Hi
I’m new to the forum, having pondered for months on whether to post or not - I must admit to feeling a bit like a fraud - but am confused and concerned, please be gentle with me.
I have serious Lumbar and sacral spinal problems including spondylolisthesis and stenosis severely limiting my mobility and causing great pain - that’s that out of the way - hopefully all will become clear later on how it is related (if you are still awake).
In September 2013, I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia - I’m also coeliac and have regular B12 injections.
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MEMORY
I have an extraordinary capacity for retaining information and can pinpoint discussions and events down to specific days 10/20 + years ago - but my short term memory has always been a bit on the dippy side.
Lately however - there have been times when I’m really starting to think I’m losing the plot - putting things back in the wrong place, forgetting if I’ve locked my door or taken my medication within seconds - I do daft things like put crackers in the fridge and the butter in the cupboard.
LOSS OF SENSATION
A few months ago, I started getting loss of sensation on my right side from the waste down - it was unpleasant but given the state of my back, I just assumed that this was something I’d have to live with - until this started moving up started with tingiling into my stomach / ribs / shoulder / arm. I could still move them but no feeling.
My neck x-ray showed my cervical spine to be in good shape
In addition to the above, I get
- Fatigue of unbearable proportions where sometimes I just MUST sleep - I feel lax or cramp when trying to get up (B12 jabs help a little but not massively)
- Intermittent swallowing difficulties even with miniscule items such as small tablets (Endoscopy showed a sliding hiatus hernia)
- Go through periods of dropping things
- Muscle spasms in my lower and upper legs / feet / hands / abdomen / chest that will just keep going and going - you can see and feel the muscles twitching sometimes
- Weird things happening with my eyes like stripey curly worms usually followed by a bad headache (this is very intermittent - but something I suffered from quite a lot a few years ago)
- I also failed my visual field test three times in my left eye - I’m due to return for it to be redone next week
BRAIN MRI
I had a Brain MRI done a few months back which showed no demyelation but significant white hyperintensities of unknown cause considerably more than you would expect in someone of my age (? small vessel disease) - my cholestrol and lipds are at the higher end of normal and have been like that for years - thus unlikely to be the cause of what’s been found in my brain.
I am now waiting for a referral to a neurologist.
I guess my question are -
My GP made a connection of my symptoms with MS - but given the results of my brain scan - is it that straight-forward that it can be ruled out?
Are these symptoms typical of MS Sufferers?
TIA for any comments / thoughts - even if it telling me not to be so silly