What Could It Be?

[Danity588]

My Doctors think that I have MS due to the fact that I have experience blurred vision to loss of vision in right eye. Numbness and tingling on entire right side of body. Extreme fatigue, slurred speech, and muscle weakness in upper extremities on right side. I have had an evoked potential test which came back normal, I have had several MRI's with and without contrast which have came back normal. I have just had a spinal tap done and awaiting results. What else could it be if the spinal tap comes back normal as well. I am at a lost as to what is causing this. I have had no injuries or surgeries. I am a healthy 29 year old female with no prior health problems.

[Danity588]

Thanks ess,
I really appreciate the info, I am sure everyone else does as well. I will go to the MS forum.

Thanks again,

Danity

[essdipity]

I strongly urge those of you with MS-like symptoms but no diagnosis to join the MS forum. We have many people in diagnostic limbo, and quite a few who do have a diagnosis of an MS mimic such as Lyme disease. That's fine with us. We learn from the mimickers that not all that seems like MS really is, and we help the limbo people through all the hoops they have to jump through with the medical system.

We have great Health Pages that provide a huge amount of scientific info about MS and how it is ruled in or out.

All of you are more than welcome. You will find the MS forum on MedHelp to be a wonderful resource and a place where you will make many friends who do understand. We consider everyone there to be our forum family.

ess

[patsy10]

Unfortunately,  I pretty much have to live with this since I got no real answers.  I searched and searched for an answer and then I pretty much gave up.  I can tell you that my symptoms responded to antibiotics and I am much improved over what I was 3 years ago.  There is a possibility that mine is related to lyme disease but I don't know for sure.  As far as fibromyagia goes, yeah I got that diagnosis too.  It seems most people who have these symptoms get this diagnosis eventually or the diagnosis of "it's all in your head"  if an objective answer isn't found on testing.  Fibromyalgia is not a disease.  It's a group of symptoms with no definite cause.  So even if someone gets this diagnosis there is still no real answer unless something can be found on testing.  There is also specific criteria for diagnosing fibro but it seems that people get this diagnosis without the proper criteria. I had a couple doctors tell me this is what I had but none checked me for the tender points which are part of the diagnostic criteria.  Good luck to you and I hope that you get an answer.

[Danity588]

Hey Brandi,
Good luck with your spinal tap tomorrow. The only advice I can give you for the spinal tap is to lay flat for 24 hours to avoid a post spinal tap headache. Those are the worse. I wish you luck. Interested to see how it turns out for you. I find out Tuesday what my results of my spinal tap are. I am also about to have a lip biopsy to test for Sjögren's syndrome. So are you in Dallas, Tx?

[Brandi_johnson]

Hi. I am currently admitted to UT Southwestern Medical Center for very similar issues. I am writing from my hospital bed.  They think that mine is Neurosarcoidsis since I was postively diagnosed with pulminary sarcoid by biopsy.  We have redone all tests this week with nothing abnormal. Trying to do spinal tap tomorrow. Will let you know what the results are!
Good luck
Brandi

[Danity588]

Thanks for the comments. So if all of these tests are normal am I just supposed to go through life with numbness/tingling on my right side? I am currently undergoing tests at the Mayo Clinic to try to get some answers since I felt like I wasn't getting anywhere with my Neuro at home. So far the only thing they have told me is that they think I have Fibromyalgia. Patsy I have had MRI's, spinal tap, and the visual and somatosensory evoked potentials which have all came back normal except I haven't received the results on the spinal tap as yet. I have had one doctor tell me that I have Undifferentiated Connective tissue disease, but that doesn't explain the numbness and tingling on the right side, which at times makes it uncomfortable to walk.

[patsy10]

You sound just like me....All these symptoms and everything comes back normal.  Well in my case, my symptoms started after bullseye rashes consistent with lyme disease.

I saw several neurologists and all of them told me that the majority of patients(I think they said 85%) with MS have brain lesions on MRI.  They also said 90% or more of people with MS have a positive spinal tap.  All of them told me I did not have MS based on the extensive testing I had with all normal results.

I had MRI's, EMG, spinal tap, visual and somatosensory evoked potentials.

[dr_simran]

Hello.

MS is usually a diagnosis of exclusion. There are certain other investigations. EMG and Nerve conduction study is one of them. These two studies help us understand the cause. With EMG, we can rule out a muscular problem. With NCS we can rule out peripheral neuropathy.

There's a weak correlation of MS with MRI brain and spinal cord. Some studies have found a 30% correlation whereas other have mentioned close to 50% correlation.The diagnosis of MS  is more of clinical .You should consult a good neurologist to diagnose your disease.

Best