Hi everyone. I’m a newbie here so please be gentle with me. I’ll give a little background to my journey so far.
Early last year I went to my doctors after suffering with hearing loss in my left ear. It’s been something that’s been troubling me for years but never got around to doing anything about it. After a couple of hearing tests they confirmed a mild hearing loss in one ear and because it was unilateral that I should go for an MRI to check the bones of my ear were functioning correctly. So in October off I trot for my first MRI - not as bad as the fear social media had instilled in me!
A few weeks later I get a telephone call from the consultant to say my ear bones were fine but that they had found several lesions on my brain. Cue panic! Actually, I wasn’t overly concerned at that point as after he had reeled off a dozen or so possibilities, including MS, that I dismissed out of hand, I took it in myself to ask the expert Dr Google! Having had a previous severe B12 deficiency, I found that at the bottom of a long list of reasons for brain lesions so thought all was ok.
A few weeks later, my consultant appointment arrived and I bounced my way in, feeling that I’d made my own self diagnosis and all was hunky dory as I’d had my B12 loading injections and all should be fine.
I have since realised that if the first thing the consultant says to you is “did you bring anyone with you” that I should probably be a little concerned.
He ran the full suite of tests and declared it was good that I presented as “intact” and discussed my previous medical history.
Now, being a late 40-something having gone through a slightly early menopause, a lot of my symptoms I had put down to that, and I guess still could be, as well as an extremely difficult divorce that took over 4 years to get through (and still not financially sorted). Tiredness, lethargy, anxiety, sleeplessness. However when I spoke about my two big bouts of labrynthitis, roughly 10 years apart, he declared that he suspected they might have been ms attacks. I also get quite dizzy, if I’m out walking and turn my head to the left or right I seem to veer in that direction. I stumble a fair amount, catching the top of my toe if wearing flip flops, always seemingly kicking stones. My partner has a narrowboat and when I get on it I often lose my balance slightly. As for the crawling/itching sensation on my shoulder blades, it comes and goes but drives me insane.
A spinal MRI and appointment later, he confirmed that there were no immediately apparent lesions on my spine which is great news. He said he wouldn’t confirm MS yet and would I be happy to be prodded and poked for a while. I will have another head MRI in October to see if there’s anything news. I know I’m lucky with relatively minor and few symptoms. When my partner asked (yes I took him for the next appointment!!) if the lesions could be anything other than MS, the consultant said probably not. So I’m kind of in limbo and would really appreciate some guidance and thoughts, from you, the actual experts who are the people who really understand.
Thank you for letting me witter on!
