Also, Migraines are more common in MS patients than in the general population.
http://www.livestrong.com/article/15980-early-symptoms-ms-migraine-headaches/
http://ms.about.com/od/signssymptoms/a/headache_gen.htm
Pain (including headaches) happen in MS. When I had Optic Neuritis, I had a temporal headache that was related to the ON. There are folks here with Trigeminal Neuralgia, Facial Pain, Occipital Neuralgia, etc. Many have headaches with these pain syndromes.
Bob
I have severe headaches every single day, I was told I have MS 5 years ago. I have had many MRI done. I talked to a neurologist my daughter is seeing and he said headaches don't happen in MS. Yet looking on line I see it all the time as a system. My headaches have been so severe that I was thinking of killing myself to end the pain, I am now on morphine which makes it much better.
So who is right ?
What's more important is the location of the lesions, rather than how many are showing on the MRI. Neurologists look for lesions around vascular spaces of the brain - the periventricular region in particular.
As Bob says, Lyme also creates lesions in the brain. They are in locations atypical for MS, and the shape is different.
Migraines will also cause punctate lesions, and many doctors misdiagnose MS as migraine activity.
What the doctor will do next is to eliminate MS as a possibility. This means blood tests, a lumbar puncture, and possibly some tests to check nerve conduction.
Good luck! At this point it's hard to say exactly what the problem is, but let's hope it's not MS.
Lesion load has very little to do with most DRs decisions. It is mostly, location, location, location.
There are also other reasons for lesions beside MS. They all have to be ruled out.
Bob
Did your doctor happen to tell you how many spots were showing on your mri? Mine gave me a copy of my results and it says that there are 25 showing on my mri results. The neurologist that sent me for the mri said that there may be white spots showing but not to panic because it does not mean you have ms....this is true but it depends on the number of lesions that are showing.
Some MS folks have headaches, but joint pains are atypical. I have been in the Greenville area and am pretty familiar with some of the area. Do you live in a more rural area or have you been out in an are where you may have been exposed to ticks in the last 6 months? Have you had any unexplained "bulls eye" rash during that period? The reason I'm asking is that at 52 years, male, headache, joint pain and brain lesions, I'd rule out Lyme's disease. The odds of Lyme's might be a bit higher than MS, especially if you do not have a prior history of these symptoms and signs.
Bob