Your thoughts, please.

[Mark5]

I'm new to MSWorld.org and the world of MS. I hope I'm posting in the right area of the forum. I have not been diagnosed with MS but have symptoms that could correlate with the disease and would appreciate your collective input.

I have an appointment with a neurologist in 6 weeks but since I'm somewhat anxious about my condition I would like to get some feedback before then.

I am a 55 male and was told the results of a brain MRI scan I had a week ago shows that I have "mild white matter disease." I have no idea how many lesions showed up on the MRI scan but the largest was 6mm and is in the "deep right parietal lobe." It was a MRI with and without contrast.

My symptoms of the past 5 weeks have been moderate pain and stiffness in my upper left arm (I have a hard time lifting my arm up all the way), and mild to moderate nerve pain and tingling sensation in my left arm and hand. I have lost a fair amount of strength in my left hand (weak grip) and my left index finger is constantly mildly stiff and sore. For the most part I have excellent balance but there have been multiple times over the last 6 months when I have felt lightheaded and other times I have lost my balance. I have experienced this dizziness several times the last several weeks.

The "Impressions" section on my MRI report mentions the mild white matter disease along with:

"No abnormal parenchymal enhancement post contrast. White matter lesion probably represents sequela of chronic process. Demyelinating plaque not entirely excluded. No typical periventricular white matter pathology identified."

I have no idea what this statement means. Can someone translate this for me please?

I apologize for the long post but hope someone here can give me your experienced opinion if all of this sounds like it's MS or not.

Thank you in advance.

[Myoak]

Hi Mark,

Although your report mentions “mild white matter disease” I believe there are some encouraging things about your MRI. Notably, the things which they didn’t see and the use of terms like can’t rule out, probably, mild, etc. It means you should wait for your neurologist to put it all together and render an opinion or diagnosis.

Speculation at this point is not very valuable. There a number of possibilities some of which are quite benign. For example, age-related chronic ischemic changes seen on MRI are often treated with just low-dose aspirin.

I’m not saying that is what you have or that aspirin is appropriate for you; I’m only offering an example to get you thinking that the situation may be far less threatening than you suspect.

I don’t know if it is true but a doctor discussing MRIs once told me that as we age, “we will all have lesions”. In other words, he was telling me that it is more common than I had thought.

It is impossible to know what your neuro will say in 6 weeks but it may not be as bad as feared or anything close to it. Could it be MS? Possibly, but very possible it isn’t, too.

On another note, if you want to try something for your arm you might try a product named Australian Dream Cream. It can be found at Walgreens and other drugstores. It contains histamine dihydrochloride and seems to benefit some people. If you try it give it a couple weeks. I have no financial interest in this product or any drugstore selling it. My wife, who does have MS, uses it on her arm and it seems to help.

Let us know how your appointment goes, won’t you? Best to you and your household.

[Mark5]

Hi Mark,

Although your report mentions “mild white matter disease” I believe there are some encouraging things about your MRI. Notably, the things which they didn’t see and the use of terms like can’t rule out, probably, mild, etc. It means you should wait for your neurologist to put it all together and render an opinion or diagnosis.

Speculation at this point is not very valuable. There a number of possibilities some of which are quite benign. For example, age-related chronic ischemic changes seen on MRI are often treated with just low-dose aspirin.

I’m not saying that is what you have or that aspirin is appropriate for you; I’m only offering an example to get you thinking that the situation may be far less threatening than you suspect.

I don’t know if it is true but a doctor discussing MRIs once told me that as we age, “we will all have lesions”. In other words, he was telling me that it is more common than I had thought.

It is impossible to know what your neuro will say in 6 weeks but it may not be as bad as feared or anything close to it. Could it be MS? Possibly, but very possible it isn’t, too.

On another note, if you want to try something for your arm you might try a product named Australian Dream Cream. It can be found at Walgreens and other drugstores. It contains histamine dihydrochloride and seems to benefit some people. If you try it give it a couple weeks. I have no financial interest in this product or any drugstore selling it. My wife, who does have MS, uses it on her arm and it seems to help.

Let us know how your appointment goes, won’t you? Best to you and your household.

Myoak, thank you for the input and I'll look into the cream. Sleeping on my left side is a bear -- my upper arm gets really sore in the middle of the night.

I have heard that these "spots" on the brain are common in older people. Since I'm 55 I guess I don't consider myself as elderly yet, but I admit I'm not a young buck any more either.

I have read where these spots are common not only in the elderly but also with those who smoke, or are diabetic, have high blood pressure, suffer migraines, or have high cholesterol. I don't smoke or have any of these conditions so it makes me wonder why I have the spots.

More than anything I wonder what their connection, if any, there is to these spots and the muscle stiffness/soreness, and nerve pain and tingling sensations in my left arm and hand and lack of strength in my arm and hand in addition to the periodic lightheadedness. It wouldn't surprise me if there is no connection and hope for my sake there isn't one.

It was quite shocking when I read the MRI report and saw the words: "mild white matter disease" then thought of my symptoms and started adding things up to thinking all of this might be MS related. Now that I have done a little more research I have doubts that it is MS but I am highly curious what's the cause of it all and what to do about it. Hopefully I'll find out more about it in 6 weeks when I meet with the neurologist.