New symptoms - clean brain MRI

[novakf]

Okay, I have a couple of questions.

Since I was diagnosed 10 days ago, I've had a handful of new symptoms. This is really depressing as I'd been basically symptom free for the last 5 months apart from the residual visual problems from ON.

One of the symptoms started subtly a couple of days before the appt where I was diagnosed. It was a feeling of warm lemonade being poured in the toes of my right foot and all the bubbles bursting against the edges. Not exactly an unpleasant sensation.

Then I got others - a numb band around my left ankle that got worse with exertion and when I was lying down.
Tingling in the left side of my bottom lip at one point on my lip.
Heat or burning feeling on the outside of my left elbow.
Numb and tingling tips of my left index and middle finger. Just the tips though. Feels like i have been playing guitar too much or something but there's no visible callous there. Occasionally part of my left arm feels numb and tingly as well. Last night my boy was hugging me (which I needed!) and his arm hairs were touching my arm softly and it felt like i was being given lots of little electric shocks.

Then last night I was in a movie theatre and suddenly my chin / bottom lip started to twitch or spasm and I couldn't stop it. I had a panic attack right then and had to step out and try and calm down. It's the next day now and it's still happening.

(1) Does this sound like an exacerbation and what should I do? Should I call my doctor? Go to a hospital? Just ride it out until monday? It's the weekend and I don't know how to contact my neuro really.

(2) What are some ways that you guys deal with your anxiety, cos I can't help feeling it's had a role to play in these new things? I've suffered from anxiety my whole life and I'm sure it won't/doesn't help me stave off exacerbations. I'm sitting here with cups of herbal tea right now and listening to some nice music, trying to have a quiet Saturday. That's the best I can do but I can't do it all the time!

(3) My third question is, my brain MRI is completely clean. My diagnosis was made on the basis of ON plus spinal lesions. I had a look at the CD of the brain MRI and I can't see anything on it either. But 16 months ago I had diplopia in the mornings/when tired for a month. And now I'm having this facial spasm. Both of those symptoms, from my readings, seem to be associated with lesions in the brainstem. Am I right about that? Is it possible for brainstem lesions to be undetectable?

[Lulu54]

I went looking for an old post of mine to share with you and I can't find it, so here I will reconstruct it - I hope it helps.

During my brief time in Limbo I was regularly sending my MS neuro faxes with lists of possible symptoms - things like jerking legs and twitching eyes.  Everything that I felt, I wrote down and sent off to him, since he had told me to report anything new to him and I had no idea what was MS related and what wasn't.

The next time I saw him in person we had a serious talk about my hypersensitivity to all my symptoms.  he gave me this analogy-

You know what its like when you go to bed late at night, and finally all the outside stimuli of televisions and conversations and everything else associated with noise is turned off?  You then lay in bed and listen - and you hear the floor boards creak, and the furnace cycle, and the rafters of the house shift.  All the noises you weren't hearing before are now quite noticeable when you stop and listen.  Our bodies are much like that - when we turn off all the other external noises and start to focus on the signals our bodies give us, we hear so much more than usual.  And in our heightened state of being hyperaware of being ill, we tend to hear even more.

He then went on to reassure me that this was normal, he encouraged me to continue to fax him if I wanted to, and that it would get better.  He was absolutely right, the noises my body was making haven't necessarily gone away, I have just learned that they go along with the creaking floorboards.  

Anxiety about every little symptom I believe is a normal process of learning that you have MS.  It does get easier.

Please talk to your doctor about the anxiety - they know best how to help you deal with all of your concerns.

And Terry is right - you may have lesions that are just not yet visible with the current technology we have.

My best,
Lulu

[saveone]

I have never had to go to the ER or doc because of immediate need.  You know yourself.  If you think you need to go then do so.  If it is MS related it shouldn't be fatal but I have heard ppl here talking about taking steroids to decrease the symptoms or length of them.  Sorry I am just not much help on that one.  There is a good health page heather wrote that describes her flares.  You can find it by clicking the health page icon in the upper right corner.  There is also lots of other valuable info there.

Anxiety is an old friend of mine.  It lives with me everyday of my life.  It goes to town with me and when the day is done it lays done with me.  I lived without treatment for years.  Now I take Wellbutrin and go to counseling.  The meds have helped me so much.  It has decreased the anxiety by 70%.  I can actually function without it trying to take over my life.  It is still there but I can live with it.  

I don't know if your anxiety is situational or biological but I would recommend you speak to your doctor, usually your GP, and let him get you started on the right path.  You don not have to live with it.

Third it is my understanding any lesion can be invisible to the technology we have today.  It getting better but those lesions, they can still hide :)

terry