I'm back with more info. I posted a while ago about my frustration with not getting a diagnosis. Now I'm just confused.
I ended up in the hospital the week of CHristmas after experiencing extreme left sided weekness, heaviness in my extremiites and increased tingling. Because I have had optic neuritis twice in the recent past, the presumption was MS and they treated me with a steroid pulse. I got GREAT results after that. I still have a very small residual weakness and get tired easily but over all SO much better. The excellent response to the soluMedrol gave more credence to the MS diagnosis. THe final diagnosis upon discharge was "acutre relapsing multiple sclerosis"
Why am I confused then? I just accessed my health record. All MRIs continue to be negative. The neurologist who saw me in-house said maybe Neuromyelitis Optica instead of MS but the antibody titer was negative.
I have an appointment with an MS specialist in mid-February. I am really afraid he will tell me I'm nuts or depressed or that I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or something like that because of the negative MRI.
I am not depressed or stressed (other than this issue) or crazy.
So, can I be diagnosed with MS after 3 neurological events, each months apart, one fairly debilitating, albeit short lived even with negative diagnositc testing?
What do I tell/ask the MS guy? I'm not asking to have MS; I'm just asking for answers and an end to my symptoms.
I ended up in the hospital the week of CHristmas after experiencing extreme left sided weekness, heaviness in my extremiites and increased tingling. Because I have had optic neuritis twice in the recent past, the presumption was MS and they treated me with a steroid pulse. I got GREAT results after that. I still have a very small residual weakness and get tired easily but over all SO much better. The excellent response to the soluMedrol gave more credence to the MS diagnosis. THe final diagnosis upon discharge was "acutre relapsing multiple sclerosis"
Why am I confused then? I just accessed my health record. All MRIs continue to be negative. The neurologist who saw me in-house said maybe Neuromyelitis Optica instead of MS but the antibody titer was negative.
I have an appointment with an MS specialist in mid-February. I am really afraid he will tell me I'm nuts or depressed or that I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or something like that because of the negative MRI.
I am not depressed or stressed (other than this issue) or crazy.
So, can I be diagnosed with MS after 3 neurological events, each months apart, one fairly debilitating, albeit short lived even with negative diagnositc testing?
What do I tell/ask the MS guy? I'm not asking to have MS; I'm just asking for answers and an end to my symptoms.
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