Possible MS?

New diagnosis and before diagnosis
1

Out of the blue one day i felt strange… i felt like i needed to sit down, i realized that my balance was off… this started 8 months ago and i still live with it, it comes and goes… the more im walking then i feel it come on slowly and feel that my balance is not 100%… the balance issue can be hard to describe, sometimes i feel like when you get off a boat and when you first touch land… Or like a feeling that its starting in my head, like im missing something in there thats causing this… its a trip to describe…months passed by from my initial first symptom and now i have developed twiches everywhere, eye lids, cheeks, biceps, calves, thighs, chest, i think my prostate too… ive seen my thumb and pinky twitch before, few times only… oh and my toes have twiched before… i have a slight pain that i get on the bridge of my nose… one day i got this twitch on the left side of my cheek that i was able to see when i opened my mouth, days later it developed into a mild numbness that i deal with till this day… recently i feel that theres something stuck in my throat, feel that i have to make more of a effort to swallow, this is rare… MRI was normal…all labs were normal… nuero siad it was anxiety… these test were all done 8 months ago when i got my first symptom of my balance feeling off… saw a doctor recently and also told me it was anxiety… strange because i dont feel anxious?.. he had me walk in a straight line, walk on my toes, checked reflexes… says that its all normal…

Im convinced its MS or Parkinsons.

As of right now my main symptoms at the moment:

Balance issue.

twitches.

Left side of face feels a mild numbness, when i touch it i can feel it just fine like the other cheek, it just feels strange… can i call it numbness if i can feel it?

I was also able to perform some of these test on me at the moment and have no issue doing them.

http://informatics.med.nyu.edu/modules/pub/neurosurgery/

Another question is if i pass Coordination, gait and Rhomberg’s Test, does that mean i dont have a balance issue?

If everyone can reply with there input would be great.

2

The symptoms could be anything i think you should seek another opinion, personally. if your doc think it is anxiety, what treatment are you being given or have you been offered for the suspected anxiety?

3

You are convinced you have a very serious illness, yet you don’t feel anxious? That’s either a contradiction, or rather odd, don’t you think? I would say believing you are very seriously ill - whether or not it has a sound basis in fact - would almost inevitably be associated with anxiety.

For the moment, I wouldn’t rule out that your doctor is correct, as there’s nothing you’ve described that absolutely couldn’t be explained by anxiety. The sensation of a lump in the throat, especially, is quite commonly associated with it.

However, I do agree with the previous poster that IF your doctor proposes anxiety as the explanation, you should be offered some sort of help with that. Anxiety can be very debilitating, and shouldn’t be something you just have to live with. Not only that, but if symptoms did respond to treatment, you would have strong evidence that must be the problem, and could stop worrying so much about things like MS and Parkinsons.

Anxiety is not a silly or dismissive diagnosis. As it’s far more common than MS, your doctor is right to consider “common” things first. Do bear in mind that MS, despite being the most common disabling neurological condition in young adults is still a relatively rare thing - not more than about 1 in 800 or 1 in 1000 people, in this country. Anxiety is much more prevalent - more than 1 in 10 will suffer at some time in their lives.

But it shouldn’t go untreated. If your doctor thinks that’s what it is, there should be a treatment plan - which it would be in your interests to go along with, even if you doubt the diagnosis. You might be surprised to find it does help, or alternatively, you would have more evidence to show it must be something else, if you can prove anxiety treatment didn’t help. The danger of rejecting a diagnosis without exploring it is you’ll never be able to prove it was OR wasn’t right, and if you haven’t cooperated with narrowing things down in this way, it may prove an obstacle to being investigated for anything else.

For this reason alone, I think you need either to go back to the doctor, and say: “Well, if it is anxiety, what can we do to manage it?”, or, if you can’t face that, seek a second opinion.

Tina

x

4

thanks Tina and BirdLady for your responses… let me expain a little more and if you can please read.

When i saw the Nuerologist 8 months ago he did tell me he thought it was anxiety and reffered me to see a phyciatrist… at that point the doctor had put me on meds, i never took them.

During this time i was going mad because i could not figure out why im feeling this way, i went from working full time and in the nursing program to all of a sudden to hate being on my feet… i hate to walk now, my knees will feel weak and the balance issue feeling is really bothersome… left side of my face feels numb… so i went down fast, my family thought i was going to hurt myself so they put me in a 5150 hold.

Well i get out of the 5150 and go see the phyciatrist that the nuerologist referred me too, he thinks im deppressed and not so much anxiety… There is no way to disagree with him because i do feel somewhat deppressed at that moment ONLY because i dont know whats wrong with my body and i feel that its something major.

So i leave his office and go home and look at the meds, thinking if this is really going to take away my symptoms of feeling off balance and the rest of my sypmtoms… i think some more and remember right before i had any symptoms were the best days of my life, i just had completed the nursing program and started a fresh and promising new relationship so how could my problems manifest from deppression or anxiety, i had none before my symptoms and when i first felt my symptoms i didnt feel anxious at all… … just does not make sense.

I hope you guys can understand on why i didnt take the meds… looking back now it would have been smart to do so, i could have ruled that out but i already had seen two doctors and a nuero and was constatly told that i had no problems and it was anxiety… tht everything else was normal… idk but my symptoms feel permanent.

sorry for venting.

5

thanks Tina and BirdLady for your responses… let me expain a little more and if you can please read.

When i saw the Nuerologist 8 months ago he did tell me he thought it was anxiety and reffered me to see a phyciatrist… at that point the doctor had put me on meds, i never took them.

During this time i was going mad because i could not figure out why im feeling this way, i went from working full time and in the nursing program to all of a sudden to hate being on my feet… i hate to walk now, my knees will feel weak and the balance issue feeling is really bothersome… left side of my face feels numb… so i went down fast, my family thought i was going to hurt myself so they put me in a 5150 hold.

Well i get out of the 5150 and go see the phyciatrist that the nuerologist referred me too, he thinks im deppressed and not so much anxiety… There is no way to disagree with him because i do feel somewhat deppressed at that moment ONLY because i dont know whats wrong with my body and i feel that its something major.

So i leave his office and go home and look at the meds, thinking if this is really going to take away my symptoms of feeling off balance and the rest of my sypmtoms… i think some more and remember right before i had any symptoms were the best days of my life, i just had completed the nursing program and started a fresh and promising new relationship so how could my problems manifest from deppression or anxiety, i had none before my symptoms and when i first felt my symptoms i didnt feel anxious at all… … just does not make sense.

I hope you guys can understand on why i didnt take the meds… looking back now it would have been smart to do so, i could have ruled that out but i already had seen two doctors and a nuero and was constatly told that i had no problems and it was anxiety… tht everything else was normal… idk but my symptoms feel permanent.

sorry for venting.

6

Hi again,

This is a really tough one, because depression can be a stealthy beast. Because it’s an illness, it’s not necessarily triggered by circumstances, so it’s possible still to be depressed, even at times of apparent success and fulfilment. There are some quite high-profile examples who have gone public about their battles with depression. Take Alistair Campbell, for example - Tony Blair’s former chief spin doctor. Love him or loathe him, you would certainly think of him as a high-flier, who has enjoyed great personal success - not someone who has anything to be depressed about. Similarly, Stephen Fry - almost universally loved and in demand - what’s he got to be depressed about?

The point I’m making is that depression has little or nothing to do with how popular or successful the person happens to be. Doing well at a course or job, or having a great partner doesn’t mean depression can’t strike. You mention having just completed your nursing programme, which may be relevant, because sometimes, when someone has worked very long and hard for something, actually reaching it may be a trigger for depression. It’s not as mad as it sounds. If everything you’ve been focusing on for the past X years is suddenly water under the bridge, it can leave a kind of void or anti-climax, that’s dificult to adjust to. What happens when an aim or challenge that’s been part of your daily life for so long, suddenly isn’t there any more, and there’s no immediate replacement?

I can’t tell if this is relevant in your case, but it can certainly be a depression-trigger for some people - a sort of rebound reaction.

Whilst a clear MRI cannot categorically rule out MS, it does make it much less likely, so at the moment, you are not showing classic evidence. I wonder if it’s worth reconsidering your decision to reject the depression/anxiety meds, just in case you have closed the door on something that might have helped? I’m admittedly not a huge fan of anti-depressants myself, as I’ve tried several, and never got on very well with them. BUT, I’m not “everyone” - they’re undoubtedly successful for some people, and the difficulty is that without trying, you’ll never know.

People sometimes think medicine’s more of an exact science than it is. Without much stronger evidence, you will never be diagnosed with anything like MS or Parkinsons, so it’s a question of either leaving it, to see if anything else happens, or exploring other avenues - such as whether it could be anxiety-related. I can only say that if it IS anything serious, time will tell - it won’t lie undiscovered forever. In the meantime, you have to decide whether you will try to just forget about it, and get on with your life, or explore the possibility that it is depression/anxiety-related, and think about whether you want to try anything for that.

I’m sorry I can’t give you any definite answers, but I think you need to try to stay open-minded about what it might be, and not assume it can only be something dreadful. Literally hundreds of things can cause similar symptoms.

Tina

7

The point I’m making is that depression has little or nothing to do with how popular or successful the person happens to be. Doing well at a course or job, or having a great partner doesn’t mean depression can’t strike. You mention having just completed your nursing programme, which may be relevant, because sometimes, when someone has worked very long and hard for something, actually reaching it may be a trigger for depression. It’s not as mad as it sounds. If everything you’ve been focusing on for the past X years is suddenly water under the bridge, it can leave a kind of void or anti-climax, that’s dificult to adjust to. What happens when an aim or challenge that’s been part of your daily life for so long, suddenly isn’t there any more, and there’s no immediate replacement?

The last doctor told me something very similar, he did say it was anziety but told me the reason so was because i had a let down after the nursing program… that when someone strives for something and studies very hard it can create a inbalance in your brian.

I can agree with that but i also felt inside when he was telling me this that i dont feel my symptom of posteral instability was due to anxiety or depression.

I live in america and im jobless so seeing a doctor with no insurance is something i just cant afford… hopefully i can see a doctor in the future and try some meds or have another MRi if possible,… ill keep you updated.

8

The point I’m making is that depression has little or nothing to do with how popular or successful the person happens to be. Doing well at a course or job, or having a great partner doesn’t mean depression can’t strike. You mention having just completed your nursing programme, which may be relevant, because sometimes, when someone has worked very long and hard for something, actually reaching it may be a trigger for depression. It’s not as mad as it sounds. If everything you’ve been focusing on for the past X years is suddenly water under the bridge, it can leave a kind of void or anti-climax, that’s dificult to adjust to. What happens when an aim or challenge that’s been part of your daily life for so long, suddenly isn’t there any more, and there’s no immediate replacement?

The last doctor told me something very similar, he did say it was anziety but told me the reason so was because i had a let down after the nursing program… that when someone strives for something and studies very hard it can create a inbalance in your brian.

I can agree with that but i also felt inside when he was telling me this that i dont feel my symptom of posteral instability was due to anxiety or depression.

I live in america and im jobless so seeing a doctor with no insurance is something i just cant afford… hopefully i can see a doctor in the future and try some meds or have another MRi if possible,… ill keep you updated.