Hello, this is my first post here, so let's see how this goes. I've been having MS symptoms for some time now, enough to warrant having brain, neck, and cervical spine MRIs done, but my results came back clear and I'm not sure where to go from here. Here's the details of what's been going on.
Since I hit puberty I've dealt with some pretty common symptoms that were essentially dismissed at the time, but have since gotten worse. I've been diagnosed with severe clinical depression, anxiety, and panic attacks, and I've had frequent lower back pain and chronic migraines since I was pretty young. I've since developed spasms in both legs, mind fog, confusion, memory loss, extreme heat intolerance, irritable bowel syndrome, occasional incontinence and over active bladder, weakness, extreme fatigue, insomnia, headache, tingling in my hands and feet, chronic body pain, and one of my more perplexing symptoms, constant positive visual disturbance often described as visual snow. While I doubt this is relevant, I have also been diagnosed with aspergers and asthma.
My doctor has tested me for Lyme disease, B12 deficiency, Hoshimotos, other thyroid conditions, and had me get the three MRI scans listed prior. All of these came back clean, though no contrast was used in the MRI, and the machine was a 1.5T. My eyes were also examined by an optometrist who found nothing wrong other than drusen of the optic nerve. I then saw a neurologist who seems to agree with my MS suspicions, but she wants to run a lumbar spine MRI, which I fail to see the point of. I did have high ANA levels which could suggest Lupus, but my symptoms hardly line up.
I'm wanting to have a spinal tap done, as well as the other test (the name is escaping me at the moment), and a 3T MRI if the doctor would order it, however I doubt she will. I'm returning to college this month, and will be entering the graphic design field next year, and I'm really worried that without an official diagnosis and proper treatment I will have difficulties getting the help I need to succeed.
Here's my basic info that might be beneficial: I'm a 19 year old Caucasian female in the US, I have no family records of MS but my 15 year old brother has an unidentified autoimmune disorder and had an isolated case of optic neuritis a few years ago. I'm also currently on the following medications: Amitriptyline 10mg, Fluexetine 30mg, microgestin, zantac 150mg, and montelukast 10mg. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated, thanks.
Since I hit puberty I've dealt with some pretty common symptoms that were essentially dismissed at the time, but have since gotten worse. I've been diagnosed with severe clinical depression, anxiety, and panic attacks, and I've had frequent lower back pain and chronic migraines since I was pretty young. I've since developed spasms in both legs, mind fog, confusion, memory loss, extreme heat intolerance, irritable bowel syndrome, occasional incontinence and over active bladder, weakness, extreme fatigue, insomnia, headache, tingling in my hands and feet, chronic body pain, and one of my more perplexing symptoms, constant positive visual disturbance often described as visual snow. While I doubt this is relevant, I have also been diagnosed with aspergers and asthma.
My doctor has tested me for Lyme disease, B12 deficiency, Hoshimotos, other thyroid conditions, and had me get the three MRI scans listed prior. All of these came back clean, though no contrast was used in the MRI, and the machine was a 1.5T. My eyes were also examined by an optometrist who found nothing wrong other than drusen of the optic nerve. I then saw a neurologist who seems to agree with my MS suspicions, but she wants to run a lumbar spine MRI, which I fail to see the point of. I did have high ANA levels which could suggest Lupus, but my symptoms hardly line up.
I'm wanting to have a spinal tap done, as well as the other test (the name is escaping me at the moment), and a 3T MRI if the doctor would order it, however I doubt she will. I'm returning to college this month, and will be entering the graphic design field next year, and I'm really worried that without an official diagnosis and proper treatment I will have difficulties getting the help I need to succeed.
Here's my basic info that might be beneficial: I'm a 19 year old Caucasian female in the US, I have no family records of MS but my 15 year old brother has an unidentified autoimmune disorder and had an isolated case of optic neuritis a few years ago. I'm also currently on the following medications: Amitriptyline 10mg, Fluexetine 30mg, microgestin, zantac 150mg, and montelukast 10mg. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated, thanks.
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