Misdiagnosis could it be MS & not Fibromyalgia

New diagnosis and before diagnosis
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Hi everyone, this is my first time on this site but I need to get some answers for my friend & we don’t know where to turn at the minute.

She was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia about 5 years ago. Which at the time seemed highly plausible with some of the symptoms she was having. However, a few years down the line & with a few more symptoms we are beginning to wonder if she has MS. She hasn’t mentioned her fears to her GP yet, as she already thinks that they have labeled her as a hypochondriac. We don’t know whether this is a symptom of MS or not as we cannot find any information on it, but she had an unexplained fit on the 19th December 2012. She is 46 & has never had a fit before, she was out with her son who she had met after work as it was his birthday & they were going clothes shopping & then out for a meal. She had been speaking to her sister on the phone which she cannot remember doing, then she got a vacant look on her face & started fitting. Her son managed to get her to the floor were she continued to fit for approximately 4 minutes & then she was unconscious for approximately an hour. She has suffered with a poor memory for quite a while, however, since the fit this has definitely got worse. She forgets the name of things or calls them the wrong name, sometimes she realises she has done it or times not. Other symptoms she has are poor balance, she stumbles quite often for no reason, dropping things, blurry eyesight (this tends to be a lot worse when she is tired), although she seems to be exhausted most of the time even when she has had 8-9 hours sleep. She has IBS an Irritable Bladder, she has numerous water infections (she has suffered with these for over 16 years), sudden burning sensations on her skin this is mainly on her legs. The outside of her left thigh is numb most of the time but sometimes she will getting a tingling feeling like pins & needles in it. She has got to have an MRI scan on the 11th Feb because of the fit, will this alone show that she could have MS or would she have to have further tests. I would appreciate your thoughts on the above before she sees the neurologist to get her results from the MRI scan.

Bev

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Hi Bev,

Well, having a fit is most certainly NOT hypochondria, so I would have thought your friend should have no trouble being taken seriously - it’s not a minor thing that people should just live with.

Fits are not a typical symptom of MS, but there is slightly increased incidence of epilepsy among MSers, so it might not be completely unrelated.

It is possible for the early stages of MS not to be picked up by MRI scan, because the lesions are too small for the scanner to detect.

But in general, the longer somebody has had symptoms, the less likely this is to occur. If the suspicion is that your friend might have had undiagnosed MS for five years or more, I would think a scan ought to show something by now, although there’s no absolute guarantee.

There is no single conclusive test for MS (although MRI results are highly influential), and it’s what’s known as a “diagnosis of exclusion”. That is, it can only be diagnosed when all other explanations have been ruled out.

So yes, your friend would need other tests, notably blood tests, to look for other things that might be wrong. MS doesn’t show in the blood, but some lookalike conditions do, so those have to be tested for. She might also be referred for various kinds of nerve tests, called “evoked potentials”, or asked to undergo a lumbar puncture (sometimes referred to as a spinal tap), to collect a sample of cerebro-spinal fluid.

The lumbar puncture is an invasive procedure, and not always strictly necessary for an MS diagnosis (I never had one), but some neuros are still reluctant to diagnose without it.

Hope this helps,

Tina

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P.S. I forgot: a tip I gave to another poster recently:

It’s NOT always a good idea to walk into the doctor with an announcement about what you think you’ve got. Some doctors get annoyed with this, and think the patient is trying to tell them their job - which can get things off on the wrong foot.

So for the moment, I’d shut up about the MS suspicion, and wait to see what the neuro says.

Tina

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Hello and welcome :slight_smile:

I completely agree with Tina. I thought I would just add that, yes, the MRI that has been ordered for epilepsy will reveal signs of MS if there are any. (There are two basic types of scan that are run as standard: T1 and T2. T2 scans show up MS lesions.)

I hope your friend gets some answers soon.

Karen x