Recently diagnosed and have numerous plaques

[Hlawman]

I'm 23 and was diagnosed with MS 8 days ago, I was fortunate to quickly get an appointment with an MS specialist today. He viewed my MRI and said I have about 30 plaques on my brain, is this number considerably high? He didn't seem to act like it was. But I haven't read anything about anyone having this many and they told me I was in the very early stages of the disease. I have been prescribed Betaseron. Can someone please give me some info regarding my plaque number?

[Thinkimjob]

It's where they are, more than how many there are, and I think how old they are.

My brain scans look like a target at a shotgun range, but they always have.
And I was truly quite sprightly for a good 12 years. Hardly knew I had MS, except for fatigue and a bit of numbness.

Welcome aboard, Hiawman. I know how much it sucks to be diagnosed. i was 28. You have many, many good years ahead, with any luck.

[MikeY01]

I am not sure about plaque numbers. My first brain MRI showed "too numerous to count" plaques. I am interested to see what the answer is. I always plan on asking my neurologist, but seem to always forget.

[MSwhileOverseas]

I have been looking for this answer too. What seems to come up a lot in google searches is the term "heavy lesion load" or something similar but I haven't found anything to define what heavy lesion load actually is.

When I asked my MS doctor if I had a lot of lesions, I have 11, he said the same thing Thinkimjob said. Its not the number but the location. He said he had a patient with over 50 lesions and very minimal disability and another patient in a wheel chair with only 3 lesions.

I'm curious to see what others say. I would love to know what is considered Heavy Lesion Load.

[nosrepmodnar]

I started having problems at 24, didnt receive a diagnosis until 29.
I had an amazing (to me anyways) amount of whit spots on my brain and my ventricle is covered in them.
My neuro always says I should be worse off than I am, great bedside manner there
But as for the brain I have done a bunch of reading and it really is location, certain parts control certain things

[rdmc]

Lesions are like real estate, "Location, location, location."

Not necessary how many you have, but where they are. So don't presume since you have a lot you're going to have a more progressive disease picture.

My first neuro used to say, "I treat symptoms, not MRIs"...which just meant she dealt with the symptoms I was having not what was on the MRI.

I post this link a lot, but you being newly diagnosed might find it helpful. This man in this study reported absolutely no increase in symptoms, or relapses, but his MRI was constantly changing (24 MRIs in one year...can you imagine that...then they were timelapsed together.) Simply proving that one MRI is just a picture at a point in time...lesions come and go. But it is good to have one before you start on the Beta, then that gives them a benchmark to measure against when you have your next MRI.

Here's the link entitled More than Meets the Eye
http://www.msdiscovery.org/news/news...more-meets-eye

[Sissy]

I had SX for abt 10 or 15 yrs before I was DX. But when I found a specialist he said very little about the lesions. I was DX with De-mylening disease. He treated the SX. Because I was already showing a lot of damage. It was like 18mo later that I got worse and was put on a DMD. I don't much care to know where or how many anymore. I have it and it has me.

So it's like the others say it's not how many but where. A volcano in downtown NY would be much worse than the Sahara desert!

I fought for years to get my DX because of my SX's, I felt like I was loosing my mind! I knew something was wrong...but the Drs would not listen.They made me believe I could not trust my body , because it was just lying to me! There was nothing wrong with me!!

Finally, a Dr pointed out my monster so I knew what it was and could fight it! I was no longer in the dark not knowing what it was. I can live with that! (?)