Hi Ally,
I’m sorry, but it’s impossible to say from symptoms alone whether you have MS, and impossible even to predict whether the MRI will produce any answers. Maybe yes, maybe no.
If your scan results come back normal, it very much decreases the likelihood you have MS, but if it shows certain hallmark abnormalities, it increases the likelihood. Neither is absolute proof, though. It would just help put neurologists on the right track of: “Yes, MS is a suspect”, or: “No, we’re probably looking for something else.”
It is rare to get conclusive answers on a first scan, because even if it shows changes typical of MS, they cannot yet prove that the phenomenon is “multiple” - i.e. has happened more than once, or over a prolonged period of time.
For reasons that are not well understood, some people have a single MS-like attack (technically known as clinically isolated syndrome, or CIS) but do NOT go on to have further episodes, so it is never multiple, and therefore never MS.
If a first scan shows abnormalities, there is no way of telling if this is a first attack of many, or just a one-off. So it does not lead directly to an MS diagnosis in most cases. For sure, you will find out if there are any changes suggestive of MS (or suggestive of anything, for that matter), but you will not find out for sure whether it is MS. It’s unlikely, anyway.
So I think you have to resign yourself to probably a long wait, as diagnosis is more of a process than an event. They gradually assemble evidence, until there’s enough to tip the scales. Of course, your scan may show immediately that it’s something quite different - in which case you’d get an answer quickly that it’s NOT MS. But proving that it is takes longer.
Try not to assume too much, because there are over 100 conditions that have some symptoms in common with MS, and you could have any of those, so other people’s guesses and comments are really not that helpful, at this stage. Just because several people have suggested something, doesn’t make it true.
Tina