My first week with possible ms...

[Shade286]

Of course it seemed to start last July 15th 2011 when I tore a muscle doing a cart wheel... It never healed and the symptoms got worse. Last Friday MRI results showed 2 lesions on my spine. The dr. Suggested we start iv steriod treatment that day, 4 day iv pulse and now I am on the prednisone taper... I also had a spinal tap yesterday which has really made me feel like hell... The legs numbness, rocks under your feet, numbness from waist down, electric shocks when I bow my head, fatigue, off balance and inability to work has been going on since July and now the dr. Says he is 95% sure it's ms... He says we can use the spinal tap to confirm but results take a week or so.. So the treatment seems to be helping even though it's super uncomfortable and gross feeling. I feel power and strength in my legs, they also feel full an heavy but I feel them again. I haven't been able to do anything during this treatment. Today I tried to do dishes and it was way too much.. I am expecting to feel ****ty till I am off the steroids but I am hopeful I might be. Able to get some relief, if even for a second. I am already grateful for the information and support on this forum, thanks so much for sharing... I just had to tell someone besides my loving boyfriend what really is going on...

[CasinoKathy]

Hi Shade, nice to meet you! Your description of your sympt oms sound all to familiar! I can relate to almost all of them. Mine all started back in '94.

I hope you get some definite answers. Ask questions, and read all you can. It all helps, and of course coming here is a good step for sure. Good luck, hope to see you on here again. Casino

[Thinkimjob]

Welcome aboard. Funny, not, how everything gets turned upside down in a second.

I won't say the worst is over, but you'll be okay.

[alliesmommy]

Hi Shade

Welcome!! You found the best place to be in this time in your life.

Hopefully you will get the "official" dx soon but if you don't (I had to wait a year and a half to get official) don't worry, if its MS, it will rear its ugly head and show it self.

Like Casino said read and ask questions here. We are all dealing with it and don't ever feel like you are crazy. I know before I got my dx, I felt like I was crazy because the docs couldn't tell me why I felt the way I did even tho I knew something was wrong.

Good luck to you, I hope you get answers soon. Living in limbo sucks

[gomer]

Thanks for the LOL Shade..... I am still waiting for July 2012......HaHa!

When my new eye doc opened my MS can-o-worms, I searched the topic and found MS world. My fam doc when he found out called me for an urgent MS IT FITS pep talk. He wanted to see me BEFORE my first neuro apt and supported, more like pushed & helped me to get the MS question formally answered.

I had to get old MRIs etc in prep and of course read the reports myself. (curious cat I am). I was SHOCKED at what my ENT, who ordered the old MRIs ignored and put in my record.... 2 falls, both requiring surgeries in well under a year and he just puts in my file, CNS issue, investigate if warranted......what an arse! The lesions (Dawson's Fingers) descriptions read almost word for word a description of classic MS I found on the internet.

For me my world had been turned upside down for many decades. For me the formal RRMS Dx was a relief and it simply answered a many decades question and connect dots that spanned most of my life.

Gomer Sir Falls-A-Lot

[Shade286]

Can't thank you enough!

This forum is a savior. I don't think the diagnosis is going to be big surprise but for now I am just trying to get through these steroids... The pain and the fatigue... I am hoping I may feel relief a week after the pills but I am be just psyching myself out... It's hard to know what foods to eat cause the drugs have my stomach in knots and I know dairy, gluten are bad but does it matter with all this crap in me? I am planning a full diet change at the end of this course and I juice a few times a day, it's just hard to know what's right.. The stories an advice are helping thanks so much...

[tracylynn]

not sure

i have been having tingles, numbing and complete loss of my arms and legs, balance and vision problems memory problems.

tones of blood work cat scan and then a trip to the er when first i couldnt use my hands then i tried to walk and my legs just kept giving out, mostly on my right side by the time we got to er my slurring turned to no speach and i couldnt understand what the doc was asking me to do

cat scan was fine but, he said right off he thinks its ms!! 1st mri said tiny focus of increased focusin periventricular white matter. posssibility of a demyelinating process is difficult to entirely exclude.

flow void is seen in the superior sinus and major intracranialarteies arteries centrally indicating gross patency. is a suggestion of a punctate focus t2 weighted and flared and signal hyperintensity in the periventricular white matter adjacent to anterior horn of r lateral ventricale .

i have 2 more weeks before i see a neuro dr what does this mean?? help i have had a headache thet burns on my l back side of head and the fatique is killing me? b12 and vit, d levels are low but, ruled out b12 defeciency?

**post edited by Moderator to break into paragraphs for easier reading! many people with MS have visual difficulties that prevent them from reading large blocks of print**

[jbuckz]

Hi Shade!

Hang in there and don't worry yourself too much about changing everything all at once. You are allowed to eat anything, but most people do better on dairy and gluten free diets, including the general public, it is not just an MS thing

I personally have tried most of the things you read about on the Internet, some seem to work sometimes... but at the end of the day I still have MS. Most of the stuff you read about may help you a little but keep in mind that MS normally Relapses and Remits so it is still up for debate if anything is actually working or if it is the natural course of the disease. I went the first 7 years after Dx with ZERO lifestyle changes and was 100% fine, little flairs but most of the time forgot I had MS. I had many lesions during this time, so it was not like I had an easy case.

The one and only thing that has helped me more than anything is a positive attitude and a big smile on my face. That can be a tough order sometimes but is something that is worth trying everyday.

Good luck with all your doctors and the results. Please use this place to vent, ask questions or just to say hi!

Jason

[dpmich]

Hi Shade and welcome to MSworld. We really don't like to have to greet new members though. It always hurts abit to see someone else have the scares of MS dx in their life. The spinal tap may not tell the Dr that you have the O bands, mine did not. However the many lesions (enhanced and not) I had, plus all the symptoms, got me dx. It is a scary time, so try to relax and breathe. That will help as much as anything right now.

The steroids will leave you pretty quickly. I hope that the reason for them resolves itself as well. The fatigue you mention may choose to hang around, it is one of the many symptoms of ms. Hopefully it will abate also.

My recommendation would be to take some of this time to educate yourself on MS. There are many places to do that on the internet. It isn't to scare you but to help you learn more about the cause and effects of ms. For me, learning & studying, is my best way to attack a problem.

[Lexie]

Hello Shade! Just wanted to let you know that in my opinion this is the very best place to lift your spirits and "talk" to people who know exactly what you are going through. It has been such an uplifting site for me!