I’m very new to this forum and have spent quite a while reading your posts and seeing such wonderful and helpful replies. I’m still waiting on a definitive answers but after spending 8 days in hospital, having 5 days of IV steroids, MRI, contrast MRI, LP and loads of tests I’m left with 2 diagnosed. One is MS and the other is something similar but more aggressive (can’t remember what he called it). My consultant is one of the top MS consultants at my hospital. They hadn’t reviews my MRI’s when I was discharge but my consultant told me he was referring me to his MS clinic. I not worried as what will be will be, I would just like to know. I’m normally really active and only went down this path at the beginning of the year when I was sent to hospital as I couldn’t feel my feet. I had an MRI which showed that I had disc bulges that were pressing on my nerves (always had problems with my lower back, sciatica etc). A week later I was back as couldn’t feel anything from the waist down. Another MRI later I was told nothing had change. How wrong they were, 3 days later got a call asking me to come in and that’s when they told me they had reviewed my scan and found an inflammation. It took them 4 weeks to refer me to neurology, at which point I was in more pain. Neurology pulled me straight in and now I’m waiting on test results. I want to get back to normal, back to work (been off since Xmas but due to back), backnto the sport I love and live my life knowing what going on. Looking on here has really helped me to understand that I’m not alone. Family and friends are there always but don’t always understand what you feeling or going through. This forum clearly gives support to everyone, those going through diagnosis, those with a diagnosis and those waiting help and advice. I thank you all in advance for your future posts, support and advice.
Hello Rugow Your right this site is very good supporting people. They call this time limboland some of them has taken a long while to get diagnosed some a little quicker. It really depends on how bad they get in the first place and they also don’t automatically say it is MS until they see more then one legion on the spine or head. It’s good that you have been narrowed down to two, not that it’s good good. I can’t say how long it will take you to get over over this relapse, it’s very much how long is a piece of string. The main thing is your nearly at the end in knowing what you have. Look around the site talk to different people it’s not all doom and gloom here, they talk just about everything here. So welcome. Kay
Hello
What you might find is that the steroids can take a while to really kick in.
Their job is to speed up relapse recovery (assuming it is MS or the something similar you mentioned - hopefully they’ll do the same job). But they can be a bit unreliable. Sometimes steroids work almost instantly. Other times they’ll take a few weeks to really work. Occasionally they just won’t work. Each time you take them their effect can be different. Just like MS, awkward.
So assuming this is an MS relapse, you should find that over the next weeks or months, you will start to feel more like your old self. Give it time, and you’ll soon be at a point where your symptoms have pretty much gone and you will start to feel more like ‘you’ again. Those symptoms that don’t entirely resolve, often your body reacts by compensating for the nerve damage. So for example, you might find your feet never quite feel the same again, but you will be able to tell when someone stands on your foot! And you become accustomed to your ‘new normal’.
So your sport (depending on what it is!) should be possible given some time and maybe physiotherapy.
Hopefully your complete results will be notified to you very soon. At that point you should get the contact details of an MS nurse (again, assuming it’s MS). You should also ask about physio. If you’ve always been fit, you should find it easier than many of us to regain your good health.
Sue
Thank you Kay and sue for your kind words and advice. It nice to know someone has read my post and took the time to reply. I can’t wait to get back to work and enjoy my sports/keep fit (judo, piyo and insanity). I’m at the start if the process and have so much to take in but this forum has been great. I’m now hoping my follow income soon so I can get some answers.
Hi Rugow, I’m new here too. Just wanted to say hope you get your appointment through soon. Pen