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-   -   Please Help. MRI report (https://www.neurotalk.org/multiple-sclerosis/232333-please-help-mri-report.html)

Kamavi 02-11-2016 07:19 AM

Please Help. MRI report
 
I am a 29 year old practice Manager/software Engineer and needed your expertise opinion. I was referred to neurologist back in April for my symptoms (zoned out all day, not thinking clearly, focus issues, occasional white floaters/lights in vision feeling wobbly feeling loosing my mind etc) for which I was referred to perform MRI head and routine EEG. EEG was normal and MRI was essentially normal (2 or 3 small T2 hyperintensities left subinsular WM & right frontal WM probably at upper limit of normal and could reflect small perivascular spaces. NO intracranial mass lesion, intracranial haemorrhage or any evidence of hydrocephalus). Neuro discharged me with a conclusion "From organic point of view tests are normal and more on psychological basis" and stated that these findings/spots on MRI are age related, 1 dot per 10 years of life. All my blood profiles are completely normal and my GP is keep concluding the matter as an anxiety related which I am not really convinced from non of the answers.

@ hyperintensity showed in MRI, neuro suggested one spot per 10 years of life is normal. It don't make any sense to me. How correct is he?

I need your opinion of weather I will benefit from a second neurology opinion as, I continue to have the symptoms and feel that my symptoms are gone worse and sometimes feel cognitively impaired or I just accept the fact that it is just anxiety.
I have done bloods three times in last 7 months all very normal including TSH, T4, Hba1c fasting glucose etc.

Please help me to understand what is going on

Snoopy 02-11-2016 01:08 PM

Hello Kamavi,

Quote:

occasional white floaters/lights in vision
The issue of floaters/lights should be evaluated by an Ophthalmologist, the eyes are their specialty.

Your other symptoms could be due to anything including a Mental Health issue but it would be best to allow your Drs. to determine the cause.

Even if your symptoms are due to a Mental Health problem such as anxiety, there is treatment. You don't have to just live with it. A Psychiatrist would be able to evaluate you and your symptoms. If they are due to a Mental Health problem then treatment would be recommended.

Quote:

neuro suggested one spot per 10 years of life is normal. It don't make any sense to me. How correct is he?
I don't know if he is correct or not. Simply having something show up on a MRI does not immediately indicate Multiple Sclerosis. Findings on MRIs can have many different causes.

Best wishes.

Kamavi 02-11-2016 01:27 PM

Thank you very much for your response. I visited opticians who examined my eyes any again everything was normal. These findings really have distributed me and makes me think why there isn't any answer.

I really don't know if my symptoms are more on psychological side or neurological side.

Kamavi 02-11-2016 01:37 PM

Help
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Snoopy (Post 1198612)
Hello Kamavi,



The issue of floaters/lights should be evaluated by an Ophthalmologist, the eyes are their specialty.

Your other symptoms could be due to anything including a Mental Health issue but it would be best to allow your Drs. to determine the cause.

Even if your symptoms are due to a Mental Health problem such as anxiety, there is treatment. You don't have to just live with it. A Psychiatrist would be able to evaluate you and your symptoms. If they are due to a Mental Health problem then treatment would be recommended.



I don't know if he is correct or not. Simply having something show up on a MRI does not immediately indicate Multiple Sclerosis. Findings on MRIs can have many different causes.

Best wishes.

Can these findings be normal.
Optician findings were completely normal couple of weeks ago

Jomar 02-11-2016 02:10 PM

If MDs can't find a DX or reason, have you considered alternatives?
Acupuncture, Naturopathy , perhaps expert chiropractic , even if just for evaluations?

Kamavi 02-11-2016 02:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jo*mar (Post 1198631)
If MDs can't find a DX or reason, has you considered alternatives?
Acupuncture, Naturopathy , perhaps expert chiropractic , even if just for evaluations?


To be very honest I have not tried that yet because my current thoughts do not permit me. I just need some kind of direction to start with

NurseNancy 02-11-2016 04:35 PM

hello and welcome to NT,

snoopy's advice was sound.
it never hurts to get a 2nd opinion. it might be worth asking your dr for a med to help with anxiety. if it doesn't work you might need to try another med or that may not be the cause of your symptoms.

start to keep a symptom journal with dates and maybe 3 or 4 of your most bothersome symptoms. it may help your dr.

keep us posted.

Snoopy 02-11-2016 05:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamavi (Post 1198619)
Can these findings be normal.
Optician findings were completely normal couple of weeks ago

Yes, they can be normal.

Information about floaters:
https://nei.nih.gov/health/floaters/floaters
http://www.aao.org/eye-health/tips-p...oaters-flashes

Kamavi 02-11-2016 05:44 PM

[QUOTE=Snoopy;1198690]Yes, they can be normal.


I mean spots in MRI.
CAN THEY BE NORMAL AT MY AGE

ladybyrd 02-11-2016 06:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamavi (Post 1198561)
I am a 29 year old practice Manager/software Engineer and needed your expertise opinion. I was referred to neurologist back in April for my symptoms (zoned out all day, not thinking clearly, focus issues, occasional white floaters/lights in vision feeling wobbly feeling loosing my mind etc) f

I need your opinion of weather I will benefit from a second neurology opinion as, I continue to have the symptoms and feel that my symptoms are gone worse and sometimes feel cognitively impaired or I just accept the fact that it is just anxiety. I have done bloods three times in last 7 months all very normal including TSH, T4, Hba1c fasting glucose etc.

Please help me to understand what is going on

Hi Kamavi! I am currently waiting for an appointment to a neurologist who specializes in migraines...Don't know if this is your problem, but some of the symptoms you mentioned seem to be similar to ones that are also mentioned in the article.

I have suffered from migraines for over 30 years, including both the usual "painful headache type" and also ones that have unusual symptoms in other parts of my body, including the eye, the stomache and the inner ear. Initially, all my problems seemed totally unrelated, but after doing some research, they seem to actually be individual variations of the migraine process. Extensive migraine research is still fairly new and not all neurologists are fully up to date on it.

There is a link *edit* that will begin to explain. Search for "what are silent migraines." Hope it helps! **

Kamavi 02-11-2016 07:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ladybyrd (Post 1198696)
Hi Kamavi! I am currently waiting for an appointment to a neurologist who specializes in migraines...Don't know if this is your problem, but some of the symptoms you mentioned seem to be similar to ones that are also mentioned in the article.

I have suffered from migraines for over 30 years, including both the usual "painful headache type" and also ones that have unusual symptoms in other parts of my body, including the eye, the stomache and the inner ear. Initially, all my problems seemed totally unrelated, but after doing some research, they seem to actually be individual variations of the migraine process. Extensive migraine research is still fairly new and not all neurologists are fully up to date on it.

There is a link *edit* that will begin to explain. Search for "what are silent migraines." Hope it helps! **

Thanks ladybyrd
I hope things are better with you now. The neurologist I visited specialised in migraine and epilepsy. He did not seemed concerned at my reports which is a good but his explanation left me in dilemma and stressed me to max. My main issue is feeling zoned out the whole day until I hit my bed. I am planning to get second Neuro opinion on my MRI about hyperintensity and the point my neuro mentioned "1 hyperintensity dot per 10 years of life"but I don't see that coming soon. When is your appointment? Wish any neuro comment on my MRI ASAP. I hope your appointment go well.

Starznight 02-22-2016 09:39 AM

Hello, sorry to hear about your current issues. But yes it is normal for white spots to appear in the brain that are unrelated to any kind of health issue. It's just the natural process of aging. Just like little dimples and seemingly cracks in our bones, and shrinking of the spine, wrinkles as well, our brain doesn't maintain the same youthful appearance as we age.

And as your doctor already said, stress can explain the majority of your symptoms. And I imagine your job isn't an easy one. Add concern for your health on top of management and your brain just might be taking it's own vacations throughout the day.

Another question I would like to ask is how much sleep are you getting each night. While it's great that your blood work is normal and you don't seem to have a high lesion load for your age, are you getting enough sleep each night. To you wake up wishing you could crawl back into bed or do you bound out in the morning bright eyed and bushy tailed? Do you drink caffeinated drinks all day long to 'keep you going or keep you focused'? Are you a smoker or user of nicotine?

I'm not a doctor nor am I saying that your doctor IS correct, but there are a multitude of things that can make us lose our focus and feel like we are just 'zoned out', and even weak and uncoordinated. Lack of sleep is a big one.

If I were in your position not only might I seek second opinion from the neurologist, but I might also ask my GP for an EKG to be run, just to make sure that the heart isn't causing some kind of fuss, since it sounds like you've already ruled out most every other major physiological problem at this point, it's probably not the brain, the thyroid, or diabetes. Next stop is the heart and lungs. The body needs blood to function and oxygen to function.

Good luck and may you not end up having MS. It's not a fun thing to have :D so really happy to say welcome to the boards, but not to the club (as of yet).

Also there are no neurologists on this board, we can not give exact medical advice. Though we have a few nurses, but they too can only offer support not a medical opinion of what may be causing your symptoms. Very sorry if that was the main reason behind your posting on these boards :(

Kamavi 02-22-2016 04:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Starznight (Post 1200727)
Hello, sorry to hear about your current issues. But yes it is normal for white spots to appear in the brain that are unrelated to any kind of health issue. It's just the natural process of aging. Just like little dimples and seemingly cracks in our bones, and shrinking of the spine, wrinkles as well, our brain doesn't maintain the same youthful appearance as we age.

And as your doctor already said, stress can explain the majority of your symptoms. And I imagine your job isn't an easy one. Add concern for your health on top of management and your brain just might be taking it's own vacations throughout the day.

Another question I would like to ask is how much sleep are you getting each night. While it's great that your blood work is normal and you don't seem to have a high lesion load for your age, are you getting enough sleep each night. To you wake up wishing you could crawl back into bed or do you bound out in the morning bright eyed and bushy tailed? Do you drink caffeinated drinks all day long to 'keep you going or keep you focused'? Are you a smoker or user of nicotine?

I'm not a doctor nor am I saying that your doctor IS correct, but there are a multitude of things that can make us lose our focus and feel like we are just 'zoned out', and even weak and uncoordinated. Lack of sleep is a big one.

If I were in your position not only might I seek second opinion from the neurologist, but I might also ask my GP for an EKG to be run, just to make sure that the heart isn't causing some kind of fuss, since it sounds like you've already ruled out most every other major physiological problem at this point, it's probably not the brain, the thyroid, or diabetes. Next stop is the heart and lungs. The body needs blood to function and oxygen to function.

Good luck and may you not end up having MS. It's not a fun thing to have :D so really happy to say welcome to the boards, but not to the club (as of yet).

Also there are no neurologists on this board, we can not give exact medical advice. Though we have a few nurses, but they too can only offer support not a medical opinion of what may be causing your symptoms. Very sorry if that was the main reason behind your posting on these boards :(

Thanks Starz:)

Indeed thank you very much for your kind advise. It really helped me a lot. Your right that things do show up, my only concern is are these intensitivities a maker of MS. As in MS these do appear.
I do get a sleep of around 7-8 hrs but it's not a complete sleep meaning that I will wake up in a middle occasionally for couple of minutes. Also I occasionally will have difficulty sleeping.

Well in terms of waking up, it gets difficult to wake up and I do not feel fresh even after a good night sleep. I do drink Coke 2 cans a day with my meals but not for keeping me up, it's just my habit. I do not drink or smoke at all. In fact I never did.

I had 2 ECGs both were normal. The update is I saw my GP today, he did asked me to keep a log of my symptoms, after reviewing my symptom log he kind of assured me that these symptoms are most likely due to my anxiety and stress. Additionally he was keen to refer me to psychologist. But we ended up me being referred to neurology hospital, where there are not only neurologist but also neuropsychologists too.
My GP commented that second neuro review will only be for my assurance but they will likely refer me to neuropsychologist which he thinks will be beneficial.

Let's hope for the best things go well with all of us.

I have not read your threat. What made you join this?

doydie 02-23-2016 12:22 AM

As soon as you said 'zoned out' I immediately thought of a sleep study. You could be having sleep apnea.

Kamavi 02-23-2016 05:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by doydie (Post 1200858)
As soon as you said 'zoned out' I immediately thought of a sleep study. You could be having sleep apnea.

Hi

It could be, but I do get enough sleep mostly.

Starznight 02-24-2016 02:31 AM

I have been a member since 2013 while I was awaiting 'confirmation' of my dx for MS. I kind of already knew that I had it, just needed to get the final say so from the doctors. Especially since I looked at my own MRI's, read the reports, and looked over my blood panels for my LP. After ten years of dealing with doctors without medical insurance and keeping track of how I was going along, it basically came down to it was either MS or I was my own disorder :p

Which honestly was a good thing, since 10 years ago my PCP at the time told me that I either had hemochromatosis (which oddly enough I still do have :D), Lupus eh not too bad, MS okay getting a bit worse, MD ugh are you kidding me, or ALS why bother... As a way to try and explain a spontaneous fracturing of the L3 vertebrae with a bulging hernation to the disc. And the severe though completely unnoticed by me muscular spasms I was having. Which is how they believe my back broke, the muscles just kind of snapped it like a wishbone.

Not the most classic symptom of MS I will say, or of any of the possible dx's he gave me. It really wasn't classic of anything to happen to a then 25 year old. So he was pretty much pulling at straws to think of something, anything really that he could give me by way of explanation. But since I didn't have medical insurance at the time, it was also treated as a well... what can you do no matter what the reason for it is... you can't afford the testing and even if you could, you couldn't afford any treatments if there's any treatments even available. So here take 2 robaxins and pop a few morphine tabs and call me in the morning for a refill. :p

Morphine quickly changed to Lortab though since I didn't feel any pain on the morphine, which meant I wasn't taking it easy, until it wore off an left me crippled on the floor screaming in agony for the 2-3 hours before I could take my next dose. Please doc, lemme feel some pain.

And that went on for a while, pain pills that I rarely took unless I was starting to feel like I was going into shock from the pain, and what I thought at the time was a bunch of muscle relaxants (I'm now taking 4 different ones several times a day and they don't really do much of anything but try to kill off my liver, along with 2 anti-convulsents and an anti-depressant 'for pain'.)

It's entirely probable that I've had MS since childhood, but no way to ever really know on that, but my doctor did take some of my earlier medical records into account when trying to pick out the possibilities. ALS popped up into the mix because I did have repeat major concussions when I was younger with quite a few minor concussions. But honestly that was the only one that really scared me as a possibility. The rest of them were just like ugh, fine whatever. That one being in the list was like 'Ummm say what?'

As for my reasons for joining the boards, while there's a bit of the emotional support, probably tons more than I'll ever admit to or even realize :D. Mostly I just love knowledge, in any form and really any subject. So being here on the boards is not only a way to share some knowledge, but also to gain a lot of it. And not only pertaining to MS, there's plenty of people who might have similar experiences with completely different dx's that find their way to the boards here.

So don't feel as though you can no longer post because your doctor thinks it's just anxiety and stress... Trust me, anxiety is a big thing with MS and tons of other things, there might be a thread that can help you out by how someone else dealt with theirs, or you might be able to pass on some words of wisdom to the rest of us when you get yours under control. Same goes for stress, or a restless night's sleep. We all have our little bags of tricks, sometimes it might help someone else, sometimes it doesn't but hey feel free to share and read up on it and try what other's have.

Cup of chamomile tea before bed, a weighted blanket to curl under (courtesy trick of autism suffers which replaced swaddling for ease), a rubber band to snap around the wrist when feeling anxious, four way breathing to combat stress (another one stolen from asthma treatment which in turn was stolen from yoga which got it from martial arts) it's where you breath slowly in for the count of four hold it for the count of four, slowly breath out for the count of four and hold it for the count of four. In martial arts they do that before breaking the boards.

Of those tips, only the 4 way breathing works for me, I get too hot under covers and if chamomile worked I wouldn't still be up at 2:30 in the morning typing :p but it is very tasty. And the rubber band doesn't work for me because I pretty much snap it non-stop I have a compulsion to fiddle with things and end up with a bruise from it. But hey, that's just me, for my mother rubber bands work like a charm. And slip my aunt a cup of chamomile tea in place of her usual and she'll fall asleep mid-sentence after just a sip. Cover my father up with a heavy blanket and he'll be out cold until you rip the covers off of him.

TXBatman 02-24-2016 01:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamavi (Post 1198561)
I am a 29 year old practice Manager/software Engineer and needed your expertise opinion. I was referred to neurologist back in April for my symptoms (zoned out all day, not thinking clearly, focus issues, occasional white floaters/lights in vision feeling wobbly feeling loosing my mind etc) for which I was referred to perform MRI head and routine EEG. EEG was normal and MRI was essentially normal (2 or 3 small T2 hyperintensities left subinsular WM & right frontal WM probably at upper limit of normal and could reflect small perivascular spaces. NO intracranial mass lesion, intracranial haemorrhage or any evidence of hydrocephalus). Neuro discharged me with a conclusion "From organic point of view tests are normal and more on psychological basis" and stated that these findings/spots on MRI are age related, 1 dot per 10 years of life. All my blood profiles are completely normal and my GP is keep concluding the matter as an anxiety related which I am not really convinced from non of the answers.

@ hyperintensity showed in MRI, neuro suggested one spot per 10 years of life is normal. It don't make any sense to me. How correct is he?

I need your opinion of weather I will benefit from a second neurology opinion as, I continue to have the symptoms and feel that my symptoms are gone worse and sometimes feel cognitively impaired or I just accept the fact that it is just anxiety.
I have done bloods three times in last 7 months all very normal including TSH, T4, Hba1c fasting glucose etc.

Please help me to understand what is going on

Kamavi,

I am not a neurologist or a radiologist, so please take what I (or anybody else on the internet) have to say as being worth exactly what you paid me for it. With that said, here is one way to look at your MRI results. Yes, random spots can appear on MRIs with age. Just because they can appear and may be normal, does not mean they ARE normal in your case. In your case, you have some very non-specific symptoms that could be MS or could be something else entirely. Any doctor looking for the possibility of MS is going to use the McDonald diagnostic criteria. That criteria has specifics both in number and location of lesions appearing on an MRI as well as clinical symptoms and their distribution over time to consider before a doctor can give a diagnosis of MS.

In my case, I had total hearing loss in one ear that occurred one day while I was sitting at my desk and it lasted approximately 8 weeks. As part of looking for a cause for that, an MRI showed 2 lesions in the periventricular white matter. The periventricular white matter is a very common location for MS symptoms to show up, but it is not considered "diagnostic" by itself under the McDonald criteria, and the number of lesions I had also were not diagnostic alone, or with my one clinical episode of symptoms (hearing loss). So my neurologist explained to me that I didn't have enough lesions in the right places or enough symptoms for her to give me a diagnosis of MS.

I walked away from that appointment thinking that she thought I didn't have MS. I walked away thinking she had told me that the lesions I had were not in the right place or didn't look right to be MS. She also brought up the possibility of them simply being age related. So I went home thinking I didn't have MS and that we still had no idea why my hearing loss occurred. HOWEVER, she did ask me to keep track of any new or recurring symptoms that were out of the ordinary, and asked me to come back once a year for followup MRIs. Two years later, my 2nd followup MRI showed 5 more lesions, and she immediately said I now met the criteria (because of the number of lesions, including new ones separated by more than 6 months time) and she could give me a diagnosis of MS and start me on disease modifying meds.

So think carefully about the way the docs worded what they said to you. I mistakenly thought mine was telling me that she didn't think I had MS. But what she was really saying was that the number of lesions and my history of clinical symptoms didn't meet the McDonald Criteria. Your neuro may have meant the same thing in what they said to you. If you google the McDonald Diagnostic criteria for MS before your 2nd neuro opinion, and look into some of the websites showing "typical" locations for MRI lesions, you will have more information to use to ask better questions about what the doctor is telling you. If possible, get a copy of your MRI results on CD or DVD, and take them with you to the neuro appointment. Ask the neuro to show you the "hyperintensities" on the scan and discuss whether those locations are typical or atypical for MS.

Most of all, don't let whether you do or don't get a diagnosis right now discourage you. Spots on an MRI may be something or they may be nothing, and they are certainly not diagnostic of anything by themselves. So any diagnosis of what is causing your issues will be a process of elimination where they slowly rule out other causes over time. That is why the symptom log is important, and why additional followups (including possibly new MRIs) can be very important if you have new symptoms that could indicate different areas being affected by new lesions.

Keep checking in and letting us know how things are going and I hope you get some relief and some clarity about what is going on.

Kamavi 02-24-2016 06:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Starznight (Post 1201032)
I have been a member since 2013 while I was awaiting 'confirmation' of my dx for MS. I kind of already knew that I had it, just needed to get the final say so from the doctors. Especially since I looked at my own MRI's, read the reports, and looked over my blood panels for my LP. After ten years of dealing with doctors without medical insurance and keeping track of how I was going along, it basically came down to it was either MS or I was my own disorder :p

Which honestly was a good thing, since 10 years ago my PCP at the time told me that I either had hemochromatosis (which oddly enough I still do have :D), Lupus eh not too bad, MS okay getting a bit worse, MD ugh are you kidding me, or ALS why bother... As a way to try and explain a spontaneous fracturing of the L3 vertebrae with a bulging hernation to the disc. And the severe though completely unnoticed by me muscular spasms I was having. Which is how they believe my back broke, the muscles just kind of snapped it like a wishbone.

Not the most classic symptom of MS I will say, or of any of the possible dx's he gave me. It really wasn't classic of anything to happen to a then 25 year old. So he was pretty much pulling at straws to think of something, anything really that he could give me by way of explanation. But since I didn't have medical insurance at the time, it was also treated as a well... what can you do no matter what the reason for it is... you can't afford the testing and even if you could, you couldn't afford any treatments if there's any treatments even available. So here take 2 robaxins and pop a few morphine tabs and call me in the morning for a refill. :p

Morphine quickly changed to Lortab though since I didn't feel any pain on the morphine, which meant I wasn't taking it easy, until it wore off an left me crippled on the floor screaming in agony for the 2-3 hours before I could take my next dose. Please doc, lemme feel some pain.

And that went on for a while, pain pills that I rarely took unless I was starting to feel like I was going into shock from the pain, and what I thought at the time was a bunch of muscle relaxants (I'm now taking 4 different ones several times a day and they don't really do much of anything but try to kill off my liver, along with 2 anti-convulsents and an anti-depressant 'for pain'.)

It's entirely probable that I've had MS since childhood, but no way to ever really know on that, but my doctor did take some of my earlier medical records into account when trying to pick out the possibilities. ALS popped up into the mix because I did have repeat major concussions when I was younger with quite a few minor concussions. But honestly that was the only one that really scared me as a possibility. The rest of them were just like ugh, fine whatever. That one being in the list was like 'Ummm say what?'

As for my reasons for joining the boards, while there's a bit of the emotional support, probably tons more than I'll ever admit to or even realize :D. Mostly I just love knowledge, in any form and really any subject. So being here on the boards is not only a way to share some knowledge, but also to gain a lot of it. And not only pertaining to MS, there's plenty of people who might have similar experiences with completely different dx's that find their way to the boards here.

So don't feel as though you can no longer post because your doctor thinks it's just anxiety and stress... Trust me, anxiety is a big thing with MS and tons of other things, there might be a thread that can help you out by how someone else dealt with theirs, or you might be able to pass on some words of wisdom to the rest of us when you get yours under control. Same goes for stress, or a restless night's sleep. We all have our little bags of tricks, sometimes it might help someone else, sometimes it doesn't but hey feel free to share and read up on it and try what other's have.

Cup of chamomile tea before bed, a weighted blanket to curl under (courtesy trick of autism suffers which replaced swaddling for ease), a rubber band to snap around the wrist when feeling anxious, four way breathing to combat stress (another one stolen from asthma treatment which in turn was stolen from yoga which got it from martial arts) it's where you breath slowly in for the count of four hold it for the count of four, slowly breath out for the count of four and hold it for the count of four. In martial arts they do that before breaking the boards.

Of those tips, only the 4 way breathing works for me, I get too hot under covers and if chamomile worked I wouldn't still be up at 2:30 in the morning typing :p but it is very tasty. And the rubber band doesn't work for me because I pretty much snap it non-stop I have a compulsion to fiddle with things and end up with a bruise from it. But hey, that's just me, for my mother rubber bands work like a charm. And slip my aunt a cup of chamomile tea in place of her usual and she'll fall asleep mid-sentence after just a sip. Cover my father up with a heavy blanket and he'll be out cold until you rip the covers off of him.


Oh sorry to hear that and really hope things get better with you. As you mentioned some of the techniques for controlling your anxiety but non of them worked for me. In fact I also attended therapy which was a waste of time.

Well that's so kind of you and very few people have such good thoughts as you have, educating people and make people aware of different symptoms. I will defo share my updates.

SallyC 02-25-2016 10:46 AM

Anxiety is just another word for MS.:wink:

Frog42 02-27-2016 08:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SallyC (Post 1201275)
Anxiety is just another word for MS.:wink:

A word that can be said in polite company you mean, right? :rolleyes:

Kamavi 02-29-2016 06:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TXBatman (Post 1201111)
Kamavi,

I am not a neurologist or a radiologist, so please take what I (or anybody else on the internet) have to say as being worth exactly what you paid me for it. With that said, here is one way to look at your MRI results. Yes, random spots can appear on MRIs with age. Just because they can appear and may be normal, does not mean they ARE normal in your case. In your case, you have some very non-specific symptoms that could be MS or could be something else entirely. Any doctor looking for the possibility of MS is going to use the McDonald diagnostic criteria. That criteria has specifics both in number and location of lesions appearing on an MRI as well as clinical symptoms and their distribution over time to consider before a doctor can give a diagnosis of MS.

In my case, I had total hearing loss in one ear that occurred one day while I was sitting at my desk and it lasted approximately 8 weeks. As part of looking for a cause for that, an MRI showed 2 lesions in the periventricular white matter. The periventricular white matter is a very common location for MS symptoms to show up, but it is not considered "diagnostic" by itself under the McDonald criteria, and the number of lesions I had also were not diagnostic alone, or with my one clinical episode of symptoms (hearing loss). So my neurologist explained to me that I didn't have enough lesions in the right places or enough symptoms for her to give me a diagnosis of MS.

I walked away from that appointment thinking that she thought I didn't have MS. I walked away thinking she had told me that the lesions I had were not in the right place or didn't look right to be MS. She also brought up the possibility of them simply being age related. So I went home thinking I didn't have MS and that we still had no idea why my hearing loss occurred. HOWEVER, she did ask me to keep track of any new or recurring symptoms that were out of the ordinary, and asked me to come back once a year for followup MRIs. Two years later, my 2nd followup MRI showed 5 more lesions, and she immediately said I now met the criteria (because of the number of lesions, including new ones separated by more than 6 months time) and she could give me a diagnosis of MS and start me on disease modifying meds.

So think carefully about the way the docs worded what they said to you. I mistakenly thought mine was telling me that she didn't think I had MS. But what she was really saying was that the number of lesions and my history of clinical symptoms didn't meet the McDonald Criteria. Your neuro may have meant the same thing in what they said to you. If you google the McDonald Diagnostic criteria for MS before your 2nd neuro opinion, and look into some of the websites showing "typical" locations for MRI lesions, you will have more information to use to ask better questions about what the doctor is telling you. If possible, get a copy of your MRI results on CD or DVD, and take them with you to the neuro appointment. Ask the neuro to show you the "hyperintensities" on the scan and discuss whether those locations are typical or atypical for MS.

Most of all, don't let whether you do or don't get a diagnosis right now discourage you. Spots on an MRI may be something or they may be nothing, and they are certainly not diagnostic of anything by themselves. So any diagnosis of what is causing your issues will be a process of elimination where they slowly rule out other causes over time. That is why the symptom log is important, and why additional followups (including possibly new MRIs) can be very important if you have new symptoms that could indicate different areas being affected by new lesions.

Keep checking in and letting us know how things are going and I hope you get some relief and some clarity about what is going on.

@TXbatman
thanks for sharing your experience, it really is helpful. I hope things get well at your side.
My hyperintensities are been described as perivascular spaces (probably). And again the neuro has used the term probably at upper limit of normal. I don't understand are there any upper or lower limits in any findings. It's not blood tests that have any levels but again I don't really understand what kind of limits in hyperintensities mean

karenhicks 03-14-2016 05:26 PM

Good news??
 
Sounds like your blood sugar isn't part of the problem. Count that as good news. I would not wish diabetes on anyone except my ex=husband (cuz it would kill him)

SallyC 03-17-2016 11:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by karenhicks (Post 1204323)
Sounds like your blood sugar isn't part of the problem. Count that as good news. I would not wish diabetes on anyone except my ex=husband (cuz it would kill him)

LOLOLOLOL!:o


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