Have I got ms?

Primary progressive MS
1

Hi everyone, I don’t know if I have ms yet. I would like to ask what you guys think?

My history. I’m 48. In my 20’s I used to get a lot of pins and needles. No cause was found. I used to get a lot of tummy pain was in hospital nothing found. Was told a few years later I might have Ibs.

2010 had spine surgery for disc prolapses, 2014 I was diagnosed with Graves’ disease and hyperthyroidism. In remission at the moment. 2016 spinal fusion surgery. During this time would get odd pains in my body. Pain started getting more and more, neck shoulders knees fingers toes, wrists would feel weak and I’d drop things then my wrist would be fine again. Was told I have fibromyalgia.During this time I noticed that at night especially I would feel like I really need to wee but would sit there for 10 minutes waiting for my wee to come through. Happens quite often. And quite often

my wee is really smelly. No infection though. I’ve been to a & e with like pins and needles in my jaw and pain in my chest. No reason why. Sometimes I get things like nerve pain in my teeth or a numb lip. Last year I noticed I was loosing a bit of hearing and now wear a hearing aid. Over the last year my ears got quite painful sometimes but no infection. In the space of a year I’ve also gone from being able to read fine to needing strong reading glasses. I’ve also been getting a lot of heart burn. One of the most scary things that is happening is my memory has really bad and I even forget words in the middle of sentences. Over the last couple of weeks my ears got quite painful again and I’ve been loosing my balance quite a bit so I went to my gp. I wrote down all my symptoms, something I hadn’t done before. Doctors usually moan if you talk about more than one thing so I never normally do. This time though I had my list. I broke down in there crying. Forgot to mention I have depression too. My doc saw the list this was Wednesday, doc said I need a brain scan. Came through quick I had it yesterday. I don’t think I have a tremor though. Could this be ms? Sorry for the long post.

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Hi. As you probably know the symptoms of ms are so varied and could be so many different things. Nobody here will tell you whether you have or haven’t got it, but I’d definitely ask the GP to refer you to a neurologist. A brain scan alone probably won’t be conclusive, we usually get our spine and brain scanned, but the neurologist will generally send you for a few different tests on top of the scans. A Lumbar puncture (LP) can be relied upon if you have O Bands present. Some of your symptoms I also have but they alone can’t point to a definite diagnosis. I feel for you as it’s scary to experience these changes in your body and have the possibility of a chronic life changing diagnosis hanging over you. All I would recommend is that you request a referral and write a list not only of all of your symptoms but also how long you’ve been experiencing them, whether they go away and return and tell them what you suspect it might be and why, this will help them to either reassure you or test you for it. Good luck, I hope you get answers, it may need you to push your gp for a referral but I believe you do need answers. Please let us know how you get on. Take care Cath

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Hi

You definitely have a lot going on as you describe above. Cath is absolutely spot on with her advice, If you have had a scan, was it a CT scan or an MRI? CT usually good for picking up tumours and the like, MRI would show up inflammation areas on the nerves if MS. My neurologist says another name for MS is white spot disease as the lesions often show up as white spots on the MRI. Definitely push for a neurology referral, that’s key. Can be hard waiting to find out and many of us had to wait several years before diagnosis confirmed, so be prepared.

all the best

Richard

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