Normal physical exam advice.

Hey, so I had my neuro appointment last week which consisted of a chat about my history up til this point then a physical exam testing my reflexes and the vibration thing then walking toe heel toe heel. Neuro said it was fairly normal and I’ve to have a brain and spinal mri. My question is, has any1 had a “normal” physical examination then the mri has picked something up?

My physical examination was fairly normal and the Neuro said he wasn’t convinced it was MS…had 2 MRI scans and a lumbar puncture. The MRI scan showed lesions on my brain and when the spinal fluid was tested it confirmed MS. The same Neuro who wasn’t convinced it was MS then told me I had MS.

Everyone is different though so you can only see what the MRI and spinal picks up.

I’m almost at 1 year from diagnosis and fingers crossed feel OK-ish

Sorry, this probably doesn’t help you.

Thanks for your reply. It was just a bit of a rushed appointment and he was quite blunt with me. He asked me if my fear was MS in quite a cheeky way but I sed no actually my fear is not knowing what is wrong and being left with all these problems and no answers. Mote sound crazy but I’m at desperate stages now and just need to be able to manage these symptoms. I think my neuro is just keeping me happy as I work in the NHS and is ticking all the boxes kinda thing. I guess I will just have to wait and see what happens!

I’m in the same boat, had my Physical last Wednesday which was fine. Now waiting on a spinal MRI.

I think you’re probably quite lucky in your neurologist if the physical exam in normal but s/he refers you for MRI anyway. At least if the scan doesn’t pick up any demyelinating lesions, then it’s not MS.

It’s being left in limbo with a ‘normal’ exam and no confirmatory MRI or other tests that’s the really frustrating thing.

Sue

Yeh I agree that I’m lucky to be having the scans. Your mind just works overtime thinking about it and waiting.

I was opposite. I had the exam tuning fork the lot and failed and went on for another 10 years before I finally got told it was PPMS lol…seems to be a huge difference in results for these things.

Sorry to hijack but my neuro didn’t do half of these tests, is that common? She did knee reflexes, told me to push against her (and removed her hands before I even had!) and the balance tests, plus rubbed some cotton wool on my chest then my feet and asked if it felt the same. She didn’t do babinski or thst vibration thing or Hoffman’s or look for pronator drift (which I seem to have) or anything I’ve read about. Is this normal? As I mentioned on my post I didn’t totally trust that she was being thorough with the physical stuff because the cause of the referral was cognitive stuff like not recognising my road, so she focused more on memory tests which I could have told her I would ace, and then ordered only a brain mri despite most of the things I experience being stuff like numb patches, pins and needles, random electric shock feelings, bowel and bladder problems etc. Did everyone else’s neuro do thorough physicals or are they hit and miss?

Hello all

I was lucky as well, in that my physical exam showed nothing of concern, but since I have had the symptoms on and off since the 1990’s I was given a MRI of my head only which has shown an issue with a disproportionate amount brain atrophy. So now I must wait for my next appointment with my neuro in Feb.

kind regards