Hi all. I’m a (almost) 44 year old woman. I’m currently going through testing to figure out what’s going on with me and so far things are pointing in the MS direction. My most severe symptoms have been getting progressively worse over the last few months with no relief. (Also, in retrospect, I’ve had some symptoms over the years that might point to this also. I’ll go more into that later.)
A few months ago I was having some difficult sleep issues. My legs started bothering me at night. Almost felt like restless leg syndrome but *different* in some way. Then they started to become sore during the daytime and have random twitching and spasms. Just walking made me tired and I wanted to sit a lot. Then after a few weeks of this, one night while sleeping I had like terrible shocks in my left ankle. When I woke up in the morning it was numb along with my heel.
As days and weeks have progressed, the weakness and numbness have travelled up the left side of my body. I’m at the point where I have left foot drop, can’t lift my leg past my hip, can’t raise my left arm past my shoulder and the left side of my face is slightly numb. I walk like a drunk sailor. I’m extremely fatigued all the time. I’ve started to get headaches in my upper right quadrant with some right eye pressure but no real vision issues that I can tell. (I do wear glasses so I don’t have the best vision to begin with). And I’ve also started to get headaches at the base of my skull where it meets my neck. The headaches are kind of dull but with sporadic electric shocks. I also have random sweaty feet and hands right now (so annoying.)
Looking back, I had an episode of Vertigo about 11 years ago. Had to be taken to urgent care, it was so bad. And since then I’ve had about 3 or 4 bouts of vertigo since then (knocks me out for at least a day), but getting closer together in more frequent years. I’ve also had a few episodes of numb patches of skin that will get electric shocks. Mostly in my legs, but every so often in other areas of my body. Over the last year or so I’ve had a terrible time recovering from illness. I had a laparoscopic hysterectomy last year and I had a horrible time recovering. No one could understand why.
I’ve had an MRI (with OUT contrast) of my lumbar, brain and c-spine. All clear. (But with that said, the techs said “Your symptoms sound like MS. Normally the doctor also orders t-spine and has us do them all WITH contrast”-I don’t think my doctor knows what she’s doing.) I’ve had every blood test you can think of. All normal. I do have another MRI of my t-spine (after pushing for it) scheduled soon.
So I guess first off, do these symptoms sound like MS to you and if not, is there another condition you think could be causing this (so I can have another rabbit hole to go down LOL) and also, should I push for new MRI’s with contrast? Does it make a big difference? And have any of you been diagnosed with MS but did NOT have lesions on their brain or c-spine? Any info you can provide would be soooo helpful!! This limbo land is terrible. I just want to know what ale’s me so I can do something about it. I’m afraid I’m delaying treatment that could make me better or I’m afraid I’ll do the wrong thing and make my symptoms worse.
A few months ago I was having some difficult sleep issues. My legs started bothering me at night. Almost felt like restless leg syndrome but *different* in some way. Then they started to become sore during the daytime and have random twitching and spasms. Just walking made me tired and I wanted to sit a lot. Then after a few weeks of this, one night while sleeping I had like terrible shocks in my left ankle. When I woke up in the morning it was numb along with my heel.
As days and weeks have progressed, the weakness and numbness have travelled up the left side of my body. I’m at the point where I have left foot drop, can’t lift my leg past my hip, can’t raise my left arm past my shoulder and the left side of my face is slightly numb. I walk like a drunk sailor. I’m extremely fatigued all the time. I’ve started to get headaches in my upper right quadrant with some right eye pressure but no real vision issues that I can tell. (I do wear glasses so I don’t have the best vision to begin with). And I’ve also started to get headaches at the base of my skull where it meets my neck. The headaches are kind of dull but with sporadic electric shocks. I also have random sweaty feet and hands right now (so annoying.)
Looking back, I had an episode of Vertigo about 11 years ago. Had to be taken to urgent care, it was so bad. And since then I’ve had about 3 or 4 bouts of vertigo since then (knocks me out for at least a day), but getting closer together in more frequent years. I’ve also had a few episodes of numb patches of skin that will get electric shocks. Mostly in my legs, but every so often in other areas of my body. Over the last year or so I’ve had a terrible time recovering from illness. I had a laparoscopic hysterectomy last year and I had a horrible time recovering. No one could understand why.
I’ve had an MRI (with OUT contrast) of my lumbar, brain and c-spine. All clear. (But with that said, the techs said “Your symptoms sound like MS. Normally the doctor also orders t-spine and has us do them all WITH contrast”-I don’t think my doctor knows what she’s doing.) I’ve had every blood test you can think of. All normal. I do have another MRI of my t-spine (after pushing for it) scheduled soon.
So I guess first off, do these symptoms sound like MS to you and if not, is there another condition you think could be causing this (so I can have another rabbit hole to go down LOL) and also, should I push for new MRI’s with contrast? Does it make a big difference? And have any of you been diagnosed with MS but did NOT have lesions on their brain or c-spine? Any info you can provide would be soooo helpful!! This limbo land is terrible. I just want to know what ale’s me so I can do something about it. I’m afraid I’m delaying treatment that could make me better or I’m afraid I’ll do the wrong thing and make my symptoms worse.
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