Do I or don’t I? Im caught in that limbo stage at the minute and its doing my head in. I first appeared with symptoms a year ago now and payed privately to have an mri done of my brain and neck. Happily it didnt show up any lesions and I was given the all clear by my neurologist. But the pain and the weakness has progressivly gotten worse and has only ever affected my left hand side. But 2 weeks ago i started to get the same symptoms on my right hand side. The weakness one morning was so bad and i went into total spasms in 13 different areas at once that I went down on the floor and couldnt get up again as I had no power in both of my legs and we had to call an ambulance to come and get me up with the help of gas and air and morphine. This has happend twice since and my hand has little power in it too. I saw my consultant on Friday and he said he was going to treat this as an MS relapse and has put me onto a 12 day course of steroids and said that if this doesnt work he will bring me into hospital and give me 3 day course of IV steroids. I am so confused at the minute as the MRI was clear but I have all the symptoms and have had to order a wheelchair for getting about out doors as it is too painful to walk even with the use of 2 walking sticks. Some one please help me and tell me if they think this is the way the neurologists go about this diagnoses. Thanks, Confused.com Jennie
Hi Jennie, and welcome 
Diagnosing MS can be tricky because there is no definitive test for it. Add to that a lot of mimics and that it’s not uncommon for people with MS to have clear MRIs and/or negative results in other tests and it means that sometimes it’s only the way the patient’s symptoms develop that provide sufficient clues for a diagnosis.
Saying that, I am wondering whether or not your neuro is an MS specialist? If he is, then you should be in good hands, but if he isn’t, I think I would be asking for a second opinion if I were you and I would also want (at least) a thoracic MRI scan and a lumbar puncture. The main reason I say this is that I’ve never heard of sudden, short-lived attacks of widespread spasms before in MS. This doesn’t mean that they don’t happen, but I would guess it means that they are quite rare and therefore they make me wonder if something else might be going on. An MS specialist would of course know better than me though.
Are you getting help with your symptoms (other than the steroids)? It can make a huge difference to get on the right meds and things like occupational therapy and neurophysio can be very helpful.
I really hope the steroids work, and work quickly.
Karen x