Hello People’s of MS Society
I have been experiencing a number of different symptoms over the Past two years, I mostly tried to ignore them over the first year because I was in the last year of Studying an MA…(i know, stupid right!).
It started with chest pains and shortness of breath, after a visit to my GP and one night in A&E it was suggested that it was a chest infection or some muscular skeletal pain that would pass. Im a 29 year old Man and Until this point I had been in good health and even rarely got a cold. So with the knowledge that it would pass i continued to ignore it. However as the symptoms changed and more appeared it became clear that it would not pass and over the last 2 years it has got substantially worse.
Symptom
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Firstly I get sharp stabbing pain all over my body, it seems to jump from spot to spot and with varying degrees of intensity. Sometimes it feels like I have been stabbed with a thin knife and other times its more like a pulse, building up from mild to server pain, and then dyeing off before coming back again. This includes pains in my eyes and hands which has been severally effecting my work. I have a visual job as a freelance animation director, some day’s its hurt so much that I can’t work which has resulted in me loosing work, something that I can’t afford to do.
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General aches and stiffness in my whole body, especially in my legs towards the evenings around 5-8, they feel like there always tensed and become uncomfortable in any position. This stiffness means that I have often have trouble walking up and down stairs.
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I constantly feel weak and struggle to focus on anything and lose concentration easily. I have also been experiencing mood swings, becoming frustrated, angry or upset; this can happen for days and has also impacted my ability to deliver work to a scheduled deadline, something that will affect future work from the same clients.
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I get a series of different twitches or muscle spasms that come and go as randomly as the sharp stabbing pains, sometimes they feel like the muscle is tensing in only a single spot for a couple of seconds or so and sometimes it feels like its travelling across the muscle.
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There are also some strange itches or tingling on my skin, the best way I can think of describing it is by calling them invisible bugs, like a small insect is on my skin, but nothing is ever there.
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I also get pins and needles in my hands when I need to urinate. It intensifies depending on how desperately I need to go. Sometimes it’s the only indicator that I need to urinate. I have always experienced this and until recently did not know it was unusual… (again I know)
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Doing anything physical I become out of breath and lose energy quickly, even when just walking at a slow pace and not going very far, I then become very shaky and twitchy and feel like I have less control over my movements.
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Some days when it seems particularly bad, I struggle to do anything very easily at all, almost as if my limbs aren’t doing exactly what I want them to do, they seem delayed or stuck, for example; if I was reaching for a cup, my fingers wont move to grasp the cup properly or there is a hesitation or a delay that I cant seem to control. This has caused me to smash cups and glasses and to fall down the stairs twice in one week.
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I have more recently started to experience headaches that seem to last for days; these also come and go as easily as the rest of the symptoms.
I have seen a Rheumatologist, but was discharged and today have my third appointment with a Nuromuscular Specialist, both have told me that it is unlikely that its MS because im male and that it does not present with pain?? everything i have read online say that it does, have any of you experienced pain?
I have had a muscle biopsy, x-rays, physical exams, loads of blood tests, urine tests, an ECG, liver ultrasound and even some crazy test where that put needles in my muscles and zapped them with electric! All came back normal, except that i have a unusually high white blood count but so do the rest of my family.
I had to persuade my Nuromuscular specialist for an MRI as he was ready to discharge me today, Does this sound familiar to any of you?? any help you can suggest would be amazing!
Thank you and apologies in advance for the long message… i eeerr… im… um. Im a waffler.