Hi,
I’m wondering if anyone can give me any adivce please.
In January I became ill, dizziness, fatigue, loss of balance, I kept dropping and bumping into things for now reason and spent 3 months off work, my GP thought I had labrynthitis and then I saw an ENT specialist who thought I had BPPV, Benign Paroxysmal Postional Vertigo but ordered an MRI just in case.
The MRI results came back to my GP yesterday and they show what looks like myelination on both the right and left sides of my brain, and that this, along with my other symptoms and the fact that I’m female and 31, may be the early signs of MS.
The GP has referred me to a neurologist and now I sit and wait, I’m not sure what to think or do as it was completely out of the blue, as the MRI was originally checking for problems in my inner ear and has now come back with ‘white marks’ on my brain.
Any advice on how I should deal with this would be much appreciated, I know it’s not a deifinite diagnosis and I keep thinking to myslef ‘it could just have been dust on the MRI camera screen,’, I’d just like to know what comes next and what I might be in for.
Thank you x
Hi Ame,
I do not think there’s a particular way to handle this, except what you’re already doing - i.e. try to keep open-minded as to the cause, as it’s a long way from diagnosed MS at the moment (but sorry, I don’t think it’s “dust” in the scanner, either - if they suspect it might have been an accidental quirk of the scanning process, it usually mentions this in the report, and they request a re-scan, to double-check).
There ARE other conditions that can cause brain lesions though - not all of them as serious as MS. Also, it’s possible to have just a single attack of something that, in all other ways, looks just like MS. Some people never have a repeat of this, and, unless there’s a repeat, it isn’t multiple, and isn’t MS. It’s not completely understood why some people have an episode that looks as if they might be starting MS, but nothing else happens. It might be triggered by a virus or something.
MS is what’s known as a diagnosis of exclusion, which means there’s no definite test for it, and literally everything else has to be ruled out first. The “everything else” can be hundreds of things, so you can expect your blood to be tested for a lot of things - if it hasn’t already. MS doesn’t show in blood, but a lot of lookalikes do. Don’t be too shocked or upset if you’re tested for a few things that seem unlikely or even offensive, such as HIV and syphilis. It doesn’t mean they seriously suspect those things, but they still can’t assume, and have to go through the process of ruling them out.
Hope this helps,
Tina
x
Hi Tina
Thank you, that’s really helped, and yes keeping an open mind, but still scary as hell!
From reading things on here I’m prepared that this may take a while and there are no quick fixes or miracles so just to sit tight and keep an open mind,
thanks again x