Hi folks,
As I have said before I may have MS as one neuro thinks or radiation myelopathy as another thinks. Anyway if it is radiation myelopathy (which is my gut feeling it is) I had the treatment in 1990. Shortly after that I had l’hermittes for several months, which apparently is common after radiation in neck area (40%). At that time I had MRI, LP and evoked potentials etc to rule out anything else like MS. During the next 18 years I was great but did once or twice have slight l’hermittes if I had done a lot of physical exercise. Anyway when I reached my 40ish I noticed that I was getting l’hermittes slightly more regularly (2,3 times a year). I was never really that worried because it was so slight and lasted no more than 5 minutes. As I got to my mid 40s I started to get more problems which led me back to neurologists. An MRI in 2005 was clear but one done in 2008 showed one lesion in neck area.
Anyway my theory with stem cells is that the damage to my spinal cord was done in 1990 but I was young with plenty of stem cells there to keep repairing the damage done by the radiation. This radiation must stay in the body for years so when I reach 40ish the stem cells are starting to decline and they are struggling to keep up the repair - hence the lesion.
I had discussion with neuro about this and he reckoned that is why people with RRMS start to notice in their 40s that recovery from relapses are not so complete which then in turn eventually leads to SPMS.
Our body is very good and repairing the damage when we are young but as we age that ability declines. I reckon if I could somehow remove the radiation from my body or increase my stem cells I would recover!
Moyna x