Neurology appointment yesterday.

New diagnosis and before diagnosis
1

Well had my first neurology appointment yesterday and still not sure what to think.

He has agreed that my symptoms could indicate ms and has booked me for an mri. He has not organised any other tests and didn’t discuss if there were any alternatives to ms that it could be instead.

In the physical exam he did yesterday he said that apart from a slight weakness in my legs there was nothing else significant showing up.

He gave the impression that he was pretty sure that the mri would show up ms but given that i’ve probably had it for at least ten years i am in pretty good shape!!!

He spoke about the possibility of a lumbar puncture depending on the results of the mri but again seemed reasonably confident that it probably wouldnt be necessary to do it as he was confident that the mri would provide the results he was expecting. He even gave me a list of percentasges of what he expected from the mri. 70% chance of inflammation /lesions caused by ms, 20% chance of it being clear and 10% chance of it throwing up something completely unexpected!!!

Does this consultant know something I don’t???

Might have to wait a couple of months for the mri and have an appointment booked to see the consultant again on 2 December to discuss the results.

2

Well, it sounds pretty painless and it’s all moving along quite nicely (the MRI) so overall a good consult :slight_smile: I would guess that your history is very consistent with MS so that the relative lack of abnormality in your clinical exam wasn’t a big deal in his mind. If your MRI is also consistent with MS, there is no need for an LP (despite what some neuros seem to think!). Sounds like my kind of neuro! I realise that you might be reeling a bit from his apparently casual assumption that you have MS, but the good news is the recognition that you’ve had it for a long time - and that generally means that it will happily continue along the same path - it doesn’t know it’s been given a label after all! You’ve been dealing with it for all this time - so there’s no reason to suspect you won’t still. Karen x

3

You’ve hit the nail on the head there Karen, that’s exactly how he put it. I suppose in some ways I’m happy that he’s being so casual about it. It somehow doesnt seem quite so scary for some reason.

I’ve known for a long time that something wasn’t quite right so the diagnosis will just be confirmation of what I’ve been thinking for a long time.

I suppose my biggest concerns are for whats going to happen right now rather than whats ahead of me in 15 - 20 years time. I’ve just had what I believe is my first really big flare up and I’m still off work and starting to worry how long its going to be til I’m able to get back. I suppose I’m starting to think that I need to try and ignore the fatigue and go back to work and I’ll be fine. I’m still not eating properly, in fact I’ve lost nearly a stone in the past month.

What do other people do about work? Should I be heading back and hoping for the best or should I be asking my gp to sign me off for a bit longer?

As i said in an earlier post my gp also recently prescribed a low dose of citalopram to help with anxiety and depression but I have decided not to take them. I’m hoping that I’m strong enough to deal with this without chemical help!!!