I recently began a thread "should I suspect ms?" In it, I listed a summary of some symptoms that have made me suspicious over the past year or so. I have since connected some dots in past symptoms I've had. I'm struggling physically and most definitely emotionally right now, and because of lack of insurance, I'm very overwhelmed with all of it - especially the lack of means to get diagnosed.
My most bothersome symptoms have been muscle spasms, tingling numbness in fingers, burning/weakness in legs, swallowing (this has become a huge issue and I've been slowly losing weight the last few months and am constantly coughing), trouble emptying bladder, constipation, extreme fatigue.
The recent connections I've made are these:
In researching, I had seen the "ms hug" in lists of symptoms and didn't think anything of it. While driving home from work last week, it dawned on me that I needed to find descriptions of what it felt like. Since before I was 10 years old, I have often gotten a feeling of tightness around my chest (as if something were tied around me and tightened), and in waves, an intense stabbing pain beneath my left lower ribs causing me to only be able to take shallow breaths. Because this is something I've always lived with, I didn't take it into account in considering everything that has been going on with me more recently.
Also, I got in a car accident two years ago and had many of the same symptoms, but with more cognitive and balance issues. A chiropractor I saw even told me he thought I had symptoms of ms, he also thought I had a fractured vertebrae (which I didn't), so I dismissed his opinion and never went back or thought twice about what he said. I went to a neuro who said I probably just had damage done to the nervous system on a microscopic level that would just take time to heal. In a few months, most of the symptoms went away, so I assumed she was right.
With the connection of these things, I feel more confident that I probably do have ms, but have tried to put off really dealing w the emotional aspects of it until I can get diagnosed. As of a couple nights ago, it seems that's no longer possible. I have begun to grieve the life I had planned to have and have been an emotional basket case. It feels healthy and relieving, however, I wish there was a way I could postpone all of this until I figure out finances/insurance. I don't really know what answers I'm looking for in this post, other than to hear if anyone else has similar stories. I know nobody can diagnose, it seems even doctors have a hard enough time doing that, but I feel that it might help me emotionally to hear if other people have gone through similar realizations and frustrations.
Thanks.
My most bothersome symptoms have been muscle spasms, tingling numbness in fingers, burning/weakness in legs, swallowing (this has become a huge issue and I've been slowly losing weight the last few months and am constantly coughing), trouble emptying bladder, constipation, extreme fatigue.
The recent connections I've made are these:
In researching, I had seen the "ms hug" in lists of symptoms and didn't think anything of it. While driving home from work last week, it dawned on me that I needed to find descriptions of what it felt like. Since before I was 10 years old, I have often gotten a feeling of tightness around my chest (as if something were tied around me and tightened), and in waves, an intense stabbing pain beneath my left lower ribs causing me to only be able to take shallow breaths. Because this is something I've always lived with, I didn't take it into account in considering everything that has been going on with me more recently.
Also, I got in a car accident two years ago and had many of the same symptoms, but with more cognitive and balance issues. A chiropractor I saw even told me he thought I had symptoms of ms, he also thought I had a fractured vertebrae (which I didn't), so I dismissed his opinion and never went back or thought twice about what he said. I went to a neuro who said I probably just had damage done to the nervous system on a microscopic level that would just take time to heal. In a few months, most of the symptoms went away, so I assumed she was right.
With the connection of these things, I feel more confident that I probably do have ms, but have tried to put off really dealing w the emotional aspects of it until I can get diagnosed. As of a couple nights ago, it seems that's no longer possible. I have begun to grieve the life I had planned to have and have been an emotional basket case. It feels healthy and relieving, however, I wish there was a way I could postpone all of this until I figure out finances/insurance. I don't really know what answers I'm looking for in this post, other than to hear if anyone else has similar stories. I know nobody can diagnose, it seems even doctors have a hard enough time doing that, but I feel that it might help me emotionally to hear if other people have gone through similar realizations and frustrations.
Thanks.
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