MS or Back Problems?

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I'm a 41 year old female with possible MS.  I have several symptoms (loss of balance, vertigo, headaches, muscle twitches and spasms, tremors, etc.).  The worse new symptom starting around 3 or 4 months ago was going from stress incontenince (sp?) to total incontenince.  My mother died 6 months ago so I have been under a lot of stress lately.  My family doctor sent me to a neuro doc.  I have had a VER (normal), a ton of blood work (sed rate elevated, Vit. B12 a little low), and a brain MRI (see results below).  In the office visit, the doctor said that I had "brisk" reflexes and that this was not normal (I'm very heavy and she said that my reflexes were very quick to respond and that they were very sharp).  She suspects MS but has not made the official diagnosis.  I've had symptoms on and off for years.  Sometimes my legs feel like there is a vibrator inside them (such a strange feeling).  There are times that I feel an electrical shock run down my body, causing my arm and then my left to jerk (always on the same side).  I've been experiencing double and blurred vision.  I have felt for years that something was not quite "right" with me, but my doc just blamed my weight (5' 2" tall, 280 lbs), stress, and so forth.  Only with the new symptoms that have come forward in the last few months did she send me to the neuro doc.  A small snapshot of the timeline of symptoms:  At the age approximately 19-23 years, I started to fall easily.  Not much else, just "clumsy."  In around 1995 (age 28-29) I started having vertigo and abnormal muscle cramps.  By 2000, I would have period of being really tired, having trouble walking (legs felt like tree stumps - just so heavy and hard to put one foot in front of the other) and other small things.  I continued with the "flare ups" of the vertigo since they started in 1995.  I always felt something was wrong and kept asking my GP (I got a new one in 2002) to check me out for something, because something had to be wrong.  They ruled out lupus, RA, and so forth.  Nothing was showing up, but MS was never mentioned.  I never had a lot of symptoms at one time, just different ones or maybe an old one with something new every now and then.  About 2 1/2 years ago is when I noticed the "vibration" in my legs on occasion.  When my mother passed in June 2007, a VERY difficult time for me, I noticed in August/September that I was having multiple symptoms of something.  My arms and legs would jerk (not all at the same time).  My vision was starting to blur (I have new glasses - about a year old now) and most of all, the loss of urine control.  In hindsight, if I am diagnosed with MS, is that I've probably had it for quite a few years now.

MRI Results:

First is the MRI of brain on 1/24/08:

"No midline shift is noted.  No extraxial fluid collections are noted.  No signs of acute hemorrhage noted.  No signs of acute infarction is noted.  There are scattered abnormal areas of increased signal are noted on the T2 axial images and the coronal FLAIR images, which may be related to migraine headaches, ischemic changes, or possibly demyelinating disease.  However, this is not specific."

MRI - Total Spine with and without contrast 1/31/08:

1.  At the C5-6 level, mild diffuse non-compressive posterior disc bulge is demonstrated.  No other levels of engenerative disc disease or osseous pathology of hte cervical spine is present.  Cervical portion of the spinal cord is normal in signal intensity and appearance without evidence of pathology.  No evidence of demyelinating white matter disease involving the cervical protion of the spinal cord is demonstrated.

2.  At the T11-12 vertebral level, there is right paracentral broad based disc protrusion resulting in extrinsic mass effect of the right ventral surface of the conus medullaris which my account for thepatient's neurologic symptoms.

3.  At the T12-L1 vertebral level, right paracentral broad based disc protrusion results in right sided foraminal stenosis.  

4.  At the L3-4 level, diffuse posterior disc bulge results in a moderate degree of central canal and bilateral foraminal stenosis.

5.  At the L4-5 level, braod based central disc protrusion results in a moderate to severe degree of central canal and bilateral foraminal stenosis.  At the L5-S1 level, mild diffuse non-compressive posterior disc bulge is demonstrated.

6.  No pathologic focus of abnormal contrast enhancement on the post constrasted study.  No evidence of osseous pathology involving the lumbar spine.

7.  At the T11-12 level, moderate sized broad based right paracentral disc protrusion results in an extrinsic mass effect on the right ventral surface of the conus medullaris.

8.  At the T12-L1 level, broad based right paracentral disc protrusion results in right sided foraminal stenosis.

9.  at the T10-11, mild diffuse non-compressive posterior disc bulge is demonstrated.

10.  No other levels of degenerative disc disease or osseous pathology are present.  The thorasic portion of the spinal cord is normal in signal intensity and appearance without evidence of pathology.  No evidence for demyelinating white matter disease is present.

Do you think that all of my symptoms could be coming from my back or is it still possible that I have MS along with the back problems?  I would appreciate any info that you could provide me.

[catloverwv]

Dr. Abhijeet, any suggestions or comments?  Please.

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Is anyone out there?

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If anyone can take a look at my results and offer any comments I would be so greatful!