Hello,
I’m really sorry to post on here as I don’t even think/know if the symptoms I had could be MS or not and I suppose I was just wondering if someone could help me and shed some light on whether I should push the doctors to look at the likes of MS or if I’m not really on the right track.
I don’t have any family history to my knowledge of MS or any other autoimmune condition. I’m a 27 year old female.
For a while now, maybe the last 18 months or so I have had a strange sensation in my legs. Primarily at night time, they tingle and feel heavy but won’t settle, I have the urge to move them. I just assumed this was restless legs and nothing to pursue so never did. I have started however to get the same sensation in my left forearm/hand but there’s a noticeable weakness. It’s almost like if the ‘buzzing’ sound was a feeling, that’s what it often feels like and same with my legs and feet. I was standing in a queue the other day and my left leg had terrible pins and needles, I was struggling to stay put.
I do have low iron, so get regular spells of lightheaded/dizziness but the exhaustion I have been feeling for the last few months is like nothing I’ve felt before. Even last night, I slept 8.30pm-7am and woke up still feeling so exhausted. This is so out of the ordinary for me, I’ve always been a real pro-active person and always fairly ‘restless’ - I like to get sh*t done. At the moment I feel like I have so little energy to do much and the smallest tasks feel like such a mission.
This wasn’t what urged me to go to the GP. I went to the GP due to recurring dull headaches on the right side of my head. They weren’t particularly painful, just sort of like a heavy head feeling. I was also feeling less myself, like everything was taking me longer and I had to really think about everything I was doing/saying. I said to her about my regular dizzy spells but also mentioned the odd feelings in my left arm/legs. She sent me to the hospital for a CT scan. If I’m honest, I felt like a hypochondriac. The doctor made it seem like this was just too many symptoms that couldn’t be related and in reality I’m just having headaches, so why’d I go to A&E… They did proceed to do a CT scan ‘to rule anything out’ and it came back showing something on the right side of my brain at the front. I don’t know what it was that was showing, I just know it was 11mm in size and benign. They went on to do an MRI which showed the same thing. Probably not my best idea, but I then discharged myself as I’d been at the hospital 10+ hours and I was worrying about childcare. I told them I’d follow up with my GP.
I then received a letter from the hospital for another MRI, which I was confused by as I’d had one. They said the one I had wasn’t ‘with contrast’ so I needed another. That’ll be done next Tuesday. The GP said she’d be writing to neurology to discuss auto-immune conditions but I haven’t had anything in the post yet, I’m unsure if she did refer me or not.
My GP has checked ECG’s and done 1 set of bloods but those bloods were (to my knowledge) checking my iron/vitamin B/blood count. I was asked for another blood test last week. The first bloods showed high platelets, so I know they did want to check this wasn’t just a blip but I’m not sure if that’s what these bloods were for last week. The blood test was rescheduled to this week as they couldn’t get any blood last week anyway, so I’ll ask what they’re checking when I go.
I just feel a bit lost. I don’t know what they’re even looking at, why they’re doing various tests and if I should be asking more. I am so grateful to the NHS and the fact they’re being thorough but I also feel like I don’t know what’s going on and frustrated that I’m out of the loop. I’d just like to try and figure out what’s happening so I can then try to do something about it, whether it be lifestyle changes/medication/etc.
Once again, I apologise if I shouldn’t be posting on here. A lot of research I’ve done indicates MS could be a possibility based on my symptoms but thought it may be helpful to reach out to those who actually have MS.
