Well, today I finally received a letter from my neurologist regarding the MRI scan I had back in early July. What a complete waste of time. My ms nurse wrote to her back at the beginning of the month after my yearly appointment with her asking my consultant to clarify the “multiple lesions”. Anyway the letter that I received today from my consultant just says that the report from the radiographer didn’t stipulate how many or how old they were. She goes onto say that we can discuss it at my next appointment with her regarding how old any relapses and how many there has been.. and what should happen next regarding any possible treatment..scheduled for February 2026 although I haven’t got an actual date as yet. Isn’t it her job to tell me how many and how old any new lesions are? And how are we going to be able to discuss anything if she doesn’t know anything about the lesions currently on my brain? A chocolate teapot would be a kind way to describe her. We know that it’s a postcode lottery..at least we’re told that but, surely it’s basic stuff in finding out from the radiographer how many new lesions and how old that they!
Oh how frustrating Freshairman! Surely the neurologist can have a look at your scan and tell you what they see??
And it seems a long time to wait til February when you see them next. I wonder if there’s a way of bringing it forward?
How is your referral to Addenbrookes going? X
Thanks Alison. Yes, it’s frustrating and I found it disappointing too. Like yourself I would have thought that she would have had a look at the scan herself. Obviously I expect too much of her, for that to happen!
Well, as far as I know, my GP..or at least the GP I saw at my GP’s surgery, has written a referral to Addenbrookes. Haven’t heard anything as yet. Who knows, maybe I’ll get an appointment there before I’m due to meet my current neurologist next February. Oh, I do hope so.
I hope so too Freshairman. The not knowing can be so hard. And it seems to be a big feature of most people’s MS journey!
It is very difficult to say exactly how old lesions are.
If a lesion corresponds to a lesion that was seen on a previous MRI, then it is at least as old as the date of the previous MRI. If it was not present on the MRI prior to the one you had in July, then it may be as old as the date of your previous MRI minus one day. Or it could be 2 weeks old. There is really no way to tell how old a lesion is, unless it was present on a previous scan, and even then you can only say it’s as least as old as the date of the previous scan.
You can always go back to the next previous scan and if it wasn’t present it happens sometime between that one and the one it was present in. If it was present then it was at least as old as the date of that second previous scan.
You can continue going back through previous MRIs to correlate lesions.
Active lesions appear bright on gadolinium enhanced MRIs. But unless they appeared on a previous MRI, there’s no way to tell how old they are.
As you say. If it wasn’t showing on my previous scan then it is a new one. And I’m still none the wiser regarding what’s new from my previous scan and how many I currently have. How many can be currently seen that is. I’ve asked the neurologist..her secretary anyway. Never got a reply from either. Did get a call from someone else who eventually said, you need to ask your consultant! Really? That’s precisely what I tried to do. She said that she would get the neurologist to contact me. Still waiting. My GP has tried to find out and so far they haven’t. My ms nurse wrote to the consultant asking on my behalf too. So far she’s not heard anything either. There has to be other reasons why so far she’s just not answered. Any of us.