I am new to this forum (and to MS!) so sorry if my question have been asked and answered before!
I have been told by a neurologist (not specialised in MS) that I probably have MS after have suffered an episode in July this year and had 2 MRI scans that showed lesions (a few months apart).
This neurologist didn’t want to give me a certain diagnostic as he is not specialist in MS but refered me to a colleague who is a specialist. It was a month ago and I haven’t heard from them yet. I went back to my GP 2 weeks ago as I felt some similar symptoms coming back and she said she will get in touch with the hospital to ask when they will see me.
By reading posts on this forum, I do understand that the wait for appointments can be long and difficult (especially with the strain on the NHS at the moment). I also understand that I only have been in this situation for a month and that other people have waited far longer than me to be in my position.
I just would Iike to know in your experience how long do you think I might have to wait to be seen by the specialist?
Thanks so much for reading my post and for your help.
Hello NL007 Getting an appointment with a neurologist is like gold, they are rushed off there feet, I was lucky I got a quick one in October but my second appointment came in December but it is in early April. So six months for me you could ask for a cancellation or you can ask your GP to hurry it up a bit. The neurologist did send me a letter in November. But one doctor I am still waiting for results of a test is eighteen months. lol you could phone up the secretary of the neurologist and ask what’s going on. I hope thing go well with you. PS. I am still waiting for a MRI.
The letter and what said was why I found this website.
I would think that a non-specialist neurologist is quite capable of diagnosing MS, even if he then had to refer you to a specialist to prescribe disease modifying drugs (DMDs). But if he can’t, then he can’t!
Do you know the name of the specialist to whom he has referred you? If so, try phoning that doctors secretary and asking if s/he knows roughly the length of the wait for appointments.
If you don’t know the name of the neurologist, just try phoning the appointments team at your hospital and ask them the same.
The idea usually is that once diagnosed, as you appear to have quite active disease, getting onto a DMD is better sooner rather than later.
Diagnosis of MS is based on the McDonald Criteria: McDonald criteria | MS Trust The tests for which you seem to have fulfilled, ie 2 relapses and at least 2 lesions. (Dissemination in time and space.)
The other problem is that until you are diagnosed, you can’t get steroids to help speed up remission of a relapse. So your current symptoms could be classed as a relapse and possibly treated with high dose steroids (assuming the symptoms are bad enough / affect mobility or eyesight).
Your GP could possibly do more than ‘enquire’ about your appointment, s/he could ask for the referral to be treated as ‘urgent’.
Hopefully you won’t have to wait too long. If you end up with a serious relapse, one that affects your walking perhaps, you could always go to A&E. That would shunt you up the queue a bit. Obviously hospital waiting times vary from area to area, so it’s possible that you won’t be waiting too long.
In the meantime, welcome to the forum. If you have worries or concerns, feel free to ask us for help and information about our experience.
Thanks so much for the information and your lovely words Sue. This forum is extremely helpful!
i will definitely ring the appointment team next week to ask about the wait. I feel like I maybe underplayed the symptoms with my GP as I was still in a bit of a shock from what the neurologist said! I know think I would like to talk about more in depth with them so hopefully the wait won’t be too long. But as you said it depends on a lot of factors.
Thanks so much again for being so informative. It really helps.