I’m new to this site and nervous about posting but here goes, about three years ago I became ill, pins and needles in right hand, weakness in right leg and severe fatigue also a tightness around my chest, my gp reffered bme to a tia clinic who admitted me onto a stroke ward, I had various tests including an mri, I was discharged from hospital after afew days and over a few months I recovered, consultant said I had not had a stroke but didnt know what it was. Back in september I started to feel the extreme fatigue, pain in my back, pins and needles in right hand, weakness in right leg and painful musle spasms in right arm and right thigh, I also have balance problems, memory problems, and occasionally blurred vision. Ihad an appointment with a neurologist last week who said due to my last mri being normal she doubted ms but would send me for another to check, if it comes back clear she will discharge me back to my gp, im worried that im going to be back to square one, my gp has tested me for everything she can think of and the only thing she found was low vitamin d. Sorry its longwinded
Hi Joanne,
Sounds like the MS Hug; see http://www.ms-uk.org/symptoms
Although it is called ‘MS Hug’ I think you can get it with Vit D deficiency as well. It is a good thing your Neuro is doing further tests; if the only did a brain MRI and you have lesion/s on your spine it obviously would not show. Make ure all the CNS has the MRI.
You see inflammation/lesions may occur anywhere in your CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM; brain or spine. The spine is just a bony; flexible tube that carries millions of nerves in a very tight space. Sometimes a lesion may hide especially as an NHS MRI is usually a 1.5 Tesla; a 3 T will obviously give a much clearer picture but there’s fewer of these machines.
The brain sends instructions to every part of the body and any lesion here is usual imaged as; especially with mine; it’s a wide open space.
Add to that the fact that images is taken in slices; together they make a 3D image. These slices are between 1Mil to 5Mil apart; being a large lesion is about 3Mil it is theoretically possible but very unlikely to get a lesion between slices so not imaged.
If you want to know more about the brain read the wonderful Karen’s post on the sticky above.
Try not to worry your Neurologist is doing the right thing.
G
Thanks for your reply, the mri I had almost 3 years ago was just the brain. I looked at the link for the ‘ms hug’ it sounds exactly ehat I am experiencing, I have had a course of tablets for vit d deficiency and am still left with symptoms I am now on amitriptyline which do help take the edge of the pains