Is this enough?

I had an mri back in januarywhich showed several inflammatory lesions in different areas of my brain and some in my spinal cord. 2 months ago I had a lumbar puncture and yesterday I got a copy of the letter my neurologist sent to my GP. It said I tested positive for oligoclonal bands in my cerebrospinal fluid and he would be contacting me to discuss the findings. I haven’t heard from him yet, but from what I’ve read I think this is enough to diagnose me now? I’m not sure whether to be relieved or upset.

I think both, relieved that you now know what you may have and the limboland has finished, upset because you know that you have, you don’t know what is happening next.

People on here say different things about finding out that you have MS and how you should handle it, I don’t know what I would do.

I was relieved when they told me that I had to have my gallbladder out but p???d off when I had to have a second operation two days later to repair the stub sight.

Good luck

Kay

Hello

So long as the report from the LP states that you have Oligoclonal bands in your CSF but not in the blood taken at the same time, I believe that you probably have sufficient clinical evidence to support an MS diagnosis. But some neurologists want to have clinical data of at least two relapses for RRMS, and a longer period of progression for a PPMS diagnosis.

So if you’ve either seen a neurologist or MS nurse with more than one relapse, or the lesions can be clearly seen to have occurred at different times, then you’d expect to be diagnosed now. In fact, that was the case even without the LP, but some neurologists are sticklers for having a positive LP first. Certainly that would be the case for a progressive diagnosis.

If you’ve not seen it before, this might clarify things: McDonald criteria | MS Trust (unless it just confuses you more!)

As for a combination of relief and despair, that is very common upon diagnosis. Relief that you now have answers for symptoms and are out of the horrible halfway house of limbo. Yet upset because you now have MS. And whatever drugs you now qualify for to prevent relapses, MS isn’t likely to be cured in the short term, if ever.

I think it’s going to take a while for your emotions to settle down, expect to have a variety of feelings whizzing about you for a while. Including a healthy dose of anger, the ‘why me?’ phase.

Hopefully you have good friends or family with whom you can share all your maelstrom of feelings. If not, we’re always here!

Sue