Well, the doctor told me today that I probably do not have MS...YAY!! The brain scan and nerve tests both came back normal. But I still have a lot of the symptoms....hmmmmm.

The bad news is that I have to have surgery on my spine. They will be removing the disk located at T7-T8 because it is ruptured and damaging my spinal cord. Yikes! What's worse is they may have to break 1 or 2 of my ribs in the process.

Don't give up on a MS DX quite yet. Since you still have symptoms, it could pop it's ugly head up on a future MRI or in clinical tests.

I'll pray for your back operation to be successful and perhaps even solve your other MSy symptoms. Wouldn't that be nice?

good thing is broken bones heal and just become a bad memory.

I hope the surgery mends everything and the thought of having MS is also a bad memory rather than a reality.

I hope the broken bones are what's causing your symptoms. Hopefully the back surgery will correct all the problems. It sounds like you'll have a lengthy recovery period - with the broken ribs and all - but I hope afterwards you're feeling much better. Please let us know how you're doing.

Heh, nothing is broken yet Kitty. They may have to break 1-2 ribs in the process of removing and replacing a ruptured disk.

Thank you all for your support, prayers and well wishes.

Oops! I guess I thought the ruptured discs were in the same category as broken bones. It all sounds painful! I hope you have a speedy recovery. Stay in touch with us here.....we'll be interested in how you're doing whether you have MS or not! We're an equal opportunity disease forum!

Since you were having mostly motor symptoms if I recall, it would make sense for it to be fixable with back surgery.

When I had my walking problems, there were no problems at all in my spine.

They have come a long way with spinal surgery so as long as you are really careful and try to go through all of the steps toward healing and recovery, you might just be near as good as new!!

Keep us posted and good luck!

Best of luck to you Sgt Bob! I hope the surgery does fix everything for you.

One thing I suggest... document, document and document some more. Ask for copies of everything you can...especially from those civilian docs. If you ever have to make a VA claim it is sooooo important to have a full and complete record. My husband learned the hard way when an MRI and a consult with a civilian doc, never made it into his medical records. He missed out on an additional 10% in his rating because he didn't have all documentation for that one claim.

owee, i'm hurting for you already.
i hope the surgery goes well and you recover quickly.
i had disc surgery at C5 and it went very well. i was up and around within a few wks.

good luck.

Hi Sgt Bob,
Good luck with the back surgery. When is it scheduled?

I had back surgery (open slice and dice). Right after that they changed to Laparoscopic surgery. So your recovery time may be much less with that and even as an outpatient stay.

I was in the hospital for only two days, with open surgery. They removed a huge cyst on the spine that was growing larger and compressing the nerves and cord. Cut through bone to get there.

I also have ruptured disk's that splintered and the fragments where sticking into my spine. He said like wood splitters would do. I get so lucky, NOT! I never injured myself either.

It hurt like a bandit to walk and pain was relieved to sit down. I had pain down the side of the leg too. It pressed on the sciatic nerve too. I had to have the surgery. I put it off for a long time, but no pain med worked.

My Neurosurgeon did a wonderful job. I was back to work after PT ended and the pain was gone on the operation table. It was a blessing.

I hope you get lucky too. I am missing bones in the Lumber 3,4 and 5 and S 1and S 2 in the S-Spine.

I get the MS hug T 7 and T 8. Always something.

Good luck. Do you need a second opinion or are you going to do it for sure?