I was 50 when I was finally diagnosed just before Christmas after 10 yrs of symptoms similar to yours … all left sided !
Its a long road for many and yet still a shock when it comes I was a bit argghhhhh and I was expecting it as already has my MRI results that showed more lesions …now I am back to cursing the system that keeps trying to disable me more than I am !
My neurologist told me I was too old (at 55) to have MS.
He said it was probably “functional” and packed me off to talk to a psychiatrist.
He was wrong on both counts.
He is now retired which, according to the local MS community, is a good thing.
John
After Boblatina’s referral, I kept out of this. However …
Mine started at 69 with numbness in my toes that spread upward until I was numb from the armpits down. Then it slowly faded away. I went private - Dx was transverse myelitis. The neuro referred me to himself at his NHS hospital and after a few MRIs and a LP, i got the MS diagnosis a few days before my 70th birthday.
Your GP needs educating, or you need a new GP (not always easy, I know). I am lucky in that two of the partners at the surgery I go to have said “I do not know …” and it is nice when they are honest, and do not claim to know it all.
Mine took a few years to settle mainly on one side, and I now need an FES to “walk” (more like a controlled lurch). and a bad intention tremor on the same side.
What you do not do is to trust averages.
At onset, the average life expectancy of healthy male was 77 - oops, I’m dead.
Most people with MS die five years earlier than they would otherwise do - oops I’m dead again.
Now that shows how you can misuse statistics.
Come here, and see one person’s story, and you could get it all wrong. See what a lot of us think and you will end up with as good a knowledge of average MS as any average neuro.
Geoff