Hi everyone,
I’m new here and just wanted to hear your opinions really.
Over the past two years, I’ve noticed my body isn’t what it used to be. I get numbness/pins and needles in the top part of my legs when I’m standing for a period of time. I’m having pains/stiffness/weakness in my joints and get pins and needles in legs, feet and hands alot. My elbow is is aching now just typing. I seem to have lost strength, I ache just doing little things like carrying bags whereas I’ve always been quite strong. I also seem to have become really clumsy looking back - I always seem to be bumping into things and tripping up. More recently, I’ve had this weird sensation in my throat where I feel I’m not quite swallowng properly or something’s blocking it - I gag every now and again when I brush my teeth!
I keep putting it down to getting older and being unfit and over-weight. But I keep wondering if I am ignoring signs that I should be paying attention to. I’ve thought about mentioning it to my doctor but worried I’ll be making a fool of myself as perhaps it is just getting old or being over weight. However, my mum has MS so I know the basics and there do seem to be some similarities. I don’t want to talk to her about it just yet, I’d like to find out your thoughts first.
Basically, I’m wondering, how did you know or when was the point you realised there may be more to things you were experiencing or suspected something underlying? Or how do you know if it’s something to worry bout rather thn jus ageand a love of chocolate?! 
Any comments most welcome and thanks for reading!
Hi, my first thoughts when I read your post is thyroid problems. The lump in your throat is exactly what happens when your thyroid swells. The thyroid usually sits under the very base of your neck on the collarbone in the centre. If your thyroid is swollen you will see it move upwards when you swallow (in front of a mirror). With me, when it is swollen I can feel it is tender when I poke the area just above the collarbone in the middle of the neck. The aches, the tiredness and tiring easily, the pins and needles, aching and joint pains all fit this picture. Back before I was diagnosed with underactive thyroid I used to think everybody’s joints ached when they were tired (they don’t) my knees and elbows used to ache loads when I had done a lot. Having said that, you shouldn’t try and second guess things or worry about it. All that is relevant here is that you are struggling, and not feeling well, so go along to your doctor, don’t tell them what you are worried it might be, and let them help you. I would expect them at the bare minimum to run blood tests for full blood count and thyroid. Just to see if something simple is causing it. Leah 
Hi
I knew almost immediately that my symptoms were neurological. I performed several neurological tests myself and could not complete any of them properly. It had to be something serious. My initial thought was a tumour.
I went along to the GP later that day and was sent straight to the local hospital. Following an MRI scan, I was duly diagnosed with RRMS.
From your post, you currently have a clear set of symptoms that are causing you concern. Based on your symptoms and your Mother’s medical history, personally, I would be taking a trip to see my GP.
Based on your presentation, it will then be your GP’s responsibility to analyse and investigate all the information he/ she has been given and then arrange appropriate tests/ scans or referrals.
Let your doctor decide what’s important and what’s not.
This is your health we’re talking about!
Good luck
Tracyann
I would make a list of all your symptoms, the tingles, pins and needles, pains, weakness, gagging etc, then go and talk to your GP. That will give him a good picture of what’s going on so he can decide whether you need to see a specialist and if so, which one.
In the meantime, google is not your friend. Leave the thinking about what it might be to your doctor and try not to worry.
I agree with Mitzi - write everything down, with the dates and duration of symptoms if you can remember. Then go and see your GP. If you come away feeling you’ve been fobbed off, go back until they start doing some tests (like thyroid or anemia - if it’s not that they’ll do more tests as time goes on). Start writing down everything that happens to you - no matter how minor it may seem - so you have a timeline of what’s happening to you.
And yeah, Google is a psychotic hypochondriac. If you had a mild cough and looked it up, you would probably find something that tells you that you actually have tuberculosis. You’d also find an advert that told you how to cure it using “one weird trick!”
You might not have anything wrong with your brain at all. I’m not saying that there’s nothing wrong with you, but don’t wind yourself up thinking it’s MS. Stress is a pain in the behind for any illness so try not to make whatever you have worse by stressing yourself out.
Hi, after a year of falls, tripping up and feeling deeply tired, just at the thought of tackling the housework, I had to admit something was more wrong than being clumsy or re-gaining the weight I had worked so hard to lose.
My family had noticed all these things and urged me to see my GP…who instantly thought I had a neurological problem and referred me to a neuro.
luv Polx
It never entered my head that I had ms, I put my symptoms down to my psoriatic Arthritis. I was reffered to neuro for chronic headaches/migraine.
If I was you, I would go and see your gp and discuss your symptoms. You definitely will not be making a fool of yourself, so don’t worry about that. In fact I think you would be silly to ignore the fact that you are having some obvious neuro type symptoms.
Good luck
xx