At least it’s not MS I thought. Now I seem to be wrong. I’ll be 60 this year - problem with my left leg started in October last year - numbness and pins & needles. Ignored it for a while then finally made appointment to see GP. 2 days before I put my back out (lumbar disc) and got treated for that rather than the numbness. Anyway - to cut a long story short er - finally ended up with 2 spinal MRIs - yup lumbar disc misplaced and bulging but lesions on my thoracic area. By now the girdle around my chest was tightening and mobility was pretty poor. And so a lovely neurologist told me 3 weeks ago that there is a possibility that I have MS, and have probably had it for years - but - more tests are needed. I’m off for a EP study next week - electrodes on the head - sounds rather like science fiction! And I’ll be having a brain scan soon - I did have one 5 years ago - there were white patches but the doctor then said it was because I had a stroke at 49 - now, it’s being rethought. Why the brain scan then - because I was having dizzy spells - lack of balance. I’m really tired - fatigued and confused, trying to keep going at work but having trouble remembering what to do - it may be the vitamin D deficiency - recently diagnosed and now being treated. My left arm is now weakening and pins and needles causing trouble most days. Whatever this is - and I do suspect MS - I wish it would go away and let me garden in peace!
hi elsgranny
i got my dx the week before my 50th birthday after having symptoms like you describe.
i think i had it long before that but ignorance is bliss.
if you DO have ms, your life will continue much as it always has done so don’t hang up your gardening gloves.
carole x
Hi Elsgranny,
Like Carole, I was diagnosed in my 40s, but believe I’d already had it for years, and managed to quite successfully ignore it!
It may be small consolation, but honestly, if you’ve got to almost 60, believe you’ve already had it for years, and things have only just got serious enough to warrant further investigation, the outlook is rather positive.
True, there are never any guarantees with MS, but the best and only predictor we have of how it’s going to behave in the future is how it’s behaved in the past.
If you’ve gone a long, long time with only relatively minor problems, you may continue to do so for a good long time yet.
Looking back, I now think there were episodes in my 20s that were “suspicious” - but at the time not drastic enough to worry me, or cause me to go to the doctor. So I think I could have a 20 to 25 year history of MS, if I count from when strange things first began to happen, instead of when I was first diagnosed. I’m 49 and still walking unaided, so I have to hope that if it’s really been 20 or 25 years, as I suspect, but this is as bad as I’ve got, it’s really looking very, very positive, and with a bit of luck I may never be profoundly disabled.
Tina
x
Definitely not hanging up the gardening gloves - just giving up heavy digging and having plenty of coffee breaks 
Thank you Tina. Yes, various occurances over the years do seem to make sense when MS is put in the medical picture. And I know I’m very lucky to be this age without previous disabling problems. I was just interested to know if many people got a diagnosis late in life or if I have just been exceedingly lucky.
Brenda 
Onset (as Transverse Myelitis) at 69 (and a month later I was in Prague at a NATO conference).
The Dx of RRMS was a year later (just after a trip to the US that took in 6 flights, 5 states and another conference).
In the middle of my 70th year I get a relapse (and I am having IV steroids and someone else is giving my paper at a conference in Washington DC), That was when I decided to retire.
Last year the Dx was changed to SPMS
What you get is exactly what you get. We are all different and so is our MS.
Geoff
Very true, Geoff. I’ve never had the energy to do all that (!) though I have raised 3 kids, worked full-time and kept body and soul together. Had the electrodes test today - brain scan in a couple of weeks then we shall see what, if anything, shows. In the meantime - on with the weeding
Brenda