I'm a 60-year-old white male who was diagnosed nine days ago with MS. My neurologist seems very confident in this diagnosis but since I am newly diagnosed I'm just wondering:
I feel like my diagnosis of multiple sclerosis was made rather quickly. I've been doing some research and looking around on the Internet and it seems like many people went through a long process of many different tests to finally find out that they have multiple sclerosis.
It was only three months ago I had an event that might be described as a relapse or exacerbation. That was a sudden onset of dizziness or out of balance feeling that was originally diagnosed as vertigo. However, that symptom didn't go away and it's still with me now. Not very long before that my vision began to change. I was unable to focus as normal. I could only look at objects, printed pages, or television for a short time (only seconds) before losing focus. I recently had an eye examination and received a new prescription because of a change in my astigmatism. Since I was having so much trouble focusing I went back to the eye doctor to verify that the glasses were the proper prescription and my eyes were okay. The doctor said my eyes were in perfect health and the prescription was the correct prescription for my eyes.
Historically I've only had a couple of symptoms seem to last only a short time (three or four months). One of those was a numbness or tingling in my left arm. I eventually saw a neurologist about that who did tests to check the nerves in my arm with negative results. The problem seemed clear up on its own with no further testing or treatment. Other symptoms I had I attributed to just normal things that occurred to people my age, such as leg cramps for which I started taking*potassium and seemed to clear up with no further occurrences. I've had a general achiness all over for a very long time that I just attributed to age. I just thought that was normal.
Because of the out of balance feeling, I went to an ear, nose and throat specialist to find out if my inner ear was causing problems. A VNG test was done and the specialist said that my inner ear was not causing my out of balance symptoms. He did determine that I had nystagmus, which would account for the focus issues that I have.
The ENT doctor referred me to a neurologist. The neurologist ordered an MRI and had a follow-up appointment to discuss the MRI. That doctor suggested that I may have MS or the white spots may be attributed to normal aging. He suggested several courses of action one of which was getting a second opinion. I chose to get a second opinion and the second neurologist was very sure that my symptoms and the MRI confirmed that I had MS.
My MRI showed many white spots or lesions in many places on my brain. Two were found in specific areas*that could cause the symptoms I'm having now with balance and vision. There was was a total of about 10*spots in different areas of my brain with no clear indication what they may be causing.
My neurologist said that the MRI is 95% accurate for this diagnosis.
Am I so lucky that I stumbled upon a short path to determine what's causing my symptoms? Is there some other test that I might have done to lock down that last 5% and determine absolutely that I have MS?
Ed
I feel like my diagnosis of multiple sclerosis was made rather quickly. I've been doing some research and looking around on the Internet and it seems like many people went through a long process of many different tests to finally find out that they have multiple sclerosis.
It was only three months ago I had an event that might be described as a relapse or exacerbation. That was a sudden onset of dizziness or out of balance feeling that was originally diagnosed as vertigo. However, that symptom didn't go away and it's still with me now. Not very long before that my vision began to change. I was unable to focus as normal. I could only look at objects, printed pages, or television for a short time (only seconds) before losing focus. I recently had an eye examination and received a new prescription because of a change in my astigmatism. Since I was having so much trouble focusing I went back to the eye doctor to verify that the glasses were the proper prescription and my eyes were okay. The doctor said my eyes were in perfect health and the prescription was the correct prescription for my eyes.
Historically I've only had a couple of symptoms seem to last only a short time (three or four months). One of those was a numbness or tingling in my left arm. I eventually saw a neurologist about that who did tests to check the nerves in my arm with negative results. The problem seemed clear up on its own with no further testing or treatment. Other symptoms I had I attributed to just normal things that occurred to people my age, such as leg cramps for which I started taking*potassium and seemed to clear up with no further occurrences. I've had a general achiness all over for a very long time that I just attributed to age. I just thought that was normal.
Because of the out of balance feeling, I went to an ear, nose and throat specialist to find out if my inner ear was causing problems. A VNG test was done and the specialist said that my inner ear was not causing my out of balance symptoms. He did determine that I had nystagmus, which would account for the focus issues that I have.
The ENT doctor referred me to a neurologist. The neurologist ordered an MRI and had a follow-up appointment to discuss the MRI. That doctor suggested that I may have MS or the white spots may be attributed to normal aging. He suggested several courses of action one of which was getting a second opinion. I chose to get a second opinion and the second neurologist was very sure that my symptoms and the MRI confirmed that I had MS.
My MRI showed many white spots or lesions in many places on my brain. Two were found in specific areas*that could cause the symptoms I'm having now with balance and vision. There was was a total of about 10*spots in different areas of my brain with no clear indication what they may be causing.
My neurologist said that the MRI is 95% accurate for this diagnosis.
Am I so lucky that I stumbled upon a short path to determine what's causing my symptoms? Is there some other test that I might have done to lock down that last 5% and determine absolutely that I have MS?
Ed
There's not a reliable 95% so no other 5% to "nail down" the diagnosis. If you meet the diagnostic criteria for MS - which includes all reasonable tests to rule out other possible causes - then your diagnosis is already nailed down. There's no reason to question that other 5% because it's a made-up number.
Comment