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Doubting my MS diagnosis
Hello,
I'm a 25 year old female who was recently diagnosed with MS in January following a single episode of numbness that was especially prominent along the distribution of the median nerve but occurred to some extent along the entire right side of my body from the shoulder down. This numbness began just after I started having symptoms of a severe case of tonsillitis. The numbess persisted after I recovered from the tonsillitis so I went to see a neurologist where I had a MRI done. It showed a lesion at C4 and a couple of small lesions in the brain. There was no evidence of any previous demylination events. I was diagnosed with MS based on this and started on copaxone. I demanded further testing and had visual evoked potential performed and CSF analysis. The visual evoked potentials were normal. My CSF showed no myelin basic protein, no oligoclonal bands, and an IgG synthesis index of 0.64. My neuro called this IgG index "elevated". However, when I look it up I find that it needs to be greater than 0.7 to be consistent with MS. What do you think? I realize that MS is a hard diagnosis to accept but I can't help but think it's being based more on demographics than anything else. My neuro won't even entertain post-infectious myelitis because of my age even though I had a definite history of preceding infection. Of possible interest, I've started getting fevers and rashes over the past couple of weeks but my neuro is very dismissive of them. Am I in denial or is my sketicism warranted? Thanks in advance for your time.
I'm a 25 year old female who was recently diagnosed with MS in January following a single episode of numbness that was especially prominent along the distribution of the median nerve but occurred to some extent along the entire right side of my body from the shoulder down. This numbness began just after I started having symptoms of a severe case of tonsillitis. The numbess persisted after I recovered from the tonsillitis so I went to see a neurologist where I had a MRI done. It showed a lesion at C4 and a couple of small lesions in the brain. There was no evidence of any previous demylination events. I was diagnosed with MS based on this and started on copaxone. I demanded further testing and had visual evoked potential performed and CSF analysis. The visual evoked potentials were normal. My CSF showed no myelin basic protein, no oligoclonal bands, and an IgG synthesis index of 0.64. My neuro called this IgG index "elevated". However, when I look it up I find that it needs to be greater than 0.7 to be consistent with MS. What do you think? I realize that MS is a hard diagnosis to accept but I can't help but think it's being based more on demographics than anything else. My neuro won't even entertain post-infectious myelitis because of my age even though I had a definite history of preceding infection. Of possible interest, I've started getting fevers and rashes over the past couple of weeks but my neuro is very dismissive of them. Am I in denial or is my sketicism warranted? Thanks in advance for your time.
the bands are not how it is dx, it is clinical. You have chronic Lyme Disease and should not go off treatment until your physician tells you to do so. Remember that there is no cure for Lyme, but you can make it ignorable unlike MS.
If you had brain lesions which Lyme people do, you probably would have received an MS dx.
What is your specific question?
If you had brain lesions which Lyme people do, you probably would have received an MS dx.
What is your specific question?
Hi jmcc and thanks for your response.
to answer your questions...i live in new jersey..central new jersey and i dont hike or garden much. There are ticks in the area...one town over there are many deer, however, i think it highly unlikely in my case. I would rather have lyme than ms though!
Anyway, my mri's of brain and spine were normal as was my spinal tap. the first neuro (he did the mri's) thought i still might have ms because of my age at the time (24)and he saw one babinski reflex. But i idnt like him and went to ms specialist in ny and he was the one who did the spinal tap, blood work , physical exam and found nothing(no babinski)and thought i didnt have ms. Can you have symptoms before lesions show up on mri? i had symptoms for 3 years prior to tests. Also, one year earlier i had the chicken pox...after it was clearing up, i had a bout with my vision....it was cloudy in one eye..a typical sign of optic neuritis, however the eye dr. and ms specialist both said it could have occured due to the chicken pox virus itself.
The cloudiness cleard up after a few days.
to answer your questions...i live in new jersey..central new jersey and i dont hike or garden much. There are ticks in the area...one town over there are many deer, however, i think it highly unlikely in my case. I would rather have lyme than ms though!
Anyway, my mri's of brain and spine were normal as was my spinal tap. the first neuro (he did the mri's) thought i still might have ms because of my age at the time (24)and he saw one babinski reflex. But i idnt like him and went to ms specialist in ny and he was the one who did the spinal tap, blood work , physical exam and found nothing(no babinski)and thought i didnt have ms. Can you have symptoms before lesions show up on mri? i had symptoms for 3 years prior to tests. Also, one year earlier i had the chicken pox...after it was clearing up, i had a bout with my vision....it was cloudy in one eye..a typical sign of optic neuritis, however the eye dr. and ms specialist both said it could have occured due to the chicken pox virus itself.
The cloudiness cleard up after a few days.
Anyone that has taken a fluoroquinolone antibiotic, specially high doses or long treatments, can develop all the symptoms related in your post. Yes, the 80 in all, and more. One very specific damage caused by the fluoroquinolone antibiotics is HEART LESIONS, namely QT-interval prolongation, arrythmias (pernicious sometimes), abnormal working and many different cardiological pathologies. Some people need the implantation of pacemakers. Others die for this reason, although nearly always the blame is put on something else.
Please note that this injuries are not idiosyncrasic. Are a class effect. For those long treatments, the reaction affects nearly a 100% of patients.
The most critical peculiarity of these medications is that the reactions on people that are not allegic or hypersentitive to them, emerge clinically some weeks or months after the cessation of the treatment. The response is more acute and inmediate for people that are specially senstive to these drugs.
The best source of information, both in terms of compilation of medical research and from the victims point of view is the site:
www.fqresearch.org
(with which I have no relationship at all; I just point it out in case it can be of any help for you)
Another site to see a practical approach to this epidemic issue is:
www.fluoroquinolones.org
I hope you eventually find a diagnosis, and start a firm path towards recovery.
Please note that this injuries are not idiosyncrasic. Are a class effect. For those long treatments, the reaction affects nearly a 100% of patients.
The most critical peculiarity of these medications is that the reactions on people that are not allegic or hypersentitive to them, emerge clinically some weeks or months after the cessation of the treatment. The response is more acute and inmediate for people that are specially senstive to these drugs.
The best source of information, both in terms of compilation of medical research and from the victims point of view is the site:
www.fqresearch.org
(with which I have no relationship at all; I just point it out in case it can be of any help for you)
Another site to see a practical approach to this epidemic issue is:
www.fluoroquinolones.org
I hope you eventually find a diagnosis, and start a firm path towards recovery.
also, I did not take fluoroquinolone antibiotic to my knowledge before everything went bad.
My story is weird. Many of those symptoms were around for a few years.
Feb of last year woke up with topical numbness from the waist down and eventually had pruritis. After 3 weeks subsided, then came back a week after worse with gait, constipation and many of the other symptoms. Neurologist (80 yrs old) did clinical work up (1 visit) and said it was Acute Transverse Myelitis. Said there was another bout it was MS. (According to lit it is not that simple). Symptoms lingered over summer and developed into low trunk numbness, paraethesias, more pruritis, and many other things. Have never been debilitated. No optic neuritis, for extreme fatigue.
Feb of this year I demanded an MRI of the brain and found 5 or more non-specific lesions (both sides) that are suspicious of MS, Lyme Disease, or Vasculitis. Family doctor jumped right on MS.
I do not know what to think. I father recently died of Athero sclerosis (hardening of the arteries), do maybe a vasc? Sexually perm past (homosexual) and thus I do not know if tertiary syphilis (which could account for ATM) would cause brain lesions/spinal lesions, etc.
LymeInternist says poss Lyme and states lesions and symptoms could be accounted for in Lyme.
Your thoughts.
My story is weird. Many of those symptoms were around for a few years.
Feb of last year woke up with topical numbness from the waist down and eventually had pruritis. After 3 weeks subsided, then came back a week after worse with gait, constipation and many of the other symptoms. Neurologist (80 yrs old) did clinical work up (1 visit) and said it was Acute Transverse Myelitis. Said there was another bout it was MS. (According to lit it is not that simple). Symptoms lingered over summer and developed into low trunk numbness, paraethesias, more pruritis, and many other things. Have never been debilitated. No optic neuritis, for extreme fatigue.
Feb of this year I demanded an MRI of the brain and found 5 or more non-specific lesions (both sides) that are suspicious of MS, Lyme Disease, or Vasculitis. Family doctor jumped right on MS.
I do not know what to think. I father recently died of Athero sclerosis (hardening of the arteries), do maybe a vasc? Sexually perm past (homosexual) and thus I do not know if tertiary syphilis (which could account for ATM) would cause brain lesions/spinal lesions, etc.
LymeInternist says poss Lyme and states lesions and symptoms could be accounted for in Lyme.
Your thoughts.
Can you refer me to those sites? Anything with the heart? I have dx with the above mentioned.
Regards,
Jmcc.
Regards,
Jmcc.
Of the 80 symptoms of Lyme listed in your previous post, all but #20 are typical (and many more), well described, and absolutely common in people that suffer a delayed reaction to a fluoroquinolone antibiotic. These reactions take place some months after taking the medicine, and last for some years if there is no reexposure, or become permanent if there is. There are many organisations that have listed those symptoms, their evolution and all details.
This highlights how difficult is sometimes to reach a solid clinical diagnosis of someone's ailments when they mimic multiple sclerosis, sj
This highlights how difficult is sometimes to reach a solid clinical diagnosis of someone's ailments when they mimic multiple sclerosis, sj
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