Forum

vascular surgeon referral

New diagnosis and before diagnosis
#1

Hi im kerry 28 a mother of 4. I have always seemed to suffer from fatigue and then auto immune illness’s until after i had my second son about a year later i had bowel problems needing operating on fistulars and nearly got blood poisoning from an infection that had to be operated on to be told this was due to crohns disease, this was 7 yrs ago. After feeling better i met a new partner and we went onto have 2 more children aged 3 1/2 and 5.

Before i feel pregnant on my last born i was starting to feel very run down and even more tired and then fell pregnant (which i must add wasnt a planned pregnancy) …but having 3 previous very sicky pregnancies was ready for what was coming…except the agonising back and rib pain!! all my babies were under 6lb!!

it was my daughter was born is when my body just went into melt down…after 2 years of poking and proding up every hole possible and about 2mnths woth of stay and being fed through the nose for a month and ops with gastro team they could find nothing other than the odd inflammation markers and very slight over active thyroid (which was while i was not keeping anything down for months and now gone ) and putting all the other symptoms ie, shakes,numbness, palpitations down to ‘anxiety’

after not moving from my bed for 6mnths thinking everyone thought it wasnt real, i went back to the gp in pain. she listened to my symptoms and went through m whole history on file and called me back to say it was m.e and referred me to pain clinic where i was then told i also had fibromyalgia. After 2 years of not knowing i could now at least learn to live with it. I was also referred to a neurologist.

about 6mths ago my symptoms started to become more intense, my mobility was affected for the first time and my speech was really bad along with the pain in my head and jaw, let alone my neck back leg and hip. Also after going to the optician about my headaches was i told i had raised optic nerve head rims.

i have had a brain mri which show no apparant lesions but my doctor is thinking that it may well be m.s and wants a lumbar puncture asap

Im on many medications including m.s meds now to tryand relieve the symptoms

My gp has referred me to a vascular surgeon but I dont know what intervention they have with m.s other than the trials i heard about some time back?

If anyone can help at all as iv searched the net and cant find a clear answer lol.

Thanks guys xxx

#2

Hello,

I am absolutely no help to you on the info side but just wanted to say,my goodness what alot you have been through and are still going through with 4 kids aswell.

I take my hat off to you.

Sensible people will be along who can answer your questions,all I can offer is the knowledge that there is a cyber army of supportive shoulders on here who can help carry and pull you through limboland and beyond.

So welcome to the happy world of the good ship HMS MS.

Pip

#3

Hi Kerry, and welcome to the site

Well, there’s clearly something going on, but I have to say that I am really confused by what your doctors are up to!

For example, how can you be on MS meds when you haven’t got a diagnosis? (Unless you mean meds used for MS symptoms rather than for MS itself?)

And why refer you to a vascular surgeon? The only MS/vascular theory that I know of is CCSVI which is under trial in Canada, but for which there is an ever increasing amount of evidence against. Apart from some diehards who swear it is the answer, most people have moved on from this theory.

Is it the neurologist or the GP who is sending you for an LP?

And why is the GP not letting the neurologist get on with his job - why is he interfering with extra referrals?

Goodness me - if I’m confused, I can’t even begin to think what you must be thinking!

It sounds to me that you should tell the GP to back off and let the specialist get on with the job. It’s all very well having a proactive GP, but this is just too confusing!

Good luck!

Karen x