Hello all. I’ve been loitering for a few weeks and I’m ready to join in but first can someone tell me how to put paragraph breaks in so this is easier for you to read?!
I think I might have worked out the paragraph situation so I’m going to give it a go
I have recently been diagnosed with RRMS. It was a speedy diagnosis (extraordinarily speedy judging by a lot of other people’s experiences that I’ve seen on here and other sites) - I went to see my GP just over 4 weeks ago because I had tingling and numbness in my face, tongue and throat and some dizziness. I was convinced that I had an ear infection but the GP couldn’t see any problem with my ears, wasn’t happy with the altered sensations as she described them and put through an urgent referral to see a neurologist.
Over the next couple of days the dizziness/loss of balance worsened while the facial symptoms worsened. By the time I saw the neurologist 2 weeks later, some new symptoms had joined such as buzzing in my legs, neck spasms and jerking of the head and some problem thinking of the right word or what I was supposed to be doing.
Based on examination and symptoms neuro felt that I had inflammation on brain and possibly spinal cord (weakness and extensor plantar reflex (Babinski?) of left leg, past pointing with left arm and inflammation behind right eye). He said this could be cause by infection but it was more likely to be MS.
So I had MRI head and c-spine a week later and neuro rang me 3 days after to confirm diagnosis. I’ve had my copy of his letter to the GP which says the MRI showed ‘handful of small white matter plaques and a couple of brainstem/cerbellar plaques’ and that ‘they report several plaques in the cervical and thoracic cord, although I found these hard to identify’.
I had dizziness and numbness/tingling in both arms and hands in February so he thinks that was also a relapse and had referred me to the MS clinic to consider treatment. I also had an ‘episode’ about 5 years ago, which was at the time diagnosed as shingles with no rash, that he thinks might have been the first major attack as I have had hermitte’s symptoms since then.
So, if you’ve got this far and the paragraphs have worked thank you! It’s kind of therapeutic writing it all down. Can I ask if anyone knows whether the number of lesions is related to the length of time I might have had MS? I’m driving myself made now thinking of everything that I’ve ever had wrong with me and thinking ‘I wonder if…’. Also, if the neuro found the reported plaques on the spine hard to identify does that mean they might have been something else? And finally, does anyone know how long it takes to get referred to the MS clinic following a general neurologist’s diagnosis? Thanks for reading! Really sorry - just looked at preview and paragraphs haven’t worked but it took ages to write so I didn’t want to lose it