When did you knkow to go in for a diagnosis?
 

Background: I am 25. I've been clinically depressed (symptom 1) and treated for it since age 14.

I went on Accutane then and spent about 5 years on it, off an on. (So, 2 to 3 years total.) Muscle pain and fatigue are part of the side effects. Now I'm on 50 mg of Aldactone. I've been on it since September 2009.

When stressed, due to depression and meds (at least, this is what I suspected before), I felt like every muscle from my neck to my ankles seized and pounded in pain. It doesn't take much to overwhelm me sensorily. My tongue feels like it goes dead.

I have always had joint pain and for the last year or so, if I cross my legs, I feel like it's detached from my body. I lose circulation regularly, and possibly due to coffee/medications, I twitch, especially when stressed. (I'm not overweight, but it happens.)


I have been on methylphenidate (Ritalin) for several years, 10 milligrams a day. In spite of all the stimulants taken, I could probably fall asleep standing up...anywhere.

I've gone through the full cycle of Gardasil injections, which is connected to symptoms of MS, if only in a small population.

This is the thing--I've dealt with pains that felt like my calves were eating themselves (especially on Accutane), poor circulation, crappy stamina, and the psychological symptoms progressively for five years plus. It might be medication causing all this, but together, I'm worried the side effects are making me complacent about something else...like MS. Or chronic fatigue. The panic attack-like symptoms described above might be due to hyperkalemia, but even when I took a break from Aldactone, they occur.


I have anemia and take iron regularly, I take a multivitamin, I don't drink or use drugs other than what was listed above.

How did you know to ask your doctor about it, what tipped you off?

I'm scared. I'm looking online at the tests required, and those alone scares me.

Hi NT, welcome to NT..:D

What sent me to the Doc was the inability to walk a straight line and hadn't had anything to drink.:eek:

I have no chronic pain, but have been DXed with MS for over 40 years.

I'm so sorry for your pain..

Have the MS tests and let us know how it goes..:hug::hug:

What finally got my attention was severe double vision. I could not ignore that! I'd had symptoms for several years (numbness) but none were severe enough to incapacitate me like the double vision was.

Can I ask what you took Accutane for?

I'd seen docs for many years, including neurologists, none of whom thought my dizziness and other symptoms added up to anything. So I'd gone in for a dx many times and came out without a dx other than anemia. Then double vision occurred, blind spot, drooping lid, pain with light sensitivity. MRI showed lesions. One doc declared I had MS, another disagreed, and this went on like that for a while. I got onto the Swank MS diet, as I am pretty sensitive to drugs.

Your symptoms sound like more than depression, which I was dx'd with as well in those days. WAY more. Your calves eating themselves alone is more than depression. It could be those dang drugs, or one of them, however.

I am a believer in supplements for neurological difficulties, and my main warriors against pains like that in the calf, and other twitches and spasm, is magnesium, calcium, D3 and lots more...and I don't take many drugs. I do take propanalol and a small dose of Klonopin. Klonopin and magnesium are my main warriors against calves eating themselves, as you so marvellously put it.

Because you have a history of taking drugs for depression it MIGHT be well to try a holistic doctor. I know they vary as widely as the allopathics. So wishing you well in finding the right doctor. The Bastyr Naturopathic clinic in Seattle might recommend someone.
I have another neuro disease, Porphyria, and that bears looking into as well, and there are a number of other neuro diseases. Neuros, in my experience, are very difficult. I had one marvelous one at Scripps who got me off Baclofen and Zanaflex and onto Magnesium, but he's retired. You need a good recommendation. Maybe you could call Scripps Clinic in San Diego and ask for a recommendation in your area....that may not be the ticket, but you need to start somewhere. Also consider consulting a Hematologist, for Porphyria testing and testing for other Hematological diseases which overlap into neuro symptoms (which most do).

Hi NT,

Welcome to the other NT.

I've read over your post several times and none of it sounds like MS to me. I understand that you are scared and I think that this would be the time to see an internist to see what is going on. What is or isn't caused by which med or meds and what is happening organically and what to do about it. Someone who will take you seriously and spend the time and work this through.

The symptoms that got me to a doctor were extreme fatigue, numbness on part of my face and in 2 fingers.

Best to you,
ANN

I had headaches, dizzyness and imbalance issues for years, but MRI after MRI my doctor would say they were "within normal limits" and I was sent away as a whiner, or the MD would tell me about migraine syndromes. I got very little answers and MS was never even on my radar screen. I retired and moved to the back woods. A local MD was doing my yearly exam when he said "I think you have MS" and I told him I thought he was crazy. I had been tested, and tested, and dont want anymore tests, or bad treatment. He talked me into the MRI, ordered the old MRIs to compare, and sent me to the northland where the MS clinic is. They said "yep, its MS. its been MS for a long time" I had no idea!

I hope you find the answers you seek.

Welcome...

Sounds like fibromylagia to me. I got diagnosed with fibro in the mid 80s, and what you described is the best description of the pain I've ever read.

They now have drugs to helps reduce fibro pain...do some research on it, and then you might want to mention this possibility to your doc next time.


Hope you feel better real soon:hug:

I had to read your post a few times before responding. While you may or may not have MS you definitely have something going on. My concerns when I read your post was your medications. Aldactone is sometimes used to treat high blood pressure, among other things. Since you have such fatigue and circulatory issues as well as some other "side effects" going on, what you are experiencing may be related to the medication. IMHO, I strongly encourage you to see your dr regarding your symptoms and everything that you have been experiencing. There are many other medications that you can take to help with cystic/nodular type acne, which is what I am assuming you are taking this for since you were also on Accutane. FWIW, I don't know if you are male or female but many women have found taking BC pills has helped them quite a bit with this form of acne.

As for what made me go in to the dr for diagnosis was terrible nerve pain in my ribs and loss of coordination in my hands. I was not dx right away despite having lesions on my brain. It took me a few years to get dx. What brought me in then was the numbness in my left leg/foot and loss of balance and inability to walk. That ultimately lead to my dx.