For years I’ve suffered with numb fingertips, spasms, balance and bladder problems and memory issues. I was told this was fibromyalgia. I was referred to opthalmology when i woke up not being able to see out of my left eye. Had a brain mri which showed non specific white matter, and my opthalmologist referred me to neurology. The nhs waiting lists were so so long for a neurology appt, I ended up being given a private neurology appt. The neurologist was lovely, said it pointed to MS from the scan report and the examination he did. He wanted me to have another mri, then passed me back onto Nhs neurology.
The 2nd brain mri conclusion said it looked more like impairment instead of inflammation.
Today I saw my new neurologist (he was quite intimidating and literally shouting questions at me) He said for whatever reason he cannot view my scans but he would say my symptoms are more age related (im mid 40s) and fibromyalgia. He said he’d go over the previous scans, and most likely write to GP to discharge me.
He wanted to do a quick examination before I left. He kept repeating a test on my foot, then said actually he wants me to have a spine scan.
I’m so confused. I’ve had a neurologist suggest I have MS approx 1 year ago. 2 totally conflicting mri scans. The neurologist today says it’s fibromyalgia, but then wants to do a spine scan.
Has this happened to anyone else?
Hi there. No not to me but I do know MS can sometimes be hard to diagnose.
It shouldn’t be like this but some neurologists have pretty awful / zero ‘bedside mannners’. If you can, then when you hear the results of the spine scan and if the neurologist still says it’s not MS, ask him why he is ruling that out
What test was he repeating on your foot? The MRI on your spine might be to look for something that affects your foot physically but you can also have MS lesions on your spine.
I’m sorry that you felt intimidated, that should never happen. If it’s any help I got a new neurologist a few years ago and the first time I saw her I found her very intimidating but when I saw her the next year she was absolutely lovely and I can only assume that I’d caught her on a bad day before! Fingers crossed you get some answers soon.
That’s a really good idea, thank you @Hank_Dogs All questions I had for him, I just couldn’t remember as I was shocked at his ‘bedside manner’ I’ll write your one down.
@bexhc he kept repeating running his finger from the bottom of my foot to the top.
I’m glad your neurologist turned out to be lovely. Hopefully mine was just having a bad day too.
He was probably testing for the Babinski Sign where the toes splay and the big toe goes up if the signals to your foot are getting disrupted. It can be a sign of neurological issues or something going on in the spine which is why he’s requested the MRI, good that it’s being checked!