Hello, just wondering if anyone could offer me some advice as you all seem to be very knowledgeable on here. In brief - I had a weird episode with my arm recently, felt weak & tingly, lasted probably around 2 weeks gradually getting worse until it was also in my hand with a tremor in that hand. At that same time then I got a blinding headache on one side that wouldn’t shift. Have never had a tremor in my hand before or that feeling in my arm so was concerned. Phoned out of hours gp and long story short ended up with a neurologist who made me do loads of funny exercises then arranged an mri of my head and neck for 10 days later, explaining to me about autoimmune conditions. And got a whole load of bloods done while I was there. She said all the bloods came back fine but that she would maybe want to look at my b12 again. Had the mri. And have been called back now for another appointment with a different neurologist in 4 weeks time. I went to my gp to try and find out why I have to go back and they were able to show me the radiologists report. To me the majority reads like everything’s good but the gp said it is probably because of these hyperintensities it’s mentioned that they would like me back. The report says there is a solitary left frontal periventricular white matter hyperintensity noted. Other tiny subcortical hyperintensities are also noted. Everything else reads fine apart from “mild degenerative change to the midcervical spine” which my gp explained is just general wear and tear so no need to be concerned. So it is just these “hyperintensities” that seem to be any issue. No-one has actually said the words multiple sclerosis to me but they have spoken about auto immune conditions, typical of my age (I’m 27 year old female) and the neurologist when sending for the scan did explain in detail to me about something being worn away or something but it was all over my head. I’ve put 2 and 2 together with the help of Google (bad idea I’m sure) and come to the conclusion they are looking as they suspect ms? Sorry for this hugely long post. I’m just wondering if anyone could advise? Particularly about the mri results whether they are typical of MS? Sorry for this I’m just getting a bit concerned now and confused about everything. Thanks to anyone who answers in advance x
it may be a specialist neuro for your next appointment.
when a general neuro suspects ms it is usual to be passed to an ms specialist neuro as these are the ones who can prescribe DMDs and allocate ms nurses.
then again, it may be that they want to do a repeat mri or other tests.
sorry but even after 10 years of being diagnosed i still can’t make head or tail of MRI results.
carole x
Thanks for this Carole. I’m not sure what this neurologist specialism is. Do you know if there is any way of finding that out? The GP had mentioned that maybe they might want to take more images of those areas but other than that she was quite vague about it saying it would be too specialised for her to advise. I suppose I’m looking someone to tell me if my mri results are typical of MS or if I don’t need to be as worried as I’m starting to get - but really I’m hoping for too much expecting anyone buy a neurologist to be able that. Thanks very much for your help,hope you are getting on well with treatment x
Google the neurologists name, see what comes up. Or look at the hospitals website, they should have a list of consultants together with their specialisms.
I cant make head nor tail of what MRI results actually mean either.
It might be that they’re looking at MS as a diagnosis, or something completely different. It sounds like even if you find out that the neuro you’re being referred to is an MS specialist, you still may not have MS. It could just be a case of covering all the bases. Or the specialist could look at the images and says it’s definitely not MS.
Or the specialism may be something else completely.
All I can say is try not to overthink it and don’t worry. It will be whatever it is. The best result you can probably hope for is that you end up with answers soon. I reckon living in limbo is the worst thing for worry and stress.
Sue