Hello to everyone,
I wanted to post and maybe talk to some people who have been diagnosed with MS.
I'm 27 years old and am currently being advised by my doctor (as soon as my insurance goes into effect) to go to the ER and have a spinal tap and an MRI done.
I have been suffering from a rash of symptoms that she suspects are related and may lead to a diagnosis of MS. In January I sat up in bed and could not see. At all. My vision came back in a minute or two, but since then I get a fuzzed out white spot in the vision of my right eye. It too comes and goes, and is only generally there a few minutes, but sometimes multiple times in a day.
In March I started to get a sense that my eyes were jumping back and forth if I laid on my stomach and read a book or looked down. Now, if I tuck my head to my chest, that sensation and jumpiness in my vision comes back.
At the end of July I got bronchitis very quickly and was given Ciprofloxacin for it on Aug. 2nd. I started to have pain in my tendons all over my body. It was worst in my knee and my achilles, but was happening everywhere. I stopped the Abx Aug. 6 or 7 and went to the doctor. I was playing water polo for college, and would go home with swollen red shoulders and pain everywhere. I saw the sports medicine doctors at school, the trainers, and did everything by protocol, iced, anti-inflammatories, etc.
I saw my doctor again on August 19th with severe joint pain all over my body. She tested for Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Rheumatic Fever, Scarlet Fever, Lyme, secondary infections, HIV, Thyroid problems… Everything has come back normal. All of my bloodwork has been clean and well within normal values.
I have been back in to see her a few times since then, and saw her last on the 31st. Since the first visit on the 19th I have the following symptoms
- systemic tendonitis
- joint pain in my ankles, knees, feet, toes, hands and fingers, wrists, elbows and shoulders. It comes and goes and gets flare-ups from moving around. It can be anything from achey and sore to feeling like a red-hot poker has been stabbed into the joint.
- a burning sensation in my joints
- a burning cold pain on my skin, like you feel if you put an ice cube on your skin and hold it there. This starts in my hands and moves up my forearms and into my upper arms when it gets very bad. It makes me feel like I need to hold my arms in ice water. I also feel it in the tops of my feet and ankles.
- shooting "electric" pains that go from my hand or wrist into my forearm. These are generally followed by burning and tingling of the skin on my hands and arms as well as a crushed feeling in the bones of my hands.
- tremors and shakiness in my hands and arms. My handwriting has gotten small and cramped because if I write normally it is all squiggly now. It feels like it takes a ton of effort to do anything that involves fine motor skills and that the shakiness gets worse the harder I try to do something.
- Muscle weakness in my arms and legs. My legs wobble going up and especially down stairs, like they don't want to support me.
- Hearing things, like the "brrrrring brrrrring" sound of a telephone when bend my arm at the elbow. This happened to me in the bath one night. Every time I straightened my arm it would stop. Now I hear a sound like the ice cream man is blocks away when a fan is on in my room.
- Waves of dizziness and nausea. I assume this is vertigo? I've never experienced it as a negative thing before. I have always loved the feeling when flying or on roller coasters or thrill rides.
- I feel very tired very easily. I have not been in school since the 17th of August and have not driven since then. I was under orders to stay in bed from my doctor due to the tendon pain and dizziness. But just walking around the house, or around a Target for 20 min or so leaves me exhausted and ready to pass out.
- Very deep pain in my legs when resting. This is something that is recurring and has been for quite a while. Starts generally around my ankle and moves up to my hips sometimes. I describe it as feeling like the long bones are bending with the weight of gravity. It's excruciating. It was a horrible bout with this pain that caused me to sit up the night that I couldn't see.
- Loss of coordination when walking/stumbling and a slowed mental reaction time. Also a tendency to say a word and have it come out nonsense syllables instead of what I meant to say.
My doctor put me on prednisone first, which did nothing, then on a 6 day course of 4mg solu medrol This had a small improvement by days 3 and 4, then the symptoms came back. I have been on 800 mg of motrin and vicodin around the clock since the 19th, and they both do pretty much nothing but make me feel a little numb and give me a stomach ache.
My doctor started out thinking that this could have been an allergic reaction to the Cipro I took, but things have been getting worse instead of better, and as I talked to her more, she said she didn't think it was the Cipro, or if it was, then it could have triggered something auto-immune.
I have always been a very active person. I play water polo, I run and do half-marathons and triathlons. I swim, surf, and love to be active.
Since the beginning of August I have gone from a very fit and active 27 year old girl to a 27 year old girl who can't move around without crutches and braces on both wrists, both ankles and both knees.
I am terrified. When I started talking about the burning skin and hearing things, my doctor told me that medically, her advice was to immediately go to the ER and see a neurologist and have an MRI and a spinal tap done, as well as whatever else they decide to do. She said that since we have ruled out so many other things, she has to consider things like MS or tumors or cancer. We unfortunately had to apply for medical insurance first.
I am sorry that this is so long and detailed, but the doctors do not know what is going on with me at all yet and I was hoping that the community here could tell me if what I am experiencing sounds like it could be MS or like something else.
I have to wait until the 15th to schedule the MRI and spinal tap so right now I am in that worst spot of waiting to find out what's making me feel so horrible and what has happened that has turned my life upside down in such a short time.
I find that every day I feel worse overall and the stress of waiting to see is not helping.
I would so greatly appreciate it if anyone could help or respond at all.
I wanted to post and maybe talk to some people who have been diagnosed with MS.
I'm 27 years old and am currently being advised by my doctor (as soon as my insurance goes into effect) to go to the ER and have a spinal tap and an MRI done.
I have been suffering from a rash of symptoms that she suspects are related and may lead to a diagnosis of MS. In January I sat up in bed and could not see. At all. My vision came back in a minute or two, but since then I get a fuzzed out white spot in the vision of my right eye. It too comes and goes, and is only generally there a few minutes, but sometimes multiple times in a day.
In March I started to get a sense that my eyes were jumping back and forth if I laid on my stomach and read a book or looked down. Now, if I tuck my head to my chest, that sensation and jumpiness in my vision comes back.
At the end of July I got bronchitis very quickly and was given Ciprofloxacin for it on Aug. 2nd. I started to have pain in my tendons all over my body. It was worst in my knee and my achilles, but was happening everywhere. I stopped the Abx Aug. 6 or 7 and went to the doctor. I was playing water polo for college, and would go home with swollen red shoulders and pain everywhere. I saw the sports medicine doctors at school, the trainers, and did everything by protocol, iced, anti-inflammatories, etc.
I saw my doctor again on August 19th with severe joint pain all over my body. She tested for Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Rheumatic Fever, Scarlet Fever, Lyme, secondary infections, HIV, Thyroid problems… Everything has come back normal. All of my bloodwork has been clean and well within normal values.
I have been back in to see her a few times since then, and saw her last on the 31st. Since the first visit on the 19th I have the following symptoms
- systemic tendonitis
- joint pain in my ankles, knees, feet, toes, hands and fingers, wrists, elbows and shoulders. It comes and goes and gets flare-ups from moving around. It can be anything from achey and sore to feeling like a red-hot poker has been stabbed into the joint.
- a burning sensation in my joints
- a burning cold pain on my skin, like you feel if you put an ice cube on your skin and hold it there. This starts in my hands and moves up my forearms and into my upper arms when it gets very bad. It makes me feel like I need to hold my arms in ice water. I also feel it in the tops of my feet and ankles.
- shooting "electric" pains that go from my hand or wrist into my forearm. These are generally followed by burning and tingling of the skin on my hands and arms as well as a crushed feeling in the bones of my hands.
- tremors and shakiness in my hands and arms. My handwriting has gotten small and cramped because if I write normally it is all squiggly now. It feels like it takes a ton of effort to do anything that involves fine motor skills and that the shakiness gets worse the harder I try to do something.
- Muscle weakness in my arms and legs. My legs wobble going up and especially down stairs, like they don't want to support me.
- Hearing things, like the "brrrrring brrrrring" sound of a telephone when bend my arm at the elbow. This happened to me in the bath one night. Every time I straightened my arm it would stop. Now I hear a sound like the ice cream man is blocks away when a fan is on in my room.
- Waves of dizziness and nausea. I assume this is vertigo? I've never experienced it as a negative thing before. I have always loved the feeling when flying or on roller coasters or thrill rides.
- I feel very tired very easily. I have not been in school since the 17th of August and have not driven since then. I was under orders to stay in bed from my doctor due to the tendon pain and dizziness. But just walking around the house, or around a Target for 20 min or so leaves me exhausted and ready to pass out.
- Very deep pain in my legs when resting. This is something that is recurring and has been for quite a while. Starts generally around my ankle and moves up to my hips sometimes. I describe it as feeling like the long bones are bending with the weight of gravity. It's excruciating. It was a horrible bout with this pain that caused me to sit up the night that I couldn't see.
- Loss of coordination when walking/stumbling and a slowed mental reaction time. Also a tendency to say a word and have it come out nonsense syllables instead of what I meant to say.
My doctor put me on prednisone first, which did nothing, then on a 6 day course of 4mg solu medrol This had a small improvement by days 3 and 4, then the symptoms came back. I have been on 800 mg of motrin and vicodin around the clock since the 19th, and they both do pretty much nothing but make me feel a little numb and give me a stomach ache.
My doctor started out thinking that this could have been an allergic reaction to the Cipro I took, but things have been getting worse instead of better, and as I talked to her more, she said she didn't think it was the Cipro, or if it was, then it could have triggered something auto-immune.
I have always been a very active person. I play water polo, I run and do half-marathons and triathlons. I swim, surf, and love to be active.
Since the beginning of August I have gone from a very fit and active 27 year old girl to a 27 year old girl who can't move around without crutches and braces on both wrists, both ankles and both knees.
I am terrified. When I started talking about the burning skin and hearing things, my doctor told me that medically, her advice was to immediately go to the ER and see a neurologist and have an MRI and a spinal tap done, as well as whatever else they decide to do. She said that since we have ruled out so many other things, she has to consider things like MS or tumors or cancer. We unfortunately had to apply for medical insurance first.
I am sorry that this is so long and detailed, but the doctors do not know what is going on with me at all yet and I was hoping that the community here could tell me if what I am experiencing sounds like it could be MS or like something else.
I have to wait until the 15th to schedule the MRI and spinal tap so right now I am in that worst spot of waiting to find out what's making me feel so horrible and what has happened that has turned my life upside down in such a short time.
I find that every day I feel worse overall and the stress of waiting to see is not helping.
I would so greatly appreciate it if anyone could help or respond at all.
and really hope that my doc and I can work something out so that I can at least start to get a little activity in.
Comment