Welcome to the forum! I'm sorry you are going through all of this, but we have heard your story overt and over again.
Okay, yes, you are 60. So what? It does bring in the spectre of ministrokes if you have any of the risk factors like family history, high BP, high lipids, migraine disease, but it appears to me that your new neurologist is not looking at the whole picture. Now, is this the same doctor that diagnosed MS?
If it is the same one, then I give him some credit for being thorough. If it is a different doc, then let me put your history together again.
17 years ago you had a clear demyelinating episode - double vision and lt weakness - work up neg
Between then and now SEVERAL episodes of vertigo, left-sided weakness (sometimes severe) - work up neg
This time you had double vision, with ataxia and problems with coordination.
If THIS EPISODE is due to ministrokes, then one would have to assume you have been having ministrokes since the age of 43 (pretty young). So, I would assume the current work up is aimed at looking for those MS mimics which involve blood clots. So he would send a wart-load of blood tests for things that make the blood clot too easily like Anti-Phospholipin Syndrome (Hughes Syndrome) and related beasts along with a cardiac test called a "Bubble Test" to see if you are flipping little clots to the brain through a hole in the heart.
If this is the aim of the new testing, it is appropriate. ALL better reasons for the problems the patient has should be ruled out.
But, the doctor whould be looking at this episode "in light of all the previous and similar" episodes while looking for a diagnosis. Just looking to see this time if you had a stroke seems silly. What is he saying about ALL the attacks you have had? They have to be explained, too.
Also, sometimes the mimics have to be looked at extra hard and redone.
Now, I firmly believe that there are a small number of people out there who take decades to show with the proper lesions. It makes MS darned hard to diagnose, but the McDonald Criteria do NOT require that the MRI show lesions. It just recommends that if the 2 attack and 2 separate lesion criteria are fulfilled that doing an MRI is desirable.
I was diagnosed with just one lesion in my brain which had been deemed inconsequential. Later a higher power MRI showed 6 lesions in my spine. So, in a sense, I was diagnosed with what was repeatedly called a normal MRI.
At the visit for the results, see what this neuro says. If he rules out MS on the basis of the normal MRI, you can point out the National MS Society and several studies stated that a small percentage of people have a negative MRI decades into their disease.
Ask how he explains the mulitple episodes - all of which are consistent with demyelinating attacks.
Ask what would be worse - failing to treat MS that is there or treating and possibly being wrong, but the patient knows there is a small chance that the diagnosis is wrong. Tell him what "your" preference would be as the person who might get help versus twisting in the wind for another decade.
Ask what other entity could "possibly" cause this classic pattern in you? Ask if the Anti-Phospholipin Syndrome or other clot disorder like Patent Foramen Ovale have been ruled out.
There are other auxilliary testing that can be done which are helpful only if they are positive. These would be the evoked potentials and a repeat LP. Personally, I think you make all the criteria needed to diagnose with MS. I think the doctor in the hospital was right - IF the clotting mimics of MS have been looked for.
There is a Health Page in which I tried to explain the McDonald Criteria. It is horribly long, but if you read it - as you get to the end you will see that you fulfill the "First Scenario" for diagnosing MS. This might help you if the new neuro backs off the MS diagnosis.
http://www.medhelp.org/health_pages/Multiple-Sclerosis/Diagnosing-MS---The-McDonald-Criteria-revised-2005/show/370?cid=36
We have another member here, essdipity, who is in her late 60's and went through much of what you are going through (though she has lesions) - but I mean with the age thing. I'll give her the heads up.
Quix