Provisional diagnosis?!

New diagnosis and before diagnosis
1

Hi all, I have been having some problems with my legs over the last few years approx. 4 / 5 years but the problem isn’t that severe (at least that’s what I think), basically if I have been sitting still for a long period of time then one of my legs (from knee down to foot) starts to freeze up and I can’t put any weight on it after a few minutes, after I start to massage my leg/foot, the feeling starts to come back along with pins and needles and then it goes away altogether. This could happen a few times a day or not for a few months – hence why I don’t think the problem is all that severe.

I had been referred to various different Drs by my GP and yesterday I went to see the neurologist to get the results of my MRI scan, he said that the MRI showed ‘scarring of the brain’ and that he would like to get me back in for a lumber puncture test and an xray of the spine and some other eye test to measure the reaction?! (something like that!). He said that I might have MS. This has knocked me for six! I am 26 years old, have a 5 year old son and have just finished my law degree. I am so scared that I’ll lose my independence and don’t know how I will cope. I have to wait six weeks for these other tests and results.

Thanks for any advice.

2

I can offer you some words of comfort you are certainly on the right site, the members on here are very supportive and caring

theres plenty of topics that will help you, try not to think to far into the future, there are plenty of ilnesses that mimic MS

and even if you are told you have MS it’s not the end of the world, there is so much support out there, try not worry chin up

if not for you but for your son.

I have not had a dx either, but will take one day at a time, take care of yourself Andy

3

Hi Anon,

Although MS is hugely variable, and it’s notoriously difficult to predict how it will go for any one person, the best and only indication we have is how it’s gone for them so far.

If you think you may already have had it for up to four or five years, and you’re not any worse than you are in all that time, it may be a positive indication that it’s not following a very aggressive course. This is no guarantee for the future, but it does suggest it’s not a galloping variety, that would see you wheelchair-bound in months.

When I was diagnosed two years ago, I took (and still do take) great comfort from my conviction I’d already had it years, and nothing awful had happened. I’ll be the first to admit I don’t feel well these days, and the days are long gone when I could still kid myself nothing was wrong. But despite being constantly aware of being ill, still nothing awful has happened. I’m not blind, I’m not in a wheelchair, I haven’t been carted off to hospital.

So even if it is MS, it doesn’t mean normal life stops on that date. There’s a chance you’ve been living with it for years, with only minor discomfort and inconvenience. You may do so for years yet.

Tina

x

4

Thank you Andy. I can’t help but worry though. :frowning:

Is there anything I should/should not do? I go to fitness classes 6 times a week and feel i should stop this - the neurologist said i should just put it out of my mind for the time being and carry on as normal. I don’t think i can do this.

5

Thanks Tina. Your advice is helping to calm me down slightly. It has taken a few years to get to this stage as my GP referred me to various other drs before the neurologist and its taken about 2 years to get to this stage and i hadn’t been worried as my symptoms weren’t that bad.

I have just started a Masters degree and going to do my Diploma in Legal Practice next year and can’t help but think ‘whats the point now?!’!! :frowning:

Sabrina

xXx

6

Hello and welcome to the site Sabrina

Tina is absolutely right - please try not to panic - if it’s MS then it won’t know that it’s been discovered and it will more than likely just carry on as normal; so as it is now.

There is every point in you carrying on with your Masters and Diploma. MS does not mean the end, it just means things might end up being more challenging that you’d expected, but that doesn’t mean that things aren’t still achievable. For example, I was diagnosed 14 years ago, but I did all sorts of things after that, including another degree and a PhD. My MS did decide to interfere with my PhD so I ended up having to do it part-time, but I still got there! And so will you.

MS is NOT the end of the world. Life may be different and more challenging, but it can still be long, happy and fulfilling; it can still be good.

Karen x

7

Hi Sabrina,

Good to see a name, and not just “Anon”.

Coincidentally, I’m someone who has done the LPC a few years ago, and my great regret is that I’ve never, ever used it.

With hindsight, I think I was already beginning to get ill around that time, and I never pushed for a training contract. Went for a couple of interviews - which weren’t successful - but then just let it drop.

I don’t know how to advise you, because part of me thinks I indeed wouldn’t have bothered with all that time and money, if I’d known I was going to get ill.

But another part of me thinks it was the NOT knowing that led to me not following-up my ambitions. If I’d understood I was ill, I might have sort of factored it in, and looked at constructive ways of dealing with it. But because I didn’t know, I just had a sort of unexplained attack of the glums after graduating, and didn’t really put myself forward for anything.

So in a way, I would say that knowledge is power. In some respects, I think I would have been MORE proactive if I’d known I was ill, and not just thought: “Apparently, I don’t have the drive or ambition to become a solicitor”.

Unfortunately, back then, I had no idea what was happening to me, and blamed it all on “being a lazy cow”, basically.

I can now see that “lazy cows” probably don’t usually get a law degree, or pass the LPC, so there must have been something else the matter, but I was very late to realise…

If you don’t mind me answering the post addressed to Andy, you don’t have to leave off your exercise class, unless your body is telling you it’s too much. Exercise can cause a temporary flare-up of MS symptoms - usually only due to getting hot. Once you are resting and your temperature returns to normal, these symptoms usually pass. There’s no evidence at all that exercise is bad in the long term, for MS - quite the contrary. You may just find your limits are different to how they were before, or not the same as most people’s. You’ll get to know when you’ve overdone it, and how much is OK.

There’s no evidence even occasionally overdoing it causes long term harm. You’ll feel rough afterwards, but that’s it. Sometimes, depending on the activity, you might feel it’s worth the feeling rough, because you really want to do it. It’s fine to strike that bargain - no evidence it accelarates long term progression.

Tina

x

8

Hello Sabrina, and thanks for posting with your name, regarding exersize I cannot really advise you maybe another member might advise you on that

as regards your Studying, yes of course it’s worth it, life is too short and for the taking, IF it is MS it’s not the end of the world

life will throw up some different challenges, I have several health issues including my Heart and Obstructive Sleep Apneoa and

Fibromyalgia ( possibly misdiagnosed awaiting this dx) , if I wanted something enough I would GO FOR IT!

Take care and good luck for your future

Andy

9

Thank you all for your kind words.

I don’t really know how to feel just now. I don’t know how I will manage the next 6 weeks let alone the diagnosis.

I live in Scotland and here a lot of the firms hire for traineeships 2 years in advance and so I am looking for a traineeship now to commence 2014.

I will try and keep going to the fitness classes but I am now just scared of doing things that will make me worse. I haven’t spoken to any nurse or any specialist – because I’m technically not diagnosed yet. Looks like I just have to sit and wait out the next 6 weeks.

Sabrina xx

10

hi

i was dx with rrms last march but i’m still working full time driving a taxi

as others have said just get on with it…

so long as i take meds i seem to be doing fine

take care

baz