I got my diagnosis by post …at least you got a phone call 
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You may not have a Dx as in the UK MS is not DX until you have had 2 or more separate episodes. It’s different in the US and Canada and other places. I was told after my 1st episode by my neurologist “i have seen enough of it to know you have MS” but i needed another episode to be Dx with MS. 2 weeks later i had another episode and was Dx with highly aggressive RRMS. It’s silly but that’s how it works in the UK. They left me for a couple months to see how it went and then started me on Tysabri. They used to start you weak and work up to the stronger meds but now they try to hit it hard from the start. The way the treatments were described to me was the meds are on a ladder and the stronger the MS med gets the worse side effects can get. This is all as loose as i can try to describe it, hope it helps.
Yes in the UK they have to go by the McDonald Criteria. I was missing it by about 1 point, until February where i finally had a second positive VEP test. It took 10 years, to get the diagnosis to match the criteria, even though my neuro always believed it was MS. Everyone develops it differently. I went blind twice at the beginning, and had to wait 10 years. I am beyond help now.
My lumbur puncture was one of the reasons i had to wait 10 years, as although it showed lots of O bands, the blood test we have to get at the time, showed inflammation, which screwed me for a positive test rest for MS, although it didnt say i didnt have MS, its a useless tool, even my neuro doesnt use it now. All it does is eliminates you for other diseases.
Turns out i have a co infection of Lymes as well that is why i had the inflammation in the blood.
[quote=“T e r r y”]
You may not have a Dx as in the UK MS is not DX until you have had 2 or more separate episodes. It’s different in the US and Canada and other places. I was told after my 1st episode by my neurologist “i have seen enough of it to know you have MS” but i needed another episode to be Dx with MS. 2 weeks later i had another episode and was Dx with highly aggressive RRMS. It’s silly but that’s how it works in the UK.
[/quote] That’s a bit harsh - Multiple Sclerosis is the same everywhere and is defined the same. More than a single clinically isolated incident - the clue is in the word MULTIPLE. The difference is in how some doctors will respond to a CIS. Some will say “well, the odds are that there will be another attack/relapse so start treating” whilst others will say " there is a significant chance that it won’t happen again so why medicate with the attendant risks?".
The “cross your fingers” approach used to be the guidelines in the UK but it has changed with more forward thinking MS specialists going for the aggressive treatment approach with patients. The NICE guidelines have changed but some doctors aren’t specialist enough to have taken the changes on board.
Of course, the question of “what are the odds CIS will develop” isn’t helped by the fact that we won’t know how many CIS incidents there are! Many that don’t develop will never have been brought to the attention of a doctor. Often the symptoms are minor and not noteworthy by the patient because they are transitory. So, when you suddenly develop something major down the line it is ground zero because there is no record, and you have no memory, of that “funny twinge that lasted for 2 days when I thought I had “slept awkwardly” on my arm”
It is possible in the UK, under the updated MacDonald criteria, to get a diagnosis of MS from a single clinical event and MRI if that MRI shows dissemination in space (lesions in different places) and time (simultaneously showing active lesions with gad enhancement and non-active lesions without enhancement). This is was happened to me. Trouble is, this diagnosis only get you access to the same level of drugs as CIS. You need a second episode in a two year period (which need not be clinical, it could be evidenced by MRI activity in a follow up scan) to get a diagnosis of “active” RRMS to be eligible for the more effective/ highly effective first like drugs such as tech. or Lem (a second MRI scan, three months after my first, showed one new lesion (no new symptoms) and my Neuro confirmed a diagnosis of “active” RRMS and signed me up for Lentrada as a first line DMD)
agree!
I wonder how many people with so called ppms experiences transitory symptoms over a number of years which they ignored -
then they turn up at the drs with a more severe symptom, this is noted as a frst episode and if things don’t improve the patient is then labelled as having ppms.