Hi everyone. I'm new to the boards. I've been doing research on my own about multiple sclerosis, and it sounds like I could possibly have it..but I'm just looking for other people's opinions who probably know a lot more about it than I do!
I'm 22 years old. I've struggled with dizziness since I was about..12 years old. I would say from about 12 until I was 18, it came and went a lot. I'd have a few bad days where I was pretty dizzy, but it would always clear up and I'd be able to go out and do things for the most part. My balance was off as well. (Say, if I was out shopping and was walking from the car to the store, I'd walk like a drunk person, basically). Over the years my 'bad days' became more and more frequent.
In October of last year, I had a very bad week. The dizziness was a bad as it had ever been. I felt so sick in my stomach because of it, and had tremors off and on for days..I ended up going to the ER, where the doctors hooked me up to a blood pressure/heart rate monitor and saw that everything was bouncing around all over the place. He told me I have orthostatic intolerance, to go home and try not to fall. I saw a cardiologist a few weeks later, had a tilt table test done and he diagnosed me with Postural Tachycardia Syndrome (a form of Dysautonomia). I was certain that this had to be all it was. It makes sense, since my blood pressure and heart rate is constantly jumping around. But, he said once I lay down, things should get better - and for me, I'm still dizzy..So he thinks there is something else going on as well.
In May of this year I woke up and felt the room spinning on me. That had never happened before, but I thought maybe it's just a migraine or something since that's what a neurologist had diagnosed me with before. I still don't know what it was honestly..but that lasted all day. As soon as I tried sitting up, I felt like I was going to faint. So I spent that whole day in bed, hoping it would go away and I'd feel better. The vertigo feeling did pass, and since then I've just been very very dizzy. A few weeks after that bad spell, my left eye started feeling strange. It felt like I couldn't focus right and as a few days passed, things started to look like a fun house mirror in my peripheral vision. I went to an eye doctor, who sent me to an eye specialist and he said I have optic neuritis. Optic swelling in both eyes, but the left is worse. He asked me if any other doctors had mentioned MS before, and two others before him had - but they said there weren't enough lesions on my MRIs for it to be that.
I honestly don't know what to think anymore. I'm hoping my new neurologist will take me seriously, because not many doctors have over the years. The only reason I think it could be MS is because looking back, I've had symptoms that would come and go a lot, and it gradually worsened over the years and now it's become pretty much constant. Now with the optic neuritis on top of it, it's just another new symptom. The dizziness has be so bad that it's hard for me to go out and do things. Riding in the car is hard because any movement on top of what I'm already feeling is just so difficult for my body to handle. So I'm just hoping and praying for some answers soon..
I hope I didn't ramble too much, but I'm just curious if this sounds like it could be MS? I honestly think I have a few things going on, but this is starting to sound like it could be one of them. Any advice or input is greatly appreciated.
I'm 22 years old. I've struggled with dizziness since I was about..12 years old. I would say from about 12 until I was 18, it came and went a lot. I'd have a few bad days where I was pretty dizzy, but it would always clear up and I'd be able to go out and do things for the most part. My balance was off as well. (Say, if I was out shopping and was walking from the car to the store, I'd walk like a drunk person, basically). Over the years my 'bad days' became more and more frequent.
In October of last year, I had a very bad week. The dizziness was a bad as it had ever been. I felt so sick in my stomach because of it, and had tremors off and on for days..I ended up going to the ER, where the doctors hooked me up to a blood pressure/heart rate monitor and saw that everything was bouncing around all over the place. He told me I have orthostatic intolerance, to go home and try not to fall. I saw a cardiologist a few weeks later, had a tilt table test done and he diagnosed me with Postural Tachycardia Syndrome (a form of Dysautonomia). I was certain that this had to be all it was. It makes sense, since my blood pressure and heart rate is constantly jumping around. But, he said once I lay down, things should get better - and for me, I'm still dizzy..So he thinks there is something else going on as well.
In May of this year I woke up and felt the room spinning on me. That had never happened before, but I thought maybe it's just a migraine or something since that's what a neurologist had diagnosed me with before. I still don't know what it was honestly..but that lasted all day. As soon as I tried sitting up, I felt like I was going to faint. So I spent that whole day in bed, hoping it would go away and I'd feel better. The vertigo feeling did pass, and since then I've just been very very dizzy. A few weeks after that bad spell, my left eye started feeling strange. It felt like I couldn't focus right and as a few days passed, things started to look like a fun house mirror in my peripheral vision. I went to an eye doctor, who sent me to an eye specialist and he said I have optic neuritis. Optic swelling in both eyes, but the left is worse. He asked me if any other doctors had mentioned MS before, and two others before him had - but they said there weren't enough lesions on my MRIs for it to be that.
I honestly don't know what to think anymore. I'm hoping my new neurologist will take me seriously, because not many doctors have over the years. The only reason I think it could be MS is because looking back, I've had symptoms that would come and go a lot, and it gradually worsened over the years and now it's become pretty much constant. Now with the optic neuritis on top of it, it's just another new symptom. The dizziness has be so bad that it's hard for me to go out and do things. Riding in the car is hard because any movement on top of what I'm already feeling is just so difficult for my body to handle. So I'm just hoping and praying for some answers soon..
I hope I didn't ramble too much, but I'm just curious if this sounds like it could be MS? I honestly think I have a few things going on, but this is starting to sound like it could be one of them. Any advice or input is greatly appreciated.
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