Hi Cassidy and welcome!

I am a few years behind you in age with a dx of possible MS.

You made a good point - it's hard to know what is normal aging and what is part of the illness.

Cognitive issues are frustrating to say the least.

Glad to hear you are stable on Rebif.

Hi Cassidy. Welcome to Neurotalk. Its always nice to meet someone who is almost as old as I am..

I'm way ahead of you on the MS thingy though, I was DX in 1976. I know, long time and actually I had symptoms for about 12 yrs prior to that.

I'm happy to hear that you have a relatively mild case. I do too, really, though I am SPMS now...but don't seem to be getting any worse. However progressing in age along with the MS is slowing me down a bit.

I am a, stay at home (lol), widow with 3 Kids and 8 Grandkids. I enjoy playing and working on my PC and my TV is always on.

Looking forward to getting to know you.

Welcome!

What symptoms led to your diagnosis? Were you diagnosed by MRI? I wonder if age-related brain changes made it more difficult to diagnose the MS-related brain changes.

I hope the Rebif works for you, and welcome again!

Hello, Cassidy,

I too was diagnosed at an "advanced" age; 51. I had intermittent sx for
quite a few years before, but like many, life had too many demands to seek
an answer for the unpleasant but odd things that seemed to occur so
randomly. I lived in a county with one Neurologist...shared with another
county. And we were too poor to be sick anyhow! (bad joke, but as the
main wage earner in the family, not too far from the mark)

The age level of diagnosis seems to be all over the map, and it appears
that it takes a major incident to get one, (broken neck for me), to make the
problems too drastic to ignore.

And yes, I got the old "Well, you're not a kid anymore" attitude too, after
40 everything starts to fall apart.

ttfn, kami

Hi Wannabee, I was diagnosed with an MRI and an MRS (spectroscopy), cognitive test results and neuro. exam. I went to an MS Specialist PHD after going to two gen. neuros. My spinal had some elevated levels but no 0 bands.

I had extreme fatigue, numbness in one leg, pins and needles, internal tremors, cognitive fog. I was tested for Lupus, Lymes, had a MRA to look for arterial disease in the brain, saw a Rheumatologist---who said, "why are you here?" My blood studies were all in the normal range.

This is the merry go round we all have to go through to rule out everything else.

I wasn't diagnosed until I went to the MS Specialist, after four years of limbo and doubting my own sanity.

As far as age related brain changes mine were evidently specific for MS lesions.

I found out later that MS was in the reports of both the other neuros. However, they never mentioned it to me! It was even mentioned in the neuropsych. testing conclusion==consistent with a diagnosis of MS.

So, that's my story.