Slight vision problem in left eye, as if someone had smeared Vaseline over my eye. Still had 20/20 vision though. I was a couple of months shy of turning 40. Eye docs kept blowing me off. A couple of weeks later I started feeling dizzy while driving (imagine going on a nauseating carnival ride and then immediately jumping in the car).

Oh, and like Kicker I just knew "something was wrong" with my body. -- I had a general sense of being that felt like nothing I had ever felt before. I kept telling my husband "I think something is really wrong." I could swear I had this weird sense of minor vibration through my whole body.

I had never had any weird symptoms prior. The MRI confirmed it with 9 old and new lesions.

But everyone's case is entirely unique.

Good luck.

I love this thread. It shows how completely different the same disease can be among people. No wonder it's so misunderstood.

Well, I have had symptoms since I was a kid. I was labled a hypochontriact by my mother so I learned to stay quiet and not complain.

I was 24, married for 4 years and my husband did alot of business travel. I was out mowing our lawn one cool spring morning while he was gone. Usually I could mow both front and back without a problem...not this day. I got half way through the back and my legs became weak, numb, pins and needles sensation. I needed to go sit down and ended up falling asleep.

I got up the next morning feeling fine, confused about the previous day. I once again went out to mow and my legs once again got numb, weak and with pins and needles sensations, but in a much shorter time...I never did get the lawn finished after that. Slowly, over days/weeks I started to add in more symptoms. By the time I thought I needed to see my PCP I had lost most of my strength and mobility.

Symptoms that remained during the entire diagnostic process:

- Bi-lateral leg weakness
- numb from the waist down
- tremors
- fatigue
- pins and needles
- vibrations from waist down
- pain
- L'Hermittes

Hi Jim: In the spring of '06 (age 53) I started limping and was winded when walking. By November I had bad pain in my feet (later found out it was nerve pain). The severe pain was what brought me to a doctor. When the doctor observed my gait he ordered an MRI which dx me as having MS. I also hope your ex doesn't have MS, but we are here to support her if she does - you've come to the right place!

In 2008 I just started a new job. Within days, I developed horrible eye pain and dizziness that lasted for weeks. Also had trouble focusing, I felt very weird, very off. I went to my doc who ordered a MRI which showed lesions, then went for LP which showed 11 O bands. Every other disease was ruled out. I was 47 when I was dx. Years before my dx I experienced years of RLS (restless leg syndrom). Never thought much about it, just had my husband massage my legs to make it go away,also started getting it in my arms too. Also, about 18 years ago, I recall getting out of a jaquize (sp) and couldn't walk. Felt much better after getting out of the pool. I never thought to much about that till after my dx. My memory also started going about 8 years ago. I wrote that off as peri meno issues. My memory is even worse now.
Good luck to you both. If your wife gets dx with MS, have her visit this site...there is so much comfort here..and caring people!!

Erratic blood pressure, insomnia...multiple days in hospital with misdiagnosis over yrs. Based on amount of lesions in brain & spinal chord they suspect I may have had it since my teens (now in md-40's). Last 6 years there were ER trips and hospitalizations for stroke level BP and "exhaustion" they only found the MS about 18 months ago. Seems all those hospital incidents were more than likely relapses. I always thought it was funny how I could be exhausted and hyper on 2-3 hrs sleep at the same time. I wish the best for your ex-wife and tell her to trust what she feels with her body and not to let the doctors quit until they figure it out.

Mine was total loss of hearing in one ear while sitting at my desk at work. It took about 5 seconds to go from totally normal hearing to completely gone, and it took about 8 weeks before it started coming back. It has come back to nearly normal in terms of hearing deficit, but I have tinnitus that comes and goes now and I don't process sounds very well in noisy environments anymore. For example, I have a really hard time hearing a conversation from somebody right beside me when I am in a noisy restaurant.

I was told from '05 on that my symptoms of numbness in toes, neuropathic pain, balance problems, restless leg syndrome, incontinence, vibrations, vertigo, etc were due to fibromyalgia, migraines, all sorts of things. My lesions weren't in the "right" place in my brain.
Got diagnosed in late '08 when my legs locked in spasms. It's a process of elimination and fitting into the McDonald criteria for MS.

I was "textbook" MS. After my GP and a Neurological ophthalmologist failed to see anything without tests, my GP sent me to a neurologist making me promise to stop looking for answers after him. I showed her!!! After 2 weeks of LP. EPs, MRI, tests- he diagnosed MS. She (my GP) let me cry on the phone to her after she called when she found out about DX.

I was told I was "textbook MS" too. Woke up one day in January 1988 with the vaseline vision in right eye (ON). Couldn't see at all out of it. Pins and needles lower right leg, right hand, and right side of face. Fatigue became a problem right away. And a very annoying stabbing pain in back of neck.

I was on a waiting list for an MRI for over a year, but yeah. There were lesions. There was only 1 MRI machine in Toledo at the time.

Tom