New to this as diagnosed monday with MS. Multipe lesions in brain on MRI, neck not scanned. Have had left facial numbness ,heaviness down left arm and leg. Miigraine for years and on beta -blockers for years. Had a similar episode 20years ago but inconclusive diagnosis. Have awful cervical neck pain at times which increased symptoms of the above but neurologist says not connected. Awaiting lumbar puncture, but no treatment yet. as 1st relaspe!!! Is this normal?? confused!! BP goes up when cervical neck pain and feel rough. Any advise from anyone would be gratefully received.
Sorry to hear that you’ve “joined the club” so to speak.
It’s pretty unusual to be diagnosed with MS after only one relapse - I guess your neuro took that old attack into account?
The reason for no treatment is that there are fixed eligibility criteria to get onto disease modifying drugs (DMDs) which include having had at least two “clinically significant” relapses in two years. If your only two attacks have been 20 years apart, chances are that it will be another long time until you have another (here’s hoping anyway!) so they will wait and see before thinking about DMDs.
In theory migraine and MS are not related, but more MSers have migraine than non-MSers, so there does seem to be some sort of link. Not sure about the neck pain and BP though, sorry.
Have you asked for decent painkillers? Depending on the type of pain, there is bound to be something that will help.
Things do get easier with time and experience so hang in there!
Karen x
thanks for info, so upset as my son had a brain tumour 6 years ago, now in remission, and my husband died 5 years ago so just as life is getting back to some normality this is now something else to deal with!!! Anne x
Allergic to lots of drugs including NSAID and paracetanol so problems with pain killers Anne x
Sorry about your son and husband - you’ve certainly had more than your fair share of troubles
I can’t take NSAIDs or codeine - so I can kind of empathise. These might not be the right kind of painkillers for your neck anyway though. If it is neuropathic pain, it won’t respond to regular painkillers - instead you need something like gabapentin, pregabalin or amitriptyline. If it isn’t neuropathic pain, then maybe something like tramadol?
Please do ask your GP for something - there is usually a med that will help.
Kx
ok,thanks karen. MS nurse suggested gabapentin today. Have appointment at Gp next week so will ask for some…As long as am not allergic to it,it may help. Ax