Hello everyone!

Hello peeps! I’ve joined pre DX as I am about to undergo tests for MS as I have had random issues over the last few years … well longer than that if you take into account other random events during my life.

I pretty much have the same story as most people, kept going to GP when I had ‘bad’ problems, told it wasn’t anything they could find a reason for and told to take pain meds until it went. Didn’t go to the GP over the small issues like chronic fatigue because to be honest if I ever mentioned it to anyone around me I’d be met with “Yeah, I’m tired too” and I’d think “No, this is MORE than just tired” but feeling like a goof I’d bumble on and ‘cope’.

I am very lucky that I work from home on my own business so taking time out to do something different or work during the night wasn’t an issue… funny how wide awake I feel between 3 and 6am!!

Anyway to cut a long story short (long story if I am DX with MS) the final straw was when I had a mad attack of sciatica two weeks ago, I literally woke up one morning and as I entered the bathroom PING my sciatic nerve started to jab at me and shoot down my leg like a crazy horse. It was so bad I couldn’t walk or sit still as it was relentless… I was miffed, I’m not overweight and I haven’t had any back injury…then on day 3 when my Mother was due to bring a walking stick round for me (as a joke but really I wanted it!) I woke up and the darn thing had gone! I could skip, hop, go up the stairs without yelping yay!!! Only… now my right knee was playing up.

Do I tell my husband or will he look at me and think “Woman! Lately everything hurts and then doesn’t!” I felt like a Münchhausen.

So I was sent to have complete bloods and an eye test… optician tells me that in the short time since she last saw me my optic nerve in my left eye has (some word she used) and did the other test I was having include MS… “Erm, I don’t think so?”

I went back to the GP on Friday and he’s all ready and hyped up saying he will extend my appointment into his lunch break as he wants to do some tests. He makes me walk about the office, hits me with a long hammer all over the place, looks in my eyes, asks me lots of questions and then says “I’m going to admit you to hospital today” I go and wait in the waiting room and hear him on the telephone to the hospital “44 year old lady…demyelination… optic something… presenting MS”

So I am sent to the hospital, they take blood and ask me more questions and make me walk about some more and hit me with the hammer some more and then say I must have an MRI with Gandalph Linen or something injected into me and a lumbar puncture and I’m sitting there thinking of Lord of the rings and the band Spinal tap and he says “On Tuesday the earliest”…

There began my begging to be sent home, no way could I stay there for 4 nights, I am not a relaxer, I am not a quiet person… our family are loud, active, party loving and that ward was throbbing with the energy of 4 ladies in their 70’s … there was no party going on in there… and not even a TV to take my mind of things.

So… I was sent home and am now waiting to be called in for the tests. I sat in bed for an hour this morning taking all the metal beads out of my dreadlocks and thinking what a bizarre day Friday was and wondering what will be injected into me and how it will feel. I’m also thinking “Who will clean the hens if I have to stay in?!!” as my rather large and amazing family all seem to have an aversion to hen poo… but not the eggs! lmao

I’m pleased finally something is being done but was expecting Lupus or Fybro’ or even another tumor (had a parotid one removed two years ago) but now I have MS to add to the basket of “could be this”

So… hello everyone and I may be staying or I may be going but I sure need a shoulder or ten to lean on at the moment as I haven’t a clue about what’s happening!

Hello MamaOwl and welcome. Lovely screen name

Well, normally I struggle to absorb the long messages but I can honestly say I really enjoyed reading yours. I was almost sorry when it ended lol.

I don’t think chronic fatigue is a small issue…its more than just tiredness. Like you say, some people just don’t understand.

I do hope you haven’t got ms. When you have the MRI with Gadolinium, you won’t feel anything, so don’t worry.

You come across in your writing as a very strong and positive person, so I think that will help you a lot.

I’m sure your family will fight their aversion to the hen poo, if only so they get the eggs.

Its all about arranging the various test for you and making sure they come up with the right diagnosis so they can offer you the correct treatment. It can take a few weeks to get all the results, so you’ll have to be patient.

Good luck with the test and lets us no the results.

PS; my brother-in-law just recently had a parotid tumor removed. Are you fully over that now, if you don’t mind me asking?

Noreen xx

Ha ha bless you! You’ll regret that one day when I post another ‘wall of text’ lmao!

I know it’s crazy stuff, like one minute I’ll be all legs and arms and chatter and the next I’m slumped in a chair thinking “Who put rohypnol in my tea?”

But if I mention it to anyone I am met with a yawn and a “Yeah me too”… make you want to go thrrrrrp

Gadolinium!!! Aww, so nothing to do with Gandalphs linen… I wont research it too much though because knowing me - who doesn’t even like taking paracetamol - I will find something bad about it and refuse it… which wont help!

Yes I am fine. The earlobe that the consultant said I would never get feeling back in is fine and the jaw that he said would be fine is still numb though after two years. I used an infra red machine to get swelling and feeling back though and swear by it… Not sure on the rules here but would you like me (am I permitted?) to share or pm you a link to my diary? If you think he would benefit from it. So far there are only three of us ladies on there who have had the same procedure… was his a pleomorphic adenoma?

Hi MamaOwl and welcome to the forum,

I agree with Noreen,you seem to have a great attitude and this is good especially during the testing period. It can be a long and winding road but it does take some time as they need to be sure before they Dx. Whatever they find.

Everyone on this forum is lovely, I’ve had great support and advice, I was Dx in 2012 and the forum has really helped me since I’ve been on.

Don’t worry about asking any questions however daft or sensitive you may think they are, everything(and I do mean EVERYTHING) is talked about on here!!

Most people are on the Everyday living board so don’t be afraid to hop over if you want it doesn’t matter that you aren’t Dx.

Good luck with tests and let us know how you get on with them,

Welcome again, we are the ten shoulders you need to lean on, we all come on here for support, a moan, a rant, a bit of a cry and most importantly a laugh!

BeckyX

Thank you Becky!

Yes at the moment I have adopted the policy of smile and get on with life… until we know for sure there is no point in picking out mobility scooters and walking sticks… although my Mother who is in a mobility scooter has already said “Oohh we can get matching ones!”… lol she has such tact!

One thing it has done is when Hubby and I were talking about a new house I said “I think it would be wise to get a bungalow…” it hit me that if MS doesn’t get me then Mothers hereditary rubbish hips might… I don’t want to be like my Mother and having to live only in the downstairs of her very large house :frowning: … she is selling it though thank goodness.

That said, I do tend to mask badness… I am the one at the scene of a crash making the person with two broken legs laugh like a drain and telling then it could be worse… well… it could!

However there are moments, like when I was laughing at my cat trying to stalk my hens and getting chased away when I suddenly remembered my optic nerve and thought oh my goodness… one day I might not be able to see things like this… and I had a sneaky weep behind my sunglasses… :-/

Hello again MamaOwl

I must say, I liked your description of gadolinium better Lol. You should be writing stories…maybe you are??

Its good to hear your fine, following the parotid tumor. I don’t know what type of adenoma it was to be honest…I will have to find out. I would be very interested in the link to your diary, thank you. Share it, there is no reason I can think of why you shouldn’t. We share all sorts of issues on here. Bowels, bladder, etc, so why not your diary

My brother-in-law is choosing to bury is head in the sand and pretend everything is ok, when he’s obviously still not back to full health…I don’t think its a year yet since his op. There marriage is on rocky ground at the moment, to put it mildly.

I will pass on the information to his wife…we’ve been best friends since we were 14, now 58

Try and stay positive and all the best again with the tests

Oh look… weird!

OK something has gone a bit screwy lol… can a Moderator pretty please merge my two duplicated threads please :slight_smile:

Is there anybody there lol :wink: