Good morning everyone,
I am new to your forum,and i hope some of you can advise me on some aspects concerning the diagnosis of MS. Mine is a long story and i hope you can bear with me as i try to explain my story.
Back in August 2014, i started to feel a bit different. I first noticed a pain in my right eye and started to feel unsteady and quite tired. I noticed that i was walking like someone who was a bit drunk, a wobbly feeling. I went to see my then neuro, whom i had been seeing on and off for about 7 years, with different issues like pins and needles, and weakness,but MS he said was not what i had,he did find that i had narrowing of part of my cervical spine about 3 years ago, but the surgeon he referred me to decided against surgery, saying it was not that bad.
In September 2014, the same neuro admitted me to hospital and carried out the following tests. Before i go any further i just want to say that my neuro confirmed that i did not have MS and thought my symptoms could be related to an inner ear virus, so he sent me to physio for vestibular rehab, which was not helping, while this was going on i got copies of My brain Mri report from sep 2014,and this is what the radiologist report said.
No significant periventricular signal changes demonstrated. There are numerous tiny deep white matter high signal foci identified in both cerebral hemispheres (approx 13 on the right 5-6 on the left ) most numerous in the right frontal region largest measuring 6.6mm
There is a tiny punctate sub 2mm lesion identified in the posterior aspect of the corpus callosum.
The basal ganglia appear clear as is the proximal spinal cord.
The orbits and globes appear normal with no significant optic nerve abnormality demonstrated.
The number of high signal foci is more than expected for this age group. ( i am 45 years old) while they could well relate to small vessel ischaemia demyelination would be in the differential.
I then had a lumbar puncture which came back negative for O bands.
Lymes negative, vitamin b12 normal, thyroid normal although i have hypothyroidisim. ANA and ESR were raised at the time. VEP’s normal, and all other blood work was normal.
I felt i needed a second opinion, because of my symptoms, and my new neuro has asked to have cervical spine mri and brain mri with contrast. i have had the mri of spine done, and the report says. Multilevel degenertive disc disease with neurological compression more pronounced at C5-6 and C6-7. Mri brain with contrast will be done next month and i will the see my new neuro in March.
If i can just mention here when i went to see my new neuro, and he read through all the reports,and looked at 2 Brain Mris, sorry forgot to mention i did also have mri of the brain in february 2011 also. His conclusion was that he was not convinced i had Ms,as i do not meet the diagnostic criteria,he said feb mri was not as good as septembers mri, and that on Flair there was some faint abnormalities which would suggest that the septembers ones are not new.
However i have just gotten my firsts neuros letter to my GP, which says Mri shows scattered T2 hyperintensities in both cerebral hemispheres.there was a slight increase in these compared to her previous MRI scan, which i now know was actually done in 2012,and i have requested that report for my personal file. So basically i had 3 Brain MRI’s in 3 years, but the 2011 one was done in a different place, and the other 2 were done under the instruction of my first neuro.
Please forgive such a long post, but i really find all of this confusing and i don’t know what is wrong with me. Also my new neuro said to me that a close eye would have to be kept on me and that my prognosis was good, that i would not become disabled or anything like that, but yet he did not say what is wrong with me.
I would appreciate any of your thoughts and advice. Am i barking up the wrong tree here thinking i have MS, or could the spinal mri give a clue as to what is going on?
Thank you for reading my post.