Hiya,
Just wanted to introduce myself before I start on my litany of problems and self-indulgent worries.
I am a 30 year old male, currently living in Birmingham (UK). I have both diabetes and hypothyroidism - both of which are supposedly well treated.
Anyway, for a fair while now (I’d say about 7-8 years) I have been having symptoms which are becoming worse and worse as the years go by … these are as follows:
- Feeling of vertigo and dizziness. Never actually fall over as such just always feel like I have room spin.
- Feelings of confusion continually - find it hard to follow a conversation and find in really hard to follow a train of thought when I speak myself.
- Always feeling tired. Incredibly tired and achey. It takes me hours to “wake up” and even then I get tired throughout the day and pass out with tiredness each evening.
- Difficulties speaking. Slurred and the feeling I need to “force” my voice out. People continually saying “pardon” when I speak.
- Aching in majority of body - especially arms, legs, back of neck, lower back.
- Weakness is upper arms, legs and hands. I especially notice this when needing to hold something others take for granted. Like a mobile phone or a paintbrush. It’ll cause my whole arm to ache incredible.
- I also get electrical “nerve” like pains in my feet, legs, head, arms and fingers. Though this is predominantly on the left hand side of my body it sometimes affects the right hand side too. It also seems to get worse when I sit down of an evening (or on a plane incidentally when it became excrutiating) or when I lie down in bed. It causes me to toss and turn inessantly.
- Bouts of both Constipation and Diahorrea.
- Intolerance to slight variations in temperature - i.e really notice a huge difference in a slight variation of shower temp. Periods of the day where I sweat uncontollably and other periods where I feel incredibly cold.
- Headaches … tightness in the head. I also get random shooting pains going over my head and pains in my neck.
I just wanted to get the opinions of everyone here on whether any of this sounds like MS. I am convinced that I have something that continues to go undiagnosed and would love to get some feedback from people on what they thought. I just want to know whats wrong with me.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts … its appreciated.
Oh and my eyesight is kinda “dizzy”. I can see alright but I cant concentrate my vision on things that are moving. When I move my own head especially it takes a while for my vision to catch up. It also hurts to move my eyes from left to right.
Hello and welcome 
Neurology is complicated by the fact that many conditions share the same symptoms so, while MS can cause your symptoms, lots of other conditions can too, including vitamin deficiencies and other relatively easy-to-fix conditions.
The best thing to do is to see your GP to get a thorough battery of blood tests (every vitamin and mineral the GP can think of as well as the standard tests). You also need to get your vision checked out - your GP can refer you to an ophthalmologist, but it wouldn’t hurt to see an optician first too.
The next step would be to see a neurologist (via a GP referral).
Good luck.
Karen x
Thanks Karen
I have had a whole battery of tests I think. As far as I know I had B12, Iron, Vitamin D, Calcium and so on and so forth.
I am taking Vitamin B12 Sublinigual, Ferrous Fulimnate 3-per-day (iron) and Vitamin D and Calcium tablets daily. Apparently all of my levels have been normal for over a year.
Yesterday I had the strangest feeling all over my body. Feelings of dizziness, pain, sickness and pins and needles on the back of my head, lower back, lower legs, feet, hands and lower arms. Its was horrible. Think it was why I ended up coming on here cus sometimes I feel so alone with my symptoms. Outwardly it feels like people think there isnt much wrong … if only that were true.
I have a referral to see a neurologist but it keeps getting pushed back by the neurolgist himself. Would symptoms in MS be continual every day things cus thats what I have. I notice people talking about episodes and relapses which I kinda understand to mean one off events?
Thanks for your time.
Hi VL,
I would get that appointment with the neurologist sorted as soon as you can. A relapse is when the disease is active. It can last from between one day and several months. As I said, I would ask to see the neurologist as soon as possible, just to put your mind at rest, if nothing else. The sooner you know what it is the sooner you can deal with it.
Good luck with it.
Adrian
As Adrian said, an episode or relapse varies in length of time. Generally, the symptoms would gradually worsen, peak and then slowly improve.
There are different types of MS though and people with PPMS (primary progressive MS) do not (generally) have relapses - instead their MS gradually worsens over time.
Having symptoms that have worsened over 7/8 years may make PPMS more likely that RRMS (relapsing remitting MS - the type with relapses), but it does not mean that that is what is wrong with you - there really are loads of possibilities.
If the neuro is giving you the runaround, maybe ask for an appointment with a different neuro? And get your GP to try and apply some pressure? Ask your GP for some help with symptoms too, e.g. neurophysio can help with vertigo, speech therapy can help with slurring, neuropathic painkillers can help with the shooting pains, etc. GPs are often unwilling to prescribe meds when someone is undiagnosed, but it is worth asking (firmly!).
Kx