I can appreciate how frustrated you must feel and most if not all of us have been there too; either in reaching a diagnosis and/or finding some sort of symptom control aid that at least partially works.

As you've probably read here more than once, MS diagnosis is a process of elimination and the journey can be a long one especially when the MRI and other diagnostic tests come back clear. In time something may show up on them, and that has been the case with some people. They go on with symptoms for a while and everything comes back normal...then some time later, the lesions show up.

Unfortunately that is the nature of MS. Given that, it is understandable that physicians do not want to give someone an MS diagnosis unless certain criteria are met. One of them is the McDonald Screening test; which outlines the symptoms, frequency and other diagnostic evidence that must be present to make the diagnosis. Judging from what you have listed, you do not fit that diagnotic criteria...at least not yet.

Celebrate! Get some good disability insurance now and continue to pursue possible causes. That is the ruling out process that one usually has to go through. It is tedius and can be difficult because symptoms are there either way. Perhaps see if you can get some symptom control meds from your PCP while you go through the process.

I was diagnosed in 1978 when optic neuritis hit my vision suddenly and hard. At the hospital they did some neurological tests and found some deficits as well as a positive Babinski (spastic). When asked about the differences in feeling in my legs and lack of flexibility in one hip, I told them that I had aquired those since wiping out while snow skiing the year previous. The ER doctor at that time said that I probably injured some nerves when I fell.

The specialist who was taking care of me with the optic neuritis said that he felt that I had probably started with neurological symptoms around the time of the skiing accident if not before and then gave me the diagnosis of MS. There were no MRIs at that time. It was not a happy day because I was only 18, alone in Europe and in the middle of my second year of university there.
Getting sick was a one way ticket home and a drastic change of plans.

I'm sure others can relate how the diagnosis impacted their life. Yes, it is good to know what is causing the symptoms and possibly getting some treatment, but at the same time, not having it on record allows one to keep a few doors open.

That's why I say celebrate. You have some time to get your affairs in order, because once you get either the diagnosis for MS or some other degenerative condition, everything changes. For instance, I found out that I couldn't get disability insurance; even for a mortgage and the premiums for travel insurance are out of this world.

Take care of that stuff now, and most of all take care of your self as best you can. And know that we are here for you to lean on .

With love, Erika