Concerned with symptoms
 

I am in need of some advice/opinions – I am going to see the neurologist on Thursday.

Here is a little background.
I am a 29 yr old female – relatively healthy.

About 6-7 years ago I went to the doctor with symptoms of weakness – arm/hands & legs/feet felt heavy & full body numbness.
I was out and all of the sudden I became weak were I could not even pick up change out of my wallet.
Met with a neurologist – had a nerve conduction study – just with the patches not the test were they insert the needles into your muscles – results were nothing
Had an MRI of spinal cord & brain - Nothing conclusive. They found a few things in my brain that my GP said could just be “ditzles” (whatever that means) and could just be my brain and that my weakness was “perceived.”
This ended up going away after a few months.

I can’t recall since it has been so long sometime after that first episode I have a numb patch of skin. Graze my hands on that area and no feeling.

1 ½ ago – same symptoms. New neurologist – just did a basic in office exam. I.e. raise your arms, squeeze my fingers and check your reflexes.
He said there was absolutely nothing wrong with me.
I ended up going to the chiropractor since my spine was out of alignment. Seemed to help – symptoms went away after a few months.

I have had tremors for about 10 years. These happen not at rest but after I try to straighten out my hand, I carrying something heavy or under stress.

Fast forward to 2 weeks ago.
I notices weakness in my right arm in the push up position and within 4 days it spread to both arms. I also am getting muscle spasms/fasciculations in arms and legs.
Also Stiffness; aching; cramping, (feeling like someone is squeezing my arms) and noticeable weakness. I had to drive 1 1/2 home and it was very challenging.
It is hard to do basic things like drink out of a mug, wash my hair or put on makeup. They are extremely fatigued and in pain.
Even when I lay down and not move they still hurt. Over the weekend it was cold and especially my thumbs stop working and when I made a fist it was searing pain on the top of my hand to my fingers.
It has affected my legs as well – they felt heavy but over this weekend they have felt weak and sore – almost like a cramp or that you did a really hard work out.

The last few days it has gotten worse – hard to even type without my forearms giving me trouble.
No breathing/swallowing/eating/talking issues

So far I have had blood tests – all normal
Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate
CBC, DIFF
Vitamin D (Fine but a little low.)
Vitamin B12 (Fine but a little high)
CRP, HIGH SENSITIVITY
ANA REFLEX COMPREHENSIVE PANEL
THYROID STIMULATING HORMONE
COMPREHENSIVE METABOLIC PANEL

X-Ray of upper spine – only comments were on my ecare online account – “No bony issues”
All of this has me extremely confused since I was completely healthy – able to exercise and live life normally and this all came quickly and seemingly out of the blue.

Any thoughts?!?

Crystal

" ditzles " ???

Can you get a copy of your MRI report? When I had my first brain MRI done, scheduled by my gp, he made an appointment for me to see a neuro for the results.

Since even a couple neuros couldn't seem to get my MRI results right? I am not sure if a gp could?

Hello CrystalAnn,

I agree with TheSleeper ---- it would be a good idea to get a copy of your MRI report. I have never heard the term “ditzles.”

Your Neurologist did a Neurological exam/evaluation. Since he said nothing was wrong your Neurological exam/evaluation was normal. When someone has Multiple Sclerosis the Neurological exam/evaluation is never completely normal, there will always be some deficits/abnormal results.

Drs. look for "signs" that might indicate what is going on with a patient. Signs are those thing found on exam and testing. At this point and from what you have written, there is no sign for your symptoms. This does not mean you are making it up, it could simply mean whatever is going on isn't detectable at this point.

There are many conditions, medication side effects, vitamin/mineral deficiencies and mental health problems that can cause similar symptoms as those seen in MS. Part of the diagnostic criteria requires all other possible causes for a person's symptoms be ruled out.

Multiple Sclerosis is a demyelinating Disease of the Central Nervous System. The diagnostic criteria (The Revised McDonald Criteria) relies heavily on MRI evidence.

Hi CrystalAnn,

Sorry for the late reply, but hopefully you have been able to make some progress on getting your MRI results from the previous scan. I am going to disagree slightly with Snoopy in that I have had MS for over 10 years now, and the physical exam by the neurologist is never anything other than completely normal for me. All of my symptoms have been cognitive or neurosensory (hearing loss, visual fluctuations, etc), not physical deficits that the neurologist would measure with their exam.

What I will say is first, go look at the McDonald Criteria Snoopy referenced. When I had my first symptoms and MRI, the Neurologist said almost the exact same thing to me..."you have these odd spots in your brain that show up on the MRI, but you don't have enough of them or enough in the right spots for me to call it MS". I thought that meant she didn't think the spots were MS...what she really meant was that the spots alone with one round of clinical symptoms were not enough to get me a Dx based on the McDonald Criteria. Two years later, after a subsequent MRI showed 7 spots instead of 2, I got a Dx of MS despite not having any new symptoms, because I now satisfied the McDonald Criteria by having 3 or more lesions and new lesions separated by more than 6 months from the original 2 that were noted.

Second, get a copy of the MRI disk and report from the first time you had one, and take it to any subsequent neurologists you go to. They will need to compare any subsequent MRI results to that initial scan in order to see if there were changes. I would strongly suggest that if you are still having the symptoms, that you go back to a neurologist with a list of symptoms, a timeline of when your episodes have come on and then gone away, and that older MRI, and ask for a new MRI to compare it to. Also, if you are actively having symptoms, make sure they do the MRI with and without contrast to see if there are any lesions enhanced by contrast, which would mean the lesion was a location of "active" demyelination. The terms you would be looking for in the report from the old MRI would be something like "hyperintense foci" or "lesion" or some other description of spots.

Lastly, given that many of your symptoms seem to be presenting in your arms, there is a possibility that the lesions could be in your spinal cord and not in your brain if it is MS-related. So if the first MRI was only of the brain, it might have missed anything going on in your spine. The spinal XRay saying nothing "bony" is wrong is actually a good start, because it can rule out compression of the spinal cord by disk or vertebrae alignment issues. But an MRI would be needed to actually see lesions on the spinal cord of the type that would be caused by MS.

The best thing you can do is go google the diagnostic criteria and learn about how MS presents in MRIs, so that when you talk to the neurologist, you can ask educated questions about what they are or are not seeing and what they are trying to tell you. Good luck, and let us know how we can help!

Bill

I know you posted this about a month ago. Was the MRI you had years ago done with contrast? It is important to one with and without contrast. I'm not sure what your GP meant by "ditzels". I agree with the others that getting your MRI report is important. Start keeping a medical record file as well as a symptom journal.

Unfortunately, autoimmune diseases can be difficult to diagnose, MS included. Being persistent is important in getting a diagnosis. If the chiropractor's adjustment helped for a bit, it may be worthwhile to continue that. Discuss it with your GP and the chiropractor first though.

I hope by now you are doing better. Please keep us posted on how you are doing.:hug: