I need a Sherlock Holmes here, I'm so confused.
Had some symptoms, went to a neuro, had an MRI done. My neuro looked at the MRI images and said "no signs of MS here, go and get treatment for conversion disorder." He didn't even zoom into the images, just looked over at 3" thumbnails.
Then my neuro received a detailed report from Radiology. They found multiple lesions in both hemispheres, in medulla oblongata, in cerebellum. Radiology report recommended a liquor test done, especially because one lesion looked suspicious (not sure what they meant by that).
So the neuro called me back into office and did the lumbar puncture. The results were negative, no O-bands found. My neuro basically said "get outta here, you don't have MS. Ok, you have lesions, but they are probably from migraines."
So... it's all good now, or what? and what do I do with my gazillion symptoms? And the thing is, they are very annoying, and they don't look so awful until I see how many of them I have. I just need help sorting them out.
1) Can't fit into doorframes or narrow spaces - doors just attack me! :-) I was always covered in bruises, and would perpetually bump into things. My elbows and little toes were constantly hurt from bumping into stuff. Wherever that nightstand, shelf, radiator are - I'm gonna find them and knock them out!
2) Crawling sensations on legs, tingling, some numbness in my hands
3) Had trouble drinking from a cup, always gulped some air in, coughed and choked. I actually switched to drinking from a teapot nozzle, I now use a small teapot instead of a cup, and drink water from it.
4) Short-term memory is messed up - I don't remember some conversations (for example, I ask my dh how his relative is doing after a surgery, and he says "You just asked me that 20 minutes ago and I already told you")
5) Trouble remembering everyday things. For example, we moved, and for a while I had trouble finding the "Ground Floor" button in the elevator. I wished I could mark it with a neon sticker or something. Every day I'd look at the buttons and think "ok, where is it? which button do I push?" Or, I was knitting a scarf, and then I just pause, sit there in a middle of knitting a row, and think "Ok, and what do I do next..."
6) A lot of memory is gone in general. I used to have a Wikipedia in my head, now I can't remember anything at all. I was perfect at trivia quizzes, Jeopardy, bar quizzes and the like. All gone, it's not even funny.
7) I'm constantly searching for words - I'm tired of giving definitions instead of words. It's like I have Alzheimers. "You know, that thing that people take to get to work and to get back. With wheels. A car!"... or, "that thing that people eat with, you know, a round metal thing... a spoon!"
8)I used to be good at languages and remembering poetry - now I can't even memorize a children's rhyme. Seriously, I printed it out and tried to memorize, and I still cannot sing the whole thing (12 lines and a refrain.)
9) Also, when I'm looking for a word, it's like I do a search in my brain and instead of searching for a few first letters, I start my search with a wildcard. "Tortellini? Macaroni? Ah! Zamboni!" or "Salutation? Creation? Destination? oh, Inebriation!"
10) Hand grip strength is gone - I can't open shampoo bottles, pill bottles and the like.
11) I can't handle small items well - beads, buttons, stuff like that. I'm dropping them way too often.
12) Sometimes my arms jerk when I'm doing the simplest stuff. For example, I want to get a soup ladle hanging on the wall, and I hit the wall with my extended hand. Or, I'd aim to put a pot on the shelf, and just bang its side against the shelf. (another bad one was when I was in the bathtub and trying to "grate" the old skin off my heels - my hand jerked and the "grater" took a half-inch slice of skin off my left hand, right on the knuckle. That took a while to heel.)
13) I don't remember faces and names anymore - I used to be good, now I can't for the life of me even remember our new neighbors.
14) I've lost some hearing in my left ear, an ear-nose-throat doc recommended a full hearing test (had no time for it yet)
The symptoms were at their worst in winter, then there was sort of a break in spring, and they came back in summer. Now I'm quite fine again. I'm not even afraid of doors anymore! I only bruised my little toe once this week. I can drink from cups again, and don't choke on my morning coffee.
Please help, I don't know what to do.
1) is it all in my head, should I stop being a hypochondriac?
2) ok, brain lesions are real, but they are from bad migraines. I should just deal with memory loss and feeling like an idiot?
3) see another specialist?
If anyone has read this far, a heartfelt THANK YOU!!!!
Had some symptoms, went to a neuro, had an MRI done. My neuro looked at the MRI images and said "no signs of MS here, go and get treatment for conversion disorder." He didn't even zoom into the images, just looked over at 3" thumbnails.
Then my neuro received a detailed report from Radiology. They found multiple lesions in both hemispheres, in medulla oblongata, in cerebellum. Radiology report recommended a liquor test done, especially because one lesion looked suspicious (not sure what they meant by that).
So the neuro called me back into office and did the lumbar puncture. The results were negative, no O-bands found. My neuro basically said "get outta here, you don't have MS. Ok, you have lesions, but they are probably from migraines."
So... it's all good now, or what? and what do I do with my gazillion symptoms? And the thing is, they are very annoying, and they don't look so awful until I see how many of them I have. I just need help sorting them out.
1) Can't fit into doorframes or narrow spaces - doors just attack me! :-) I was always covered in bruises, and would perpetually bump into things. My elbows and little toes were constantly hurt from bumping into stuff. Wherever that nightstand, shelf, radiator are - I'm gonna find them and knock them out!
2) Crawling sensations on legs, tingling, some numbness in my hands
3) Had trouble drinking from a cup, always gulped some air in, coughed and choked. I actually switched to drinking from a teapot nozzle, I now use a small teapot instead of a cup, and drink water from it.
4) Short-term memory is messed up - I don't remember some conversations (for example, I ask my dh how his relative is doing after a surgery, and he says "You just asked me that 20 minutes ago and I already told you")
5) Trouble remembering everyday things. For example, we moved, and for a while I had trouble finding the "Ground Floor" button in the elevator. I wished I could mark it with a neon sticker or something. Every day I'd look at the buttons and think "ok, where is it? which button do I push?" Or, I was knitting a scarf, and then I just pause, sit there in a middle of knitting a row, and think "Ok, and what do I do next..."
6) A lot of memory is gone in general. I used to have a Wikipedia in my head, now I can't remember anything at all. I was perfect at trivia quizzes, Jeopardy, bar quizzes and the like. All gone, it's not even funny.
7) I'm constantly searching for words - I'm tired of giving definitions instead of words. It's like I have Alzheimers. "You know, that thing that people take to get to work and to get back. With wheels. A car!"... or, "that thing that people eat with, you know, a round metal thing... a spoon!"
8)I used to be good at languages and remembering poetry - now I can't even memorize a children's rhyme. Seriously, I printed it out and tried to memorize, and I still cannot sing the whole thing (12 lines and a refrain.)
9) Also, when I'm looking for a word, it's like I do a search in my brain and instead of searching for a few first letters, I start my search with a wildcard. "Tortellini? Macaroni? Ah! Zamboni!" or "Salutation? Creation? Destination? oh, Inebriation!"
10) Hand grip strength is gone - I can't open shampoo bottles, pill bottles and the like.
11) I can't handle small items well - beads, buttons, stuff like that. I'm dropping them way too often.
12) Sometimes my arms jerk when I'm doing the simplest stuff. For example, I want to get a soup ladle hanging on the wall, and I hit the wall with my extended hand. Or, I'd aim to put a pot on the shelf, and just bang its side against the shelf. (another bad one was when I was in the bathtub and trying to "grate" the old skin off my heels - my hand jerked and the "grater" took a half-inch slice of skin off my left hand, right on the knuckle. That took a while to heel.)
13) I don't remember faces and names anymore - I used to be good, now I can't for the life of me even remember our new neighbors.
14) I've lost some hearing in my left ear, an ear-nose-throat doc recommended a full hearing test (had no time for it yet)
The symptoms were at their worst in winter, then there was sort of a break in spring, and they came back in summer. Now I'm quite fine again. I'm not even afraid of doors anymore! I only bruised my little toe once this week. I can drink from cups again, and don't choke on my morning coffee.
Please help, I don't know what to do.
1) is it all in my head, should I stop being a hypochondriac?
2) ok, brain lesions are real, but they are from bad migraines. I should just deal with memory loss and feeling like an idiot?
3) see another specialist?
If anyone has read this far, a heartfelt THANK YOU!!!!
Whatever this is, it's good to know that we are not alone!
But I'm going to look for another specialist, that's for sure. Hopefully we'll find out whatever it is that made me bump into all the furniture corners I could find.
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