Hi everyone. This is my first post here. I may or may not have MS and am just looking for support from others who may be in the same boat.
My name is Mary and I just turned 30 years old. My problems all began on May 6th of this year. I had just given birth to my sweet baby boy on May 1st, so he was just 5 days old. That day, I began to notice tingling in my fingertips and in the bottoms of my feet (affecting all four limbs). I had mildly elevated blood pressure during my pregnancy that was well controlled with a low dose of labetalol. I realized that since we had gotten home from the hospital, I hadn't been great about checking my BP. I checked it and it was really high, like 180's/110's. I assumed maybe the tingling was associated with the blood pressure thing, and focused most of my attention on getting the BP under control (although I did still worry about the tingling and the fact that sometimes MS seems to flare after childbirth). In the coming days/weeks, my blood pressure was out of control. Sometimes, it would be 180/115 and 115/60 in the SAME HOUR. It was all over the place (labile blood pressures). I eventually had to triple my dose of labetalol from 100mg twice daily to 200mg three times daily in order to avoid those spikes. Eventually, I started getting very low blood pressures, like 70/50, so I have since been able to wean off of the blood pressure med entirely.
Eventually, other symptoms began. The tingling began to affect both my neck and head in addition to my hands and feet. Random twitches in various areas of my body, myoclonic jerks, issues with my hands just locking up (both hands at the same time, and it would only last a minute), an incident of my right arm locking up at the elbow with my arm in the straight position. Once I got the elbow to bend a bit, it was fine (is this what they call spasticity?). Deep aches in various muscles, it seems to move around... sometimes in a leg, other times in an arm, it's rarely the same for more than a few days. I have developed a tremor that I notice the most when I'm trying to do fine movements with my hands or when I'm trying to walk down the stairs. I've experienced a few incidences of blurred vision in my left eye since this began. It only lasts up to a half hour, then goes away on its own.
I've also experienced ringing and vibrating in my left ear as well as temporary hearing loss in my left ear (just for a few minutes, then it's back to normal). I've experienced vibrating sensation in my lower abdomen, all the way down to my feet. A buzzing sensation in my body that almost reminds me of the way an electric fence sounds when you can hear it buzzing. I just feel like a live wire of electricity all the time. Sensitivity to light and sound. Particularly bothersome to me has been pain in my hands. There is burning nerve pain in my fingers, and it's annoying but manageable. But the worst is this deep, aching pain in the palms of my hands. Some nights, I can't sleep because my hands just ache so badly. I've had numb spots in various areas of my body. For many weeks after the birth, my left pointer finger and left big toe felt numb. I actually just realized for the first time that they no longer feel numb. However, I do have a numb spot in the arch of my right foot that I notice mostly when I walk. It has just developed over the last week, maybe.
Before all this began, I was a normal, healthy, active person. I have two other little boys, ages 2 and 4, and I never had a problem keeping up with them. Now, I have such massive fatigue that it is hard to drag myself out of bed many days. Shortly after all these problems began, I spoke to my doctor about anxiety (fear of debilitating illness) and began taking zoloft. My attitude about the situation has improved a LOT, but I worry that some of my problems may actually be side effects of the zoloft, because most of the problems began after I started it.
Anyway, let's get to the tests I've had done.
-MRI (brain and cervical spine, no contrast) - Normal
-Visual Evoked Potential - Normal
Labs:
-ANA - negative
-Lyme - negative (questionable after definite tick exposure at least twice in April)
-Kidney and liver fn - Normal
-CBC w/diff - All normal
The labs that were abnormal:
-Vitamin D - Low
-Calcium and potassium - Low
-Magnesium - High (this is odd, not sure why)
I now supplement calcium and vitamin D in addition to my prenatal vitamin that I continue to take because I am breastfeeding. All my labs have since been retested and were normal, except for vitamin D, which has not been retested yet.
I am scheduled for an EMG in August, and then the neurologist said we may repeat MRIs with contrast in October to make sure we didn't do MRIs too soon to see lesions.
Anyway, that's all about me. Feel free to share your own experiences or commiserate with me. I've been pretty much miserable for the almost 12 weeks that this has gone on. If this is an initial episode of MS, is it normal for symptoms to continue so strongly for so long? Is it possible that it could still relapse and be RRMS, or does it seem more likely that it would be PPMS? I'm really hoping if it IS MS, that it's at least RRMS since treatments seem to work better for it.
My name is Mary and I just turned 30 years old. My problems all began on May 6th of this year. I had just given birth to my sweet baby boy on May 1st, so he was just 5 days old. That day, I began to notice tingling in my fingertips and in the bottoms of my feet (affecting all four limbs). I had mildly elevated blood pressure during my pregnancy that was well controlled with a low dose of labetalol. I realized that since we had gotten home from the hospital, I hadn't been great about checking my BP. I checked it and it was really high, like 180's/110's. I assumed maybe the tingling was associated with the blood pressure thing, and focused most of my attention on getting the BP under control (although I did still worry about the tingling and the fact that sometimes MS seems to flare after childbirth). In the coming days/weeks, my blood pressure was out of control. Sometimes, it would be 180/115 and 115/60 in the SAME HOUR. It was all over the place (labile blood pressures). I eventually had to triple my dose of labetalol from 100mg twice daily to 200mg three times daily in order to avoid those spikes. Eventually, I started getting very low blood pressures, like 70/50, so I have since been able to wean off of the blood pressure med entirely.
Eventually, other symptoms began. The tingling began to affect both my neck and head in addition to my hands and feet. Random twitches in various areas of my body, myoclonic jerks, issues with my hands just locking up (both hands at the same time, and it would only last a minute), an incident of my right arm locking up at the elbow with my arm in the straight position. Once I got the elbow to bend a bit, it was fine (is this what they call spasticity?). Deep aches in various muscles, it seems to move around... sometimes in a leg, other times in an arm, it's rarely the same for more than a few days. I have developed a tremor that I notice the most when I'm trying to do fine movements with my hands or when I'm trying to walk down the stairs. I've experienced a few incidences of blurred vision in my left eye since this began. It only lasts up to a half hour, then goes away on its own.
I've also experienced ringing and vibrating in my left ear as well as temporary hearing loss in my left ear (just for a few minutes, then it's back to normal). I've experienced vibrating sensation in my lower abdomen, all the way down to my feet. A buzzing sensation in my body that almost reminds me of the way an electric fence sounds when you can hear it buzzing. I just feel like a live wire of electricity all the time. Sensitivity to light and sound. Particularly bothersome to me has been pain in my hands. There is burning nerve pain in my fingers, and it's annoying but manageable. But the worst is this deep, aching pain in the palms of my hands. Some nights, I can't sleep because my hands just ache so badly. I've had numb spots in various areas of my body. For many weeks after the birth, my left pointer finger and left big toe felt numb. I actually just realized for the first time that they no longer feel numb. However, I do have a numb spot in the arch of my right foot that I notice mostly when I walk. It has just developed over the last week, maybe.
Before all this began, I was a normal, healthy, active person. I have two other little boys, ages 2 and 4, and I never had a problem keeping up with them. Now, I have such massive fatigue that it is hard to drag myself out of bed many days. Shortly after all these problems began, I spoke to my doctor about anxiety (fear of debilitating illness) and began taking zoloft. My attitude about the situation has improved a LOT, but I worry that some of my problems may actually be side effects of the zoloft, because most of the problems began after I started it.
Anyway, let's get to the tests I've had done.
-MRI (brain and cervical spine, no contrast) - Normal
-Visual Evoked Potential - Normal
Labs:
-ANA - negative
-Lyme - negative (questionable after definite tick exposure at least twice in April)
-Kidney and liver fn - Normal
-CBC w/diff - All normal
The labs that were abnormal:
-Vitamin D - Low
-Calcium and potassium - Low
-Magnesium - High (this is odd, not sure why)
I now supplement calcium and vitamin D in addition to my prenatal vitamin that I continue to take because I am breastfeeding. All my labs have since been retested and were normal, except for vitamin D, which has not been retested yet.
I am scheduled for an EMG in August, and then the neurologist said we may repeat MRIs with contrast in October to make sure we didn't do MRIs too soon to see lesions.
Anyway, that's all about me. Feel free to share your own experiences or commiserate with me. I've been pretty much miserable for the almost 12 weeks that this has gone on. If this is an initial episode of MS, is it normal for symptoms to continue so strongly for so long? Is it possible that it could still relapse and be RRMS, or does it seem more likely that it would be PPMS? I'm really hoping if it IS MS, that it's at least RRMS since treatments seem to work better for it.
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