Hi all, I am new to this site and to forums in general so going out on a whim here really. I have previously been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, conversion disorder and b12 deficiency. For some years now I have had problems with symptoms including significant joint pain, stiffness, fatigue, problems with my sight (this includes periods where I have very blurred vision or where my vision seems to go for short bursts of time), occasion stuttering and forgetting what’s words I need to use, brain fog, occasional loss of balance, dizziness and occasional tingling and numbness in my legs and hands. I am being investigated for problems with acid and regurgitation of food and fluid currently as well as persistent diarrhoea. For a couple of years I have on occasion has issues with swallowing, or more importantly (this may sound weird) but forgetting how to swallow. This is not always when eating or drinking, in fact it is often when there is just saliva in my mouth, however o have found that recently this is become much more frequent and it really causes me to panic. It is literally like my brain just completely forgets how to swallow and doesn’t connect with my mouth and throat to allow me to. I started to look into these symptoms and found that I appear to have or be experiencing similar symptoms to those listed as possible symptoms of MS. I may be looking into this and don’t want to feel stupid going to the GP with these concerns so thought I might come on here first and just get a feel for if others actually experience the same sorts of things I do and see if I can get some perspective on what others think. I know no one can diagnose anything other than a specialist but just thought I might out the feelers out on others thoughts. Thanks!
Hello Amy
The biggest problem you have is that all the conditions you’ve already been diagnosed with share symptoms with MS. There are other diagnoses too, sharing symptoms.
So while your symptoms could be caused by MS, it’s just as likely (or more likely) that they are not.
MS is a peculiar disorder, while we are diagnosed with the same disease, no two people are alike in their symptoms, for that reason it’s been labelled as a ‘snowflake’ disease. So this makes it very difficult to diagnose.
What I suggest you could do is write down all of your symptoms, put some rough dates on when they began and what happened with that symptom (ie, did it completely disappear, partially improve, or stay the same). A kind of timeline.
Take the list to your GP and ask for their advice, they may decide to refer you to a neurologist, or may think it’s your fibromyalgia or conversion disorder causing what’s been happening to you.
If you are referred to a neurologist, bear in mind that s/he won’t be trying to rule MS in or out. They’ll be looking at you as an individual, asking about your history (your timeline will come in handy again), doing a physical exam and deciding initially whether there is a neurological problem. Only then will s/he consider what that might be and whether further tests are called for.
Best of luck
Sue