How long do you think you actually had ms for before you officially got diagnosed?
Hi I was diagnosed at 19 but had signs from the age of 4 and throughout my teenage years. So it can tke year to get a diagnosis confirmed.
Its progression slowed down and I’m near retirement age now and have only been confined to a wheelchair since 2007 - so I think I’ve done well.
Mary
I’ve worked out at least four or five years, for certain (have records of complaining to friends that I think I might be ill, going back at least that far).
But I sometimes think it might go back much further still. I don’t think I was terribly well in my 20s (diagnosed at 44). Although I rarely saw the doctor, I had a lot of unexplained, niggly little things, that were a bit strange for a young woman - I seemed to start getting old before my time. I was also depressed much of the time. I now question whether this was ever depression, or chronic, undiagnosed MS fatigue. The symptoms seem suspiciously similar, to me: everything felt like the most overwhelming effort. So was I “depressed”, or was I always battling undiagnosed illness? I know MS can itself cause depression, so perhaps the answer is “both”? But I no longer view the depression as an isolated thing that happened for no known reason. I think it has to be linked to the fact I was getting ill.
Tina
I was diagnosed in April 2012 aged 32, but with the benefit of hindsight I would say I had symptoms from age 25/26. I had a diagnosis of carpal tunnel syndrome, a load of eyesight problems and a period of getting numbness and pains across my shoulders and back. At the time, all perfectly innocent!!! I also suffered periods of depression and just not feeling ‘right’.
First bout of ON 2004, diagnosed 2012/2013
Diagnosed in 1998, first definite sign looking back was 1984. Karen x
I’m pretty sure now, with hindsight, that I had Optic neuritis back in 1982 when I was 20. The pain was investigated, I didn’t mention visual problems and then I moved so I pretended wasn’t happening. And when I had iritis, balance problems etc etc etc
And especially after I had some seizures and the MRI scans of my brain showed lots of lesions which changed in number and position between scans.
I was given a definite diagnosis in 2006. My epilepsy neuro had been trying to tell me gently for years - he said after a lumbar puncture and VEP ‘9 out of 10 people with your medical history and test results have some form of MS’. That didn’t help me much!
Hello,
Can we have ms until we have had 2 attacks? If one attack is put down to CIS.
But i have had depression since birth, well since my first memory anyway (but under control). I dont think i had ms until my first attack that the gp sent me to the neuro for. I cant think of any time that i had ms symptoms before the 1st episode (CIS) last year.
Darren
I was diagnosed in 2003, but the consultant said I’d probably had it since 1996 when a scan showed some lesions. Pretty sure I had it before that though!
Daphne
First episode 1999. Diagnosis in 2010.
First bacame ill in 2003. Told it was depression/anxiety. Diagnosed with ME in 2008 (had to give up work) and then all symptoms put down to ME. MS dx last year so I guess that’s 10 years…
Mags xx
dx 2010, looking back and what my neuro thinks to be 15 yrs so 1995!!!
Dx in Oct last year but looking back first signs were more than ten years ago.
Diagnosed in September 2012 after being ill for a few weeks. Had an MRI and lumbar puncture in 2002 which my doctor has told me should have led to a diagnosis then but I was discharged after being told I was just stressed. Have had “weird” happenings all this time. Xx