[Jim091866]

Hi, I'm usually in the parkinson's forum. I am close to my ex-wife and have heard through the gapevine that she thinks she has MS. She has insurance starting in Jan. and has an appt with a primary care to begin workup. Could you tell me some of the "common" symptoms, how your condition started, etc.

[Erika]

Two bouts of optic neuritis followed by bouts of lower extremity spasticity and numbness and dizziness.

With love, Erika

[Lynn]

For me, it was visual problems, blind patches, double, graying and bouncing of vision, instability (as in tripping over everything), numbness, tingling in hands feet arms and legs, bladder urgency/incontinence, extreme fatigue and major confusion and forgetfulness. I also had left-sided spasticity and crazy reflexes.

I think I ticked lots of boxes, but I am sure I had a few 'attacks' before the one that led to diagnosis, because I had lots of new and old lesions on my MRI.

I hope your ex-wife finds the answers she needs to treat the problems she is experiencing.

Regards

Lyn

[kicker]

No visual problems, dizzy, had to pee a lot, just a feeling that something was wrong. "Luckily" evoked potenials and LP showed problems or no one would have believed me.

[Kitty]

Numbness in legs, visual problems, balance problems but the instances of unbalance were so far apart and infrequent I didn't pay much attention to them.

I was diagnosed in 2005 at 45 years of age but looking back I had subtle symptoms since I was in my 20's. Just nothing severe enough for me to check it out.

Severe double vision in 2005 got me to the neurologist and subsequently got the diagnosis.

[SallyC]

I remember my first symptom being facial numbness and then tingling in arms and legs then balance problems.

I hope you are going to be supportive of your EX. Sounds like you care. And I hope she is supportive of you too.

[Sparky10]

Hi Jim! How nice of you to be concerned/interested about your ex wife.

Many years (apprx 1990 - diagnosis came in 2000) before any other symptoms, 2 weird things happened that I now believe were my very first symptoms. One day, my head fell over. No pain, I simply could not hold it up. And for a short period of time I had a numb spot on my thigh. Felt like my pant leg was wet and someone was fanning it.

From 1994 -1997 I had 2 bouts of Optic Neuritis and Uhthoff's Sign was off and on. During the ON everything from line of sight down was...gone. When reading I only saw the top half of letters. Uhthoff's causes colors to dim, usually when the body gets overheated (even slightly). When outside on a sunny day it was as if a dark cloud had blocked the sun.

In '00 the real attack occurred and most of it remains to this day. Loss of bowel and bladder control (mostly gone, whew), extreme fatigue that made me feel like I was walking underwater; when I wasn't dragging my right leg it was swinging out.

Good luck to your ex wife! Hope she has something treatable/curable and not MS.

[marion06095]

I remember it clearly. It was my 14th birthday. I had been having strange symptoms - mostly numb areas on my legs and areas that tingled for no reason. On that day I started to have major pain on the right side of my face. I told my mother, a registered nurse, and she brushed it off as nothing of importance. I remember thinking that some day I’d find out what was wrong with me, and I made a mental note that this symptom happened on my 14th birthday. Yada, yada, yada – I was diagnosed with MS at age 59.

[NurseNancy]

hello,
i started to have a gait problem which worsened.
i also had what felt like shots of electrical wooshing in my left leg.
i also felt off balance.

my dr did a neuro exam...abnormal. she sent me to a neuro...abnormal.
mri showed lesions in CNS. LP was + for O-bands.

i hope your ex finds out what the problem is. knowing is half the battle.

[ewizabeth]

Normally an extremely healthy person, I had weakness in my spine and legs and was falling, among other things but those are what got my attention.