herpes 2 and M.S.

[terrics]

I've been diagnosed with benign MS and then "undiagnosed" with it.  I have herpes flairs since my 20s and my first unusual symptom besides the usual flair up was inability to walk a straight line and losing my balance.  I never went to the Dr. although the walking probs did not go away and did not get worse.  i worked for a Dr. then and i told him about it and he said not to worry about it.  At 57 I went to neurologist who did lots of tests.  The MRI report said probably demylinating desease.  When she read it she said i wasn't sick enough to have MS.  She did more testing and I had an abnormal vep., hyperreflexia, and peripheral neuropathy in my r foot. She sent me to a stroke specialist who said I had benign M.S.   Well life is sooo funny because I had a repeat MRI a few times and at 60 my dx was change to micro vascular disease.  I don't really care what the dx is, however I think whatever it is is related to the herpes.  I get a horrible headche and am totally exhausted before a breakout and I usually run a fever of 100.4.  The worst of it is that my speech and thinking become garbled.  My sister and I laugh like crazy because sometimes what I say is so off track.  But it is not so funny because I still work and if this speech thing happens at work I tell folks I went to bed late and that I am very tired.  Does anyone here have a diagnosis of MS and also Herpes 2?  I was thinking of trying valtrex to see if these symptoms subside.

[supermum_ms]

Ahhhh word substitution, lol we've definitely had a few laughs talking about the things we didn't mean to say but loosing what we were going to say, might be even more common. Strange but true lol i actually have periods of time where I totally loose all nouns and just nouns, lol try having a conversation when you can't name anything, ticky as lol

"don't leave the ?? um thingie out, put it back in the ??, sorry lost my words again. What's it called... it's that thing you put the thing into to keep it from getting ??, um it's the ??, starts with an 'f' [pointing at it] thing over there?" lol  

I'm not sure but i think 'word substitution' would probably fall under cognitive, rather than speech difficulties, which is usually more to do with the mechanics of communication. If you 'search this community' found at the top of your screen, you'll probably find a few past conversations on the topic that you might be interested in.

Cheers............JJ

[terrics]

Hi, Thanks for the welcome.  I never really thought about  infection setting off MS symptoms, so it may be useful to try valtrex. Well here is an example of the speech problem... I am going to put the car in the microwave.  My guess is that there is a remote relationship between between the garage and microwave...you have to open the door to put something in it; then you close the door.   After the word microwave is out of my mouth I recognize the error and crack up laughing.  

I have no intention of seein a neuroloist again unless I think things are getting much worse.

[terrics]

Thank you for the info.  I will probably get this sorted out when I am 100.

[kwarendorf]

Hi Terrics-  Welcome to our world.

If I were you I'd seek out an MS specialist who can sort out some of the muddled feedback you are currently getting. I would think that a reasonably qualified radiologist should be able to tell demyelinating disease from micro vascular disease, both of which can cause some of the symptoms you describe.

As to herpes 2 and MS, I have both and have never seen an interaction. There has been no correlation between herpes outbreak (now about 1 every 2 years) and MS relapse in my case. Herpes is a virus and Valtrex is an antiviral. I can't see how Valtrex would impact your balance issues.

I'd start with n MS specialist and work from there.

Kyle