If it walks like a duck . . .

You have been given some great advice already; that the dx sometimes takes considerable time, that you should seek a second opinion, and that your symptoms seem indicative of MS (or perhaps another disease yet unconfirmed).

Since most of us have Relapsing Remitting MS to start, what they are normally looking for in the diagnosis phase is "dissemination in time and space" (further explained in the following thread, see the last posting):

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...cdonald&page=2

As it stands right now, you may have had one "event" (no dissemination in time), and one lesion (no dissemination in space) . . . so although the test results seem to indicate possible MS, they would have a hard time "confirming" it at this point. They are probably waiting for something new to crop up ...

Our lesions can come and go, or shrink as yours seems to have . . . but O-bands caused by MS don't go away (whereas with other diseases they often do). If nothing else changes (no new symptoms) though . . . even if you had another spinal tap (and the O-bands were still there), they would still be very hesitant about giving out a dx without "dissemination in time and space".

Some other causes of O-bands are in the following link:

http://www.diseasesdatabase.com/resu...ClassSort=True

You mentioned a number of tests, but didn't mention a MRI. Have you had a MRI of your brain with contrast, AND a MRI of you C-spine and T-spine . . . or just some kind of "scan" (like a CT scan, which is less accurate, but can also pick up on lesions)? Although a MRI can often pick up on more activity (lesions) then a CT scan, it doesn't necessarily tell the whole story of what is going on in our brains either.

Not all of us start out as Relapsing Remitting MS though, sometimes we are dx from the get-go with Secondary Progressive or Primary Progressive MS. Those categories do not present the same way, with dissemination in time and space, and we do not usually have so many lesions apparent either. There are a relatively small percentage of us that fit in that category though, so they are very reluctant to give out that prognosis.

Cherie