Do I have MS?

[Chooch58]

Two years ago I had an episode, blurred vision, paralysis of all extremities for about 2 days, unable to urinate had to have Foley inserted, was admitted to hospital and they ran all sorts of test. Had MRI which showed 3 lesions in brain, they gave me IV prednisone and I was slowly able to move again. But doctors weren’t convinced was MS. Went to a neurologist who said he wasn’t sure happened to me but maybe was just a strange occurrence and hopefully never happens again.  So just went along with life.   Fast forward to present, had  another MRI is showing those same 3 lesions and as I am reading more and more about MS , I have many symptoms of MS, fatigue, sometimes my arms feel so weak I feel like I cant even grip steering wheel of car, leg weakness, occasional blurred vision, muscle spasm, feeling like bugs are crawling on me( and none are), trouble falling asleep, urinary problems. I am working full time as a nurse but I just dropped hours back from 40 to 32 weekly. So I have an appointment withMS specialist onAugust 15 th. Just wondering if anyone had anything similar to me? I am always thinking about this, is it MS or something else or is all this just in my head( maybe I am just crazy).                                                          

[supermum_ms]

Hi and welcome,

The episode 2 years ago of temporary but complete loss of muscle function (full body paralysis) is usually related to spinal cord issues, stroke, possibly brain stem or cerebellar involvement but brain stem-cerebellar MS attacks typically have a triad of suggestive symptoms, there are other conditions to do with inherited myopathy, sodium, potasium etc but what you've described happened is honestly very unlikely to have been related to a neurological condition like MS because full paralysis is not how conditions like MS would typically present....

Most brain lesions found on an MRI are non specific, a few small lesions under 3mm wouldn't typically be classified as abnormal if they are in common locations like the frontal lobe, subcortical etc demyelinating lesions caught during an MS attack will actually light up with contrast demonstrating breach of the blood brain barrier which common micro vascular lesions and old demyelinated lesions won't do.....for one or more brain lesions to be the cause of temporary full body paralysis the lesion location would be significant and since the neurologist didn't know what had caused it, it's likely the lesions that had showed up on your MRI at the time were not relevant to the episode and or specific symptoms you presented with.

You don't mention there being any spinal cord lesions, but with cord lesions like cord injuries, a lesion in the spinal cord is likely to disrupt function below the injury, for the spinal cord to have caused paralysis in arms, hands, trunk and legs it would need to involve High-Cervical Nerves (C1 – C4).  MS cord lesions are more typically smaller than other types of cord lesions and don't usually traverse the spinal cord and cause parathesia in all peripheral limbs or complete paralysis.

MS spinal cord lesions usually cause unilateral clinical signs eg left side only, below the cord lesion causing unilateral upper or lower and or both upper and lower on one side of the body. Bilateral can still happen but it's not typical with neurological conditions like MS, bilaterally both upper and lower is not typical and paralysis is not typical with MS so if anything what you experienced wouldn't actually be typical of MS and is likely pointing away....

Hope that helps......JJ