20 days to my ms neurologist apointment.. help me please

so. i have been having what is consider to be ms symptoms for quite a while now probably over 9 years .sensitive hearing joint issues brain fog neck muscle stiffnes… and more but never went to a doctor which i know was stupid. the last 6 monrths ive been in a serious down and weak slumpy phase. i chalked it up to working on night shift. i have been having little swallowing issues off and on for a year or two now. didnt think anything of it until i went into a er the other day for feet numbness. doctor asks about a back surgery. i say yes about 10 year ago.he does some pushing on me here and there. tells me im fine, its just a thing that happens sometimes. i go home and look up ms symptoms and i have every single thing on there. i think im in a relapse or having a attack but i watched a video on diagnosis test and i pretty mch failed all of them. my walking is just now etting weird… but my swallowing is not good at all. i just read that pnemonia from lung issues affected by bad swallowing is how alot of ms patients die… im only 34 and have so much to live for. i dont want to die. why did i have to get swallowing issues before the more obvious stuff like walking issues. i should have gone to a gp a long time ago and they would have put my symptoms together alot earlier maybe even years ! i could have ate healthier and taken the drugs and maybe even possibly reverswed some symptoms. i feel like im goingn to diebefore i get to my first apointment and i dont know what to do. its 554 in the morning i just paced around my house for hours. thank god i found this site because my whole family thinks im crazy because usually people have walking issues before any scary stuff like swallowing and breathing. atleast on tv. how am i supposed to calm down when i might now makwe it another year.

Hi

It’s very easy to read the symptoms of MS and decide that’s what has caused your symptoms even though as you’ve said, you seem to have jumped straight over mobility issues and gone straight from swallowing trouble to pneumonia and death!

You really need to have the neurologist decide what’s going on. They could possibly refer you to a speech and language therapist. They can help with swallowing problems.

Before you see the neurologist, try to write down all the symptoms you have experienced, see if you can figure out when they happened, how long symptoms lasted or if they’ve never got any better. And from now on start a diary so you can be clear about what is happening to you and when.

And at least you have just 20 days to go before the appointment. Don’t panic about swallowing and decide you’ll die before the end of the year. That’s really quite unlikely. Even when people have quite severe swallowing problems they are helped to get them sorted. Death from MS is uncommon, and even complications from MS tend to take a bit longer to surface.

Good luck.

Sue