Hi everyone! I just found this site today and I have to say it has been really informative already, just reading through everyone’s forum threads. Glad I found it.
I am here because of some recurring symptoms that none of my doctors have been able to resolve. As I’m starting to learn is fairly common with MS, it’s often not diagnosed very quickly due to the symptoms not being “obvious” to a lot of doctors. I’ve seen my family doctor, was referred to an orthopedic doc, then back to family doc, etc. I’m finally getting to see a neuro doctor in a couple weeks!
The symptoms/issues I’ve been having seem to fit pretty well with early signs of MS. I’m a 39 y/o male with no other health issues. Slightly overweight, but otherwise have always been fortunate to have good health. Over the course of the last year or so, I’ve started having a number of issues that plague me, and then disappear. Then they come back, but by the time I see my doctor, they’ve sometimes resolved again. It’s been so exhausting and infuriating. Anyway, here’s what I’ve had going on.
- Food feels like it is sitting in the back of my throat after eating, sometimes even just after taking 1 bite of something. It doesn’t hurt, doesn’t impede my airway, and I can’t see it in a mirror. It’s happening as I type this, after having eaten a handful of cashews an hour ago. The feeling of the food varies based on what I eat, so I don’t think it’s just “all in my head”. When I clear my throat doing an ahem type thing, I can sometimes taste a bit of whatever food is “stuck”. Also if I keep swallowing even when my mouth is already emtpy, and forcing my tongue against the roof of my mouth to increase the swallowing force, I can feel the stuck food. It honestly feels like it’s right behind my tongue, but it obviously isn’t. Gagging myself to try to throw it up doesn’t provide any relief. It usually just goes away on its own, but by then I’ve just been ignoring it, so I never feel an “oh my god, finally!” type moment when the feeling stops.
- I’ve been waking up 2-4 times per night with an urgent need to pee, but when I pee there isn’t that much urine. I also have noticed some semen often comes out in my urine stream. My doctor said this was called Retrograde Ejaculation and is due to my bladder sphincter not fully closing and allowing semen to enter my bladder throughout the day. I’ve never suffered from urgent urination or anything of the sort until now. My doctor suggested making sure I fully void my bladder when I pee before going to bed, but it hasn’t made much difference, if any at all. If I take a sleep aid like NyQuil or Trazadone (I have an rx), I sleep through the night without waking up to pee. To me, this makes it fairly obvious the urge to urinate isn’t “real” because my bladder obviously isn’t needing to empty itself due to being full.
- I’ve been having these strange sensations in different parts of my body. For me, it’s always the tip of my tongue, my fingertips, some of the ends of my toes, and random parts of my scalp. They feel not totally numb, but like they’re tingling, and lacking some sensation. I also get this feeling that is hard to describe, but sort of a lightheaded feeling like my sense of touch and movement aren’t fully working. I get a little dizzy/spinning type sensation when I move around and I can reproduce the exact feeling by looking extremely to my sides without moving my head. Basically looking out of the corner of my eye to the right, then darting my eyes to the left, etc. These particular symptoms seem to show up one day and last a week or two, then they randomly stop happening and I feel totally fine for a few weeks, then they come back. And sometimes they only last for 2-3 days and don’t come back for a month. So frustrating.
- I’ve had pain in my lower right back every single day for the last 3 years. I can push on the spot and it hurts. The location of the pain never changes from day to day. Standing for long periods of time (2+ hours) is almost unbearable. They’ve done xrays, MRI’s, massage, chiropractic, you name it. I’ve been checked for kidney stones, broken ribs, muscle tears, inflammation, etc. They tell me it’s not even inflammed and the pain is just in my head. It’s beyond infuriating. I was on Hydrocodone for almost a year because of this pain, and eventually told my doctor to take me off the pain meds because it wasn’t helping any more. Marijuana does seem to take the pain away, but I’m too busy and weed isn’t legal where I live yet, so it’s not really a viable option.
- I’ve had recurring bouts of major, severe depression. I do fine for weeks and sometimes months at a time, and then boom… I wake up one day and it feels like everything has changed to black and white. I can barely motivate myself to get up and take a shower. I get home from work and it takes everything in my being to get myself to the couch and lay down. This god-awful feeling usually lasts 2-4 days, and I slowly start to improve. Within a week or so I feel normal again.
I’m so sorry for the long, rambling post. I know too much reading is not good, so I’ll stop here. I think I listed all the symptoms I’ve been having, or at least all the ones that are recurring and “major”. Does my experience sound like it could be MS related? Like I said above, Im 39 years old, 6’1 and 230lbs. I’m otherwise healthy, married, 2 kids, happy life. Great support from my family. I know it sounds totally idiotic, selfish and stupid, but I’d honestly rather be tested and find out I have MS than to go on for the rest of my life with these symptoms where nobody seems to know what the hell they are or what to do about them.
Thanks everyone!