MRA results were not complete due to prior eye surgery (I have never had surgery) My problem and question is I continue to have symptoms including that last anywhere from seconds to 1 minute that are not daily: left eye blur in one spot (like a thumb print), needle and pin sensations in different parts of my feet, stressed or tired feeling in my left eye, numbness in part of my hand, or from the knee down, bright lights hurt my head, stabbing pain in a toe, pain in vein across the top of my head, the latest thing that happened occurred last night while walking I went to step and my left toes drug across the concrete.  I am afraid!  I don't won't to have a problem my doctor looked at me and said "you are to old to have MS"  believe me that is fine but I just want to know what is wrong and what I should do now.  Please help!!!!

[Lulu54]

this is from my favorite site to understand tests -

http://labtestsonline.org/understanding/conditions/lyme.html

check it out.  We have had a few people pass through here thinking MS and it turned out to be Lyme.... it is quite the mimic.

be well,
Lulu

[thephotobug]

I can't tell you how wonderful it is to be able to talk with you guys because you are helping me to make sense of these issues.  Believe me I'm not going to leave long before I  ever posted I read many of your entries.  Quix  had mentioned Lyme disease earlier and I had actually wondered about that before we do a lot of camping but I don't remember being bitten by a tick would that show up in normal blood work or is it something you request?  Anyway, I'll keep checking in with updates and to chat.. I think I've found new friends.
Debbie

[Deb61]

I teach, too, but I don't have the energy to teach kindergarten--God bless you.  With the thyroid out of whack, I don't know how you do it.  I felt miserable when I was hypothyroid.   I'm glad the Topamax is working.  I hated it.  I was drooling out of the side of my mouth--no kidding!  It made me a zombie and I'd fall asleep at my desk at my computer during my conference time!  Thank goodness  nobody noticed.  I got off the drug and went to see a neurologist who specialized in headaches.  He did help me out a lot with my mirgraines.  I went from having them daily to having them one or two every three months.  Now, I just take Inderal for prevention.  

I'm with Lulu--you don't have to leave us!  You are welcome to stay!  Plus, you may have other neurological symptoms to ask about, and there's lots of people that know quite a bit about those kinds of things on this site.  

Vent all you want!  In no way are you whining!  This forum has helped me tremendously when I had questions.  

Debbie used to be a very popular name growing up!  There would be at least one (and usually two) kids in the same class with our name.  

Deb

[Lulu54]

Debbie,
Just because we don't think you have MS doesn't mean you have to leave us :-)

You are welcome here any time you want to vent or ask questions.  Many of our community members have multiple medical issues, including migraines and thyroid problems.  And someone ALWAYS has an educated guess as to what to suggest you look at next.  

Here's hoping you feel better - kindergarten teachers need all the energy they can muster to get through each and every day!
be well,
Lulu

[thephotobug]

Hi Deb,

I am Debbie as well!  Thanks for all your help!  I did start synthroid but a very low initial dose 25mcg  my thyroid test result was 7.23 I go back in a week for my second blood work up but apparently it has been low since I was in the hospital back in Sept. of last year however they focused on making sure I wasn't having a stroke, getting my migraines under control (I was having 14 in about a three week period) and trying to teach kindergarten!  That was a feat in itself!!!  I started Topamax 25 per day and now have 2-3 breakthrough migraines a month!  Much, Much better.  I guess I thought all my problems would be gone.  Anyway I am going to quit whining now and live my life!  (Smile)  Again my many thanks go out to all the wonder people who have helped me here if nothing else just by letting me vent!  

[Deb61]

I have hypothyroidism and I can tell you that it can cause lots of neurological symptoms, fatigue, and a host of other problems.  Have you started medicine for it yet?  

Migraines have been none to cause brain lesions as well.  I have those, too.

The human body is very complex, and when things go wrong it is very difficult to determine what the problem is because many symptoms of one disorder can overlap with others.  I have MS in addition to the problems stated above.  Lulu and Quix are right--MS symptoms last more than 24 hours.  That's how I know if I'm having trouble with my MS.

Deb

[thephotobug]

Thanks so much for responding to me!  Maybe I am being hyperaware of all these sensations.  I understand you were not being flippant about anxiety but we have already discussed that issue as well as complete blood workup. ( I just forgot to include that.)  
The problems with my eye are a daily occurrence with the weird reading from the radiologist would you at this point continue to try and find an answer to what may be going on with it if you were me?  I also forgot to tell you that they found that I have hypothyroid, and complex migraines.  Maybe either of these conditions can account for some of the things that are happening to me.  I will go on to tell you that whatever is wrong with me I will be all I can be.  If anyone had taken the time to explain any of the things you did I wouldn't have had to write here.  Thanks for everything!  My prayers are with you!

[Quixotic1]

Hi, Glad you stopped in to ask your questions.  I totally agree with Lulu.  There is NO upper age on the beginning of MS.  Several of us in our 50's and 60's with new diagnoses are here to prove it.  It has been seen to begin well into the 70's and has been diagnosed in people in their 80's.

BUT, the kind of symptoms you are having are not at all typical of MS.  MS does its damage through actual damage to nerves.  Thus, the symptoms of MS last for longer periods of time.  They don't occur in seconds or minutes and they don't dance around.

Without having symptoms that suggest MS, it is hard to worry about the one white spot on the MRI.   It is true that by our 50's many people do develop bright lesions in the brain.

Did your neurologist do any blood testing?  Things that should be checked out include hormones, vitamin deficiencies and infections.  Many of your symptoms sound like Lyme Disease.  We have a Lyme Disease Forum you might discuss your symptoms with.

Then, Lulu is also right, that when we become worried about something like MS, we may become overly sensitive to the normal sensations in our body and we may even cause them to seem abnormal if we concentrate on them too much.  All people have transient areas of numbness, shooting pains, muscles that seem to act up and little visual stuff.  The more we focus on all of them, the more we notice.

I am always reluctant to suggest anxiety, but that is a possibility with symptoms and sensations that are so fleeting and that move around so much.  That is something that you need to assess.  If there is any possiblity that there is real anxiety here - even if you feel that it is BECAUSE of the the symptoms, you might try a short course of therapy for the anxiety and see if the symptoms melt away.  If they don't, then you can pursue this further.

I am not being flippant when I talk about anxiety.  It can be a very real problem and plague a person.  And I also know that having symptoms or sensations we don't understand can cause anxiety.  Part of the solution is to try to understand which is which.

If you truly feel that you are not being hyperaware of all of your sensations, then ask the neurologist if you have been thoroughly tested for those things that can cause brief, changing symptoms like you have had.  Especially you might ask for a Western Blot for Lyme Disease.

Lulu is right when she says that fear can rob you of your present quality of life.  I honestly, as a physician, will tell you that nothing you have told us sounds like MS.

I hope this helps.  Good luck.

Quix

[Lulu54]

Hi photobug,Your doctor is WRONG, WRONG , WRONG! There is no age limit to MS - you can be young or you can be old when the symptoms present themselves enough to be diagnosed.  There are several of us here that got our dx after 50, including myself at almost 54.  

If your symptoms are lasting for just that fleeting moment, up to a minute, I would guess that they are not related to MS.  But that is just my non-doctor guess.  MS symptoms don't pass through that quickly.  

You may very well be experiencing a hyper-awareness to things that happen in our body all the time but are accentuated now that you are wondering if it could be MS. The only way to know for sure is to continue working with a doctor who will look at all the neurological signs and try to find a cause for your problems.  

Please put your fear aside, it can paralyze you emotionally and keep you from getting on with your life.  Having MS s ucks but its not the end of the world either.  I hope you will take some time to read our health pages, located via the yellow icon on the upper right sideo f this page, to learn more.  

Stop through and ask any questions you might have - we are here to share with everyone.
My best,
Lulu