Need help...odd symptoms

[Nerd05]

I am an 18 yr old female and have had a large array of symptoms since I was 15.
I had 5 concussions between the years 2007-2010. Since my second concussion I have had
a nonstop headache, a crackling sound in my head especially when exercising,
intermittent ear pain and hearing loss, hearing static, and facial pain. I have had an MRI
without contrast and two CT scans. They were mostly normal except that on only
one CT scan I had an area of hypodensity and the MRI revealed mastoid sclerosis
which was attributed to the fact that I was born 6 weeks premature. I have tried
medicines for postconcussive syndrome, as well as migraines and antibiotics for
possible sinus infections and gradenigo's syndrome, but nothing has helped. Randomly I feel like I have
poison running through my veins but it quickly disappears. In the past I have
had intermittent vision problems starting about a year ago, but they come and
go. I also recently have had this sudden weakness and light burning sensation in the whole left side of my body especially at night, but that comes and goes as well. I feel like my nerves and bones hurt, but the worst part is the headaches and facial
pain. Please help I can't take feeling like this anymore. What do you think is
wrong with me? Please help diagnose me.

[Gina04]

My understanding is that MS progresses differently with different people.  I did a quick search for hearing loss and MS and am sending you a link via message since I am not permitted to post links here.  I glanced over it and it looked like it might be helpful for you.  Hope it helps.  If not, try doing a search and see what else comes up.

[Nerd05]

Thanks so much! It seems I have a couple of the symptoms of MS but not totally. Also on my MRI there was a finding of mastoid sclerosis....so maybe it might be MS. If it is MS how does the disease progress? Also the headaches have been getting worse and my hearing is getting even worse, as well as hearing noises that aren't there....is that consistent with MS??

[Gina04]

Fibromyalgia is generally diagnosed by checking tender points.  If you have severe enough pain in enough of the tender points and they have ruled out the other things that would cause your symptoms, then you get the diagnosis of fibromyalgia.  With MS, I think they do a similar thing.  They rule out brain tumor, stroke, etc. and then diagnose you with MS if you have the symptoms of it.  Typically your CT or MRI would show some sclerosis on it with MS.  I think it is possible that a brain tumor could be missed with the MRI but not likely.  The vision stuff would make me think MS more than Fibromyalgia.  The irregular menstrual cycles would be more of a hormonal imbalance or PCOS type of thing.  However, the hormonal imbalance, vision problems, and headaches could just be due to damage done with the concussions.

[Nerd05]

Thanks so much I will definitely look them up....How are they diagnosed? I also thought I would note that I have unequal pupil dilation, which I'm not sure what that means and it is getting more apparent recently. I had my eyes checked about 6 months ago because I was having vision problems and he said that I do have unequal pupil dilation but nothing further than that, but now it is super noticeable to my family and I as well.  I also thought I'd mention that I have an irregular menstrual cycle- once every three months if that. I hope someone can help. I also wanted to mention that all these headaches started after the head injuries. Can a previous condition be agitated by head trauma and show up? Also I was looking up my symptoms and found brain tumor symptoms were similar to mine...is there anyway an MRI without contrast can miss a tumor??

[Gina04]

I would do a search for MS symptoms and one for fibromyalgia symptoms and see if your symptoms line up with either of these.  I have fibro and know people with MS.  Your symptoms sound similar to both of these conditions to me.