Does this sound like early MS?

Brain and nerves
1

I am not an MS patient, but I am having a second bout of strange symptoms and I am wondering if this mimics what any MS patients may have experienced early in their diagnosis.  Just over 4yrs ago, I had a suddent onset of fairly strong paresthesias in my hands/arms, face and feet/legs.  It lasted for a few weeks, migrating around different areas, and gradually faded away.  At the time, I saw a neuro and, voicing his concern it may be MS (I'm a white female now in my early 30s), I had a brain MRI, which turned out to be normal.  At the time, he diagnosed it as a "sensory migraine without headache".  However, the thing that bothers me about that diagnosis is the duration of my symptoms--- everything I've read says that migraine symptoms, including sensory ones, should only last ~1-3 days.

Just a few days ago, I started having what seems to be allodynia across my shoulder blades and upper arms--I feel like I have a bad sunburn without any explanation for it.   It's migrated and some spots are more/less tender as the affected area changes.  I've also been having some vague tingling in my neck/shoulders, but nothing like what I had before. The day before this started, I was sick and had a fever for about a day. I have an appointment with the neuro in about 2 weeks.  Are there any specific questions I should be asking?  Should I push for a spinal MRI this time?  Does this even sound like anyone else's experience with early MS- sensory symptoms without any impact on function?

2

Unfortunately symptoms similar to MS occur across a wide range of causes that are non-MS related. I think the protocol for diagnosing MS does not include any specific symptoms. The protocol needs evidence of lesions in the brain or spinal column, in the UK this needs to be verified by inflammation evidence in the spinal fluid(spinal tap) and evidence of vision field disruption. There is sometimes optic neuritis which triggers further investigation to a MS diagnosis. If your brain/spine scans show no lesions then you can assume the probability of a MS diagnosis will be extremely low. This should be good news for you, the symptoms you describe could be due to mineral or vitamin deficiency which has a relatively straightforward treatment.

3

Deficiencies (and really, any lab abnormaliaities at all) were already ruled out when I had the paresthesias, so I am wondering what else my doctor may look for with these new symptoms.  Thanks for the info.

4

Do you take sweeteners? Aspartame for example? Just tell him your symptoms and ask what it could be besides ms or migraine. I get your symptoms but I think I have another disease ad well as ms which causes flare ups and inflammation. Write your symptoms down even if some seem silly and unrelated. Good luck

5

I hope you don't mind, but I kept typing the information at the end of my postout, with varying degrees of success. I finally realised that keeping a copy of one of my attempts might be best. I've pasted it into my post.

I would urge caution when using a lot of medical terminology when seeing a Dr, as, sometimes, it can make the Dr think that a patient has been 'trawling the internet, filling their head with ideas'...then, basically, assuming that it's, at best, psychosomatic, or, at worst, made up. That said, I know, from personal experience, that, I for one, end up worrying, if i read too much about any health problem, which can antagonise MS symptoms, a lot.

It isn't possible to say what is, or isn't A 'normal', early MS experience, not least, because some people go for MANY years, with very little progression, and others can progress quite aggressively. It really is a 'how long is a piece of string', situation, I'm afraid. Anyway, here's the pretyped bit, sorry if there are any repeated parts ..

description of MS dx procedure (my own)

i have ms, i was diagnosed (abbreviated to dx) in 2004, the problem with pinning down an ms dx is the wildly varying experiences of each person with the condition, and how we report our experiences also varies a hell of a lot. our nervous systems are so complex, of course. generally, it's not just about the results of 1 mri that are used, but at least one more, at a later date, this is to see if there's progression over both physical space (lesion/s) AND time. there may or may not be a change, even then, which doesn't necessarily rule out ms, as even if it IS ms, it might not have been actively progressing between mri's, OR, if it's remitting, it could even have improved. you can see why so many of us have a long time to wait, to see if we have ms or not. it's also accepted practice to do a lumbar puncture to look for oligoclonic bands in our cerebrospinal fluid. a full examination will almost certainly be carried out by a neurologist, to test your reflexes, balance, response to stimulae (hot, cold, soft, sharp etc) and so forth.

i would always strongly advise anyone with ongoing health concerns, to keep a journal of experiences: symptoms (any and all) , dates when they start OR end, concerns, questions for medics, anything you think might relate to your health problems. take your

journal with you when you go to appointments with any medics, and, if possible take someone with you, it's handy to have another person listening, as it's easy to miss things.

I hope that this helps a little.