Hello,
I'm Shannon. 29 y/o grad student in Oregon.
I guess I can start at the beginning... around the end of September 2017, I had what I thought was a very serious, debilitating days long panic attack. I had recently started a new anti-anxiety medication and was in the thick of it in graduate school so it was easy for me to just chalk it all up to extreme anxiety. Although, the physical symptoms of this attack were unlike any I had ever experienced; I could barely move my hands when typing (a really difficult thing for a full time student), the left side of my body was super sensitive to heat (washing the dishes, taking a bath, etc.), and the fatigue and pain were extreme.
I, of course, made an appt with my PCP and he said "oh, it's just anxiety. Just try to relax and get through grad school and everything will sort itself out". After a few more weeks of slowly healing from the symptoms, I was like OK- it was anxiety, let's move forward. I started to head back to the gym, started to meditate, and tried to just move on with my life again.
The fear that it was something else never quite left though; something just didn't feel "right". My left side was just never the same; I could feel one hair fall on my arm it was THAT sensitive. I noticed every little thing that happened to that side of my body.
The times that I did feel good enough to go back to the gym or to yoga, my whole left side just did not cooperate the same as it had; it was tight, rigid, and fatigued easily. I started to see a physical therapist, acupuncturist, and chiropractor; getting different responses from each. I felt like I was drowning in medical appointments and school work and I could barely keep my head above the water.
In January 2018, I was speaking to my psychiatrist about some of my frustrating physical symptoms and I mentioned the constant tingling in my left foot and the fatigue of my left side. He said, "Has your PCP ever mentioned a brain MRI?"; I said "no, actually he has not. Should I ask?", and so I did. The end of the January, I had my brain MRI that did show some nonspecific T2 intensity flairs, more prominent on the right side. All my PCP said is "I don't know what this is, we have to send you to a neurologist, it could be MS". Of course I was terrified, but also wanting to get to a diagnosis and start healing.
I finally got in to see the neurologist at the end of February and he did not seem concerned with the flairs. He said they did not look "MS-like" but he would do a spinal MRI and LP to rule it out. Fast forward to now, and I have had both the spinal MRI and LP come back normal. The neurologist is basically sick of me at this point, but I still do not feel that my body is right. Constant left sided fatigue, foot and leg tingling to the point that it has changed my gait. Calf tightness, hamstring tightness, shoulder fatigue- all left sided.
I am just frustrated and really unsure of how to keep pushing for answers. I feel that my neurologist just wants me to wait until something happens again, but I want answers now (I know that that is not always possible and that MS is very difficult to diagnose).
Did any of you have normal LPs and spinal MRIs before a diagnosis? Maybe I am barking up the wrong tree entirely, but I just needed a place to put my thoughts down. My head has not been the safest place lately.
Thanks for reading.
Shannon
** Moderator's note - Post broken into paragraphs for easier reading. Many people with MS have visual difficulties that prevent them from reading large blocks of print. **
I'm Shannon. 29 y/o grad student in Oregon.
I guess I can start at the beginning... around the end of September 2017, I had what I thought was a very serious, debilitating days long panic attack. I had recently started a new anti-anxiety medication and was in the thick of it in graduate school so it was easy for me to just chalk it all up to extreme anxiety. Although, the physical symptoms of this attack were unlike any I had ever experienced; I could barely move my hands when typing (a really difficult thing for a full time student), the left side of my body was super sensitive to heat (washing the dishes, taking a bath, etc.), and the fatigue and pain were extreme.
I, of course, made an appt with my PCP and he said "oh, it's just anxiety. Just try to relax and get through grad school and everything will sort itself out". After a few more weeks of slowly healing from the symptoms, I was like OK- it was anxiety, let's move forward. I started to head back to the gym, started to meditate, and tried to just move on with my life again.
The fear that it was something else never quite left though; something just didn't feel "right". My left side was just never the same; I could feel one hair fall on my arm it was THAT sensitive. I noticed every little thing that happened to that side of my body.
The times that I did feel good enough to go back to the gym or to yoga, my whole left side just did not cooperate the same as it had; it was tight, rigid, and fatigued easily. I started to see a physical therapist, acupuncturist, and chiropractor; getting different responses from each. I felt like I was drowning in medical appointments and school work and I could barely keep my head above the water.
In January 2018, I was speaking to my psychiatrist about some of my frustrating physical symptoms and I mentioned the constant tingling in my left foot and the fatigue of my left side. He said, "Has your PCP ever mentioned a brain MRI?"; I said "no, actually he has not. Should I ask?", and so I did. The end of the January, I had my brain MRI that did show some nonspecific T2 intensity flairs, more prominent on the right side. All my PCP said is "I don't know what this is, we have to send you to a neurologist, it could be MS". Of course I was terrified, but also wanting to get to a diagnosis and start healing.
I finally got in to see the neurologist at the end of February and he did not seem concerned with the flairs. He said they did not look "MS-like" but he would do a spinal MRI and LP to rule it out. Fast forward to now, and I have had both the spinal MRI and LP come back normal. The neurologist is basically sick of me at this point, but I still do not feel that my body is right. Constant left sided fatigue, foot and leg tingling to the point that it has changed my gait. Calf tightness, hamstring tightness, shoulder fatigue- all left sided.
I am just frustrated and really unsure of how to keep pushing for answers. I feel that my neurologist just wants me to wait until something happens again, but I want answers now (I know that that is not always possible and that MS is very difficult to diagnose).
Did any of you have normal LPs and spinal MRIs before a diagnosis? Maybe I am barking up the wrong tree entirely, but I just needed a place to put my thoughts down. My head has not been the safest place lately.
Thanks for reading.
Shannon
** Moderator's note - Post broken into paragraphs for easier reading. Many people with MS have visual difficulties that prevent them from reading large blocks of print. **
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