Steph -

First off, welcome to the board!

I was told I have MS in early 1988. Symptoms at time, among other things - severe back of neck pain. This finally went away in 2004.

First grand mal seizure - 2/93. Last seizure - 9/94.

First MRI - 3 lesions, 4/89 (there was a long waiting list back then for an MRI).

Last MRI - ~ 30 lesions in 2003. I don't need to know any more at this point.

Your doctor does not appear to understand MRI lesion distribution or presentation in MS patients. I would suggest a second opinion.

Side note - lesions do come and go. Your body is capable of healing itself. I got 15 years of MRI films... In my case - outright symptoms seem to come and go.

Lesion count (gray and not active or white (with contrast) active) really isn't an indication of where you might be with the disease. Location is probably a bigger player. As I understand it, 85% of people with MS aren't outwardly affected by the disease. I'm in this group, even after 21 years.

MS treatments - beer. bar-b-q, and coffee seem to work. I don't know about them crab's... Never been on one of them (ok - copaxone for a couple of months in 2003).

Tom