I am in my forties but since late teens I have had cramps and general aches and pains especially in my legs. I have seen different gps on various occasions and been diagnosed with Reynards disease as my hands and feet get cold and painful, tested negative for rheumatoid arthritis. I have described the pains in my legs like someone is dragging a wire down the inside of my legs, the gp has responded with a bemused expression and passed it off as growing pains.
Having recently read your website’s information on MS I am more convinced this is what I have. Over the last year I have been experiencing restless legs, cramps and spasms in my lower calves and feet, tingling in my fingers, numbness in my toes and have fallen asleep on a couple of occasions at my computer. I am sure though when I go to my gp, it will be put down to stress and anxiety as I have a history of generalised anxiety disorder.
Worried.
If you do indeed have MS, but have had it some 30 years without developing disability, it points to a rather benign course.
MS has many lookalikes, and your symptoms could be down to something as simple as a vitamin deficiency.
Your doctor presumably took you seriously before, or how did you come to be tested for RA? So all you can do is go back, be assertive, and explain that although those tests came back clear, things have still not resolved themselves, and you’re not happy about just leaving it.
You don’t know you will be dismissed until you’ve tried. It might actually be stress and anxiety, as those can cause physical symptoms, but without pursuing it, you’ll never know. People on a forum can’t tell whether or not your problem is MS. They can only advise you to return to the doctor.
If you feel you do not get a good hearing with your current doctor, there’s always the option of changing doctors - either as a one-off, if it’s a multi-partner practise - just see one of the others one time - or permanently, if it’s a sole practitioner.
Tina