GP has diagnosed MS now awaiting neuro appointment

Hi I first became unwell 3 years ago, with symptoms that no-one could diagnose. Pains all over my body, electric feeling in legs, headaches generally feeling unwell. I had an MRI scan which produced no diagnosis. At the end of July this year I got all the symptoms back again but a lot worse. I had about 6 drs appointments in as many weeks as I felt so bad, the tingling pins and needles have mainly subsided now, but I’m getting tinglying feelings under my right eye. I am also now getting pains in both hips and lower back which is keeping me awake at night.

I have started to take Vitamin D tablets and am going to follow a non-sataurated fat diet (although eat quite healthy anyway). Does anyone else have these symptoms and could it be a second relapse and the Drs never picked it up first time. I’m not sure what questions to be asking the Neuro next week and want a proper diagnosis and no pain. Also want to know a prognosis as am usually really active so this is getting me down. Thanks any advise would be appreicated.

Hi Shepard, first thing to remember is that lots of conditions can cause ms type symptoms. Your gp cannot dx ms only a neuro. The neuro will want to send you for tests - bloods and MRI almost certainly maybe other things too - and only after that will they be able to dx - even then they may say have to wait to see if it happens again esp if they think the symptoms 3 yrs ago were not caused by inflammatory CNS lesions. So take a deep breath and try and accept it may be a while until you get any answers. In the meantime, take care of yourself and try and make the best of the good days. Let us know how it goes

Hi Sheppars,

Just to echo what Clare says - you can’t be diagnosed by a GP. Although your doctor might have guessed right, an MS diagnosis is notoriously difficult, even for specialist neuros, after lots of tests and investigations. So he or she has jumped the gun - by quite a lot, I’d say.

A clear MRI makes it less likely - but not impossible - the problem would be MS. Early in the course of the disease, it’s possible for damage still not to show on MRI, but in general, the longer symptoms have gone on, the more likely something would show.

Although probably healthy for anyone, there’s no convincing medical evidence a diet low in saturated fats has any special benefits for MS, so if you already eat healthily, you probably don’t need to go to the extreme of cutting them out altogether. It could turn out to be just another thing that’s a nuisance to comply with, if you’re already not feeling well. Ideally, you want to keep life as normal as possible. The vitamin D supplements are a good precaution, though, as in contrast with diet, there’s strong evidence for the role of vitamin D - or lack of it - in MS.

Tina

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Thanks for your comments i’ll keep you posted. x