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MS symptoms with fever
Hi all. I'm new here and undiagnosed with some odd neurological stuff. I've had symptoms accumulating for over 20 years, but it wasn't until this summer that they happened to show up in quick succession over the last two months that it made me realizing they might all be related.
I've been running this fever for three to five years now that I originally thought were early mini hot flashes. About two months ago, I found out by accident they were not hot flashes at all, but a low grade fever spiking.
Before all the craziness let loose in my body, I was feeling very tired, had horrible brain fog, and was urinating frequently. Because of this, I saw the doc for a possible UTI and he put me on Bactrim just in case while my urine was sent off to the lab and then they did a bladder and renal ultrasound to check for kidney stones or signs of infection. No UTI, and no stones.
During the treatment with Bactrim, I started having paresthesias that came in patches all over my body, but mostly in the feet and legs, then arm, hands and shoulders. The fever never went away, nor did the urinary frequency. But the last day of the Bactrim and the day after, the paresthesias only came on if I moved a certain way (bent over of looked down) or when I got startled, then I'd have prickling sensations in my palms and soles of my feet. They were almost gone.
The next day I went in the sauna and it all went crazy. Paresthesias increased and spread, spasticity started in legs, feet and left forearm, drunken walking, vertigo, nausea, weakness, ataxia, near fainting spells, quadriceps weakness and inability to stand longer than 15 minutes without feeling like my knees would buckle. You name it. If it's neurological, it's happening somewhere in my body, blurred vision, ringing in the ears, etc.
Ever since then, things have come and gone following the pattern of fever spikes. I get a fever for one, two, maybe three days, then it goes back down below 100, but rarely below normal and usually only first thing in the morning. Shortly before or in the beginning of a fever recurrence, I'll get a flu-like fatigue with brain fog. Then the symptoms either increase, or new ones show up, or old ones spread into new areas - like the twitches and spasms. I've been having an attack every week with a fever for the last two months. It's spread so far, there is little left in my body that isn't affected by spasms, twitches, or paresthesias. The most pronounced spasticity by far is in the legs and feet, followed by hands and forearms, and then on up the chain.
After the fever subsides, the symptoms start to wane gradually, and then another fever spike with all the rest. The focus of every attack is different. One week it will be trigeminal, the next below the waist, the next will be abdominal or tremors, or, or , or . . . When a new symptom shows up, it's usually the worst in the beginning, and subsequent occurrences are not as intense, but spread to farther reaches. For example, I had a really strong lower abdominal spasm when this symptom first appeared. It lasted about 20 minutes and had me panting like a woman in labor. The next attack that hit that area, the spasm was then in the middle and upper abdomen instead as well as the lower and included uterine cramping, but all were milder that the first occurrence. When it first hit my legs, I could barely walk, climb the stairs, stand for long periods of time, but subsequent attacks have seen this spread only with less intensity. When a new symptom appears, it will take at least three weeks to clear completely or to the background noise level - like the ataxia, loss of balance, and drunken walking. They are now gone after having hit hard two months ago. Does this make sense?
I've been seeing a neurologist and infectious disease specialist. Almost every test they've done so far has come back normal. There were some abnormalities on VNG and BAER, and maybe a possible lesion in my cervical spinal cord. But as that was not imaged (it was on a brain MRI) it only showed up in one view and it's been suggested this should get another look with a spinal cord MRI.
And then after visiting with an MS doc who said I have no brain lesions, therefore I have no MS, I returned home and viola! One of my wrists all of a sudden was painful, swollen, stiff and warm. There was only a mild swelling with no redness, but painful enough I could barely open a pill bottle. After waking up the next morning, it was feeling much better, but still later in the day is stiff and painful with motion.
Any clues on what this could be? I've been tested for thyroid, lymes, ebv, cmv, bartonella, brucellosis, ANA, RF, bacterial cultures of blood and urine, mono, and everything was normal. The CBC, WBC and electrolytes were all normal. The brain MRI was normal. EEG, normal.
Since the wrist thing and the fever (hasn't yet gone over 101F) over the last seven days, they did another CBC with ANCA, RF, uric acid and another blood culture. Those results will be coming in a few days. Any ideas on what this could be?
I've been running this fever for three to five years now that I originally thought were early mini hot flashes. About two months ago, I found out by accident they were not hot flashes at all, but a low grade fever spiking.
Before all the craziness let loose in my body, I was feeling very tired, had horrible brain fog, and was urinating frequently. Because of this, I saw the doc for a possible UTI and he put me on Bactrim just in case while my urine was sent off to the lab and then they did a bladder and renal ultrasound to check for kidney stones or signs of infection. No UTI, and no stones.
During the treatment with Bactrim, I started having paresthesias that came in patches all over my body, but mostly in the feet and legs, then arm, hands and shoulders. The fever never went away, nor did the urinary frequency. But the last day of the Bactrim and the day after, the paresthesias only came on if I moved a certain way (bent over of looked down) or when I got startled, then I'd have prickling sensations in my palms and soles of my feet. They were almost gone.
The next day I went in the sauna and it all went crazy. Paresthesias increased and spread, spasticity started in legs, feet and left forearm, drunken walking, vertigo, nausea, weakness, ataxia, near fainting spells, quadriceps weakness and inability to stand longer than 15 minutes without feeling like my knees would buckle. You name it. If it's neurological, it's happening somewhere in my body, blurred vision, ringing in the ears, etc.
Ever since then, things have come and gone following the pattern of fever spikes. I get a fever for one, two, maybe three days, then it goes back down below 100, but rarely below normal and usually only first thing in the morning. Shortly before or in the beginning of a fever recurrence, I'll get a flu-like fatigue with brain fog. Then the symptoms either increase, or new ones show up, or old ones spread into new areas - like the twitches and spasms. I've been having an attack every week with a fever for the last two months. It's spread so far, there is little left in my body that isn't affected by spasms, twitches, or paresthesias. The most pronounced spasticity by far is in the legs and feet, followed by hands and forearms, and then on up the chain.
After the fever subsides, the symptoms start to wane gradually, and then another fever spike with all the rest. The focus of every attack is different. One week it will be trigeminal, the next below the waist, the next will be abdominal or tremors, or, or , or . . . When a new symptom shows up, it's usually the worst in the beginning, and subsequent occurrences are not as intense, but spread to farther reaches. For example, I had a really strong lower abdominal spasm when this symptom first appeared. It lasted about 20 minutes and had me panting like a woman in labor. The next attack that hit that area, the spasm was then in the middle and upper abdomen instead as well as the lower and included uterine cramping, but all were milder that the first occurrence. When it first hit my legs, I could barely walk, climb the stairs, stand for long periods of time, but subsequent attacks have seen this spread only with less intensity. When a new symptom appears, it will take at least three weeks to clear completely or to the background noise level - like the ataxia, loss of balance, and drunken walking. They are now gone after having hit hard two months ago. Does this make sense?
I've been seeing a neurologist and infectious disease specialist. Almost every test they've done so far has come back normal. There were some abnormalities on VNG and BAER, and maybe a possible lesion in my cervical spinal cord. But as that was not imaged (it was on a brain MRI) it only showed up in one view and it's been suggested this should get another look with a spinal cord MRI.
And then after visiting with an MS doc who said I have no brain lesions, therefore I have no MS, I returned home and viola! One of my wrists all of a sudden was painful, swollen, stiff and warm. There was only a mild swelling with no redness, but painful enough I could barely open a pill bottle. After waking up the next morning, it was feeling much better, but still later in the day is stiff and painful with motion.
Any clues on what this could be? I've been tested for thyroid, lymes, ebv, cmv, bartonella, brucellosis, ANA, RF, bacterial cultures of blood and urine, mono, and everything was normal. The CBC, WBC and electrolytes were all normal. The brain MRI was normal. EEG, normal.
Since the wrist thing and the fever (hasn't yet gone over 101F) over the last seven days, they did another CBC with ANCA, RF, uric acid and another blood culture. Those results will be coming in a few days. Any ideas on what this could be?
They went away sometime after the first year. Some of them recently came back during another flareup with other neuro symptoms.. No antibiotics and no infection with this one. It's from something else.
Did the paresthesias ever come back or go away? I took bactrim and started getting red spots on my skin and sensations of cold water (paresthesias) all over. I tstopped the bactrim after a month or so but the paresthesias continued for over a year. They have come back twice after an upper respiratory infection without using antibiotics. That was either the trigger or maybe some kind of neck strain? Not sure. I wish I could get rid of this.
No. The bactrim was only a 5 or 7 day course. It ended way back when the paresthesias were settling down and before the sauna when the real fun began.
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