?MS

[marie__0__0]

  I am 33 years old. When I was 27 I had a bad cold which was immediately follwed by "pins and needles" feelings in my thighs and stomach area.  That lasted only three weeks and I was back to normal.  Six months later I experienced more of the same symptoms out of the blue (it was summer and I was feeling good).  Over the next few years I had various episodes of strange feelings that lasted a few weeks including:  a numb patch on my left third finger,  odd feeling on the soles of my feet (the carpet didn't really feel like carpet) and some other bouts of "numbness."  Two years ago I went to a neurologist and had an MRI (brain and spinal cord).  It was normal.  I thanked God and forgot about it ( I didn't have an explanation for the symptoms but I figured it must have been a virus because it first came on after a cold).  Now I'm having more symptoms!  A month ago I started having numbness in my hands (left mostly) associated with a clumsiness of the left hand (difficult dialing phone) and pins and needles of my soles. These symptoms were gone after about 10 days--maybe it was just fatigue.
  My question is this--should I really be concerned about maybe having MS, what about my normal MRI--doesn't that basically rule it out?? How could it be normal after having the symptoms for a period of years--it should have showed something right?  Anyway, I am about to get married and I have decisions to make concerning career and pregnancy etc. .  Oh by the way, I have never had any visual complaints or actual weakness except for the clumsy left hand episode and that is now gone. Also I am  in very good health.   I apologize for the length, thanks in advance.
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It's hard to say just what is happening. Often, numbness or tingling sensations per se don't get explained, and the conclusion you could draw from that is that in those cases there isn't anything harmful going on. The clumsiness could be a clue to what is happening to you, but it's hard to say for sure.
It's important not to just jump to a conclusion of MS (either you or your doctor), because there are other possibilities. Neurologists approach symptoms in a systematic way, attempting to determine what part of the nervous system might be affected before making a statement about what is causing the problem. Numbness, for example, is hard to localize. Clumsiness can be assigned to part of the nervous system a bit more readily, though still with a lot of choices.
The timing and duration of these symptoms is a clue to what the underlying process is. Don't overlook the possibility of migraine.
There is no single test or combination of tests that definitely makes the diagnosis or rules out MS. That makes it a difficult disease to diagnose sometimes. A negative MRI doesn't rule it out, though it is encouraging. In some cases, MS is very clear from the clinical presentation (signs, symptoms) and the technology is just used for confirmatory evidence.
My advice is: for your peace of mind, see a neurologist again (the same one as before or a different one depending on your preference). If you have been without symptoms lately, the result may again be "I don't know." Even if you come away with that, you can have some reassurance that nothing awful is going on now. Of course, if he/she finds something, you can go from there. No one has a crystal ball. You should ask about pregnancy and other issues that concern you, but you may not get an answer.
I hope this helps. As you know, this information is provided for your general medical education only. Any specific comment regarding diagnosis, prognosis, or treatment options must come from your doctor after appropriate evaluation. CCF MD mdf.