Hi, I am new here. I haven’t yet been diagnosed with MS.
I wanted to ask about Lhermitte’s sign because I am not sure if I have it or not. When I bend my head forward, I get a chill down my spine and goosebumps. It’s not unpleasant - but it happens 100% of the time. Can anyone tell me if this sounds like Lhermitte’s sign or something else?
Thanks for any help.
Is this your only symptom?
Hi, no, it isn’t. I have arm and hand and feet tingles, constant leg pain that does not go away with over the counter pain relief or inflammation pills. Sometimes the pains increase to severe cramps. I had the babinski sign when my doctor tested me. I also had trouble with other tests, like being able to touch his finger when he was moving it toward me. He said my overall reflexes were slow. I fall down a lot and bump into people when I’m walking. I’m pretty sure it is MS but haven’t been diagnosed yet. Does it sound like MS to you?
Hello Amy
We can’t tell you if it’s MS or not. You are right that having Lhermitte’s sign (which it does sound like it could be) and the Babinski sign in conjunction with your symptoms do sound a lot like MS. But the only person who can diagnose MS is your neurologist.
Was the doctor who has examined you a neurologist or your GP? If the latter, then I assume you have been referred to a neurologist. If it was the neurologist who did the physical examination, then I imagine you have now been referred for further tests, certainly an MRI and possibly others.
You certainly cannot make the assumption that it is MS until you have had all the tests and the neurologist has reviewed the results and tells you what s/he thinks.
Best of luck.
Sue
One of my freinds has this and the tingling down the arms and issues with legs. He has cervical spine compression. the legs are involved because he walks odd he over compensates. this syndrome can come with other things, even anxiety can cause it. I know sooooo many MSERS who have never experienced this. So try not to get too worried it could be something else entirely like Sue said only a neurologist can tell you what it is. ome of these include tumors, trauma, cervical disc herniation, spondylosis, myelopathy, vitamin B12, transverse myelitis, Behcet’s disease and Arnold-Chiari malformation (or any other condition leading to spinal cord compression in the cervical region). good luck. have you not had an MRI yet?
No, I haven’t had the MRI yet but I’m seeing my doctor next week and expect him to refer me. I’m pretty sure it is going to result in an MS diagnosis. I have lived with these symptoms for about three years and now that I am trying to understand what is happening to me, it is pretty textbook. Tingling fingers, buzzing feet, very powerful spasms in my legs, moments of cloudy grey vision, constant pain, inability to climb or descend from stairs, shocks of electrical pain through my arms. I can accept everything but the pain in my legs. That must be treated, with or without a diagnosis.
Hi AmyK
MS is not text book, it’s different symptoms for different people. I am not diagnosed and have different things happening to me, for one thing I have double vision which I have had for a year(it’s beening kept under control by glasses a prism). On here you will be told that a neurologist can only diagnose MS, and most offen it can take time to diagnose.
Seeing the neurologist is just one step, they will lots of tests which will rule out the other symptoms that can be the same as MS, there is no one test that can tell you for sure that you have MS, you may have to wait a little while for you to see a neurologist, I saw mine in October for the first time I had been put forward by the eye hospital which was in July.
He then did lots of hand to eye tests and asked lots of questions about my childhood and any illnesses that i had. The eye hospital booked me in for a MRI first and a few months later I saw the neurologist, he then asked me to have a blood test and lumber puncture and lastly maybe another MRI.
What he found in my MRI was that I had one legion that could be demyelinating disease, he also said that I had 4th nerve palsy in my right eye. I then looked at the quack dr Google not good but it’s not all bad I found my way to this site. I now have to wait until April for my next appointment with the neurologist. (The letter came for that appointment was in December).
So it’s not a quick fix, there is a lot of waiting between appointments they call it here, limboland. Try not to self diagnose and don’t go down the line of a symptom checker. It will frighten the pants off you.
There are a good set of people here that will answer any question that you may have, it’s not all doom and gloom here either, there are lots of people who have MS at different levels and between them they can resure you and buck you up, so you can feel that your not alone. Good luck
kay
Hello Amy
Kay is quite right. There really is no such thing as ‘textbook’ MS. We may share some symptoms but not one of us experiences the same group of symptoms. In addition, many symptoms that could lead to a diagnosis of MS are also shared with other diagnoses.
So all you can do is get an appointment with a neurologist and then wait to se what s/he thinks. And then you’ll be sent for tests (depending on what s/he thinks is causing your symptoms). Then you may get a diagnosis of some kind.
But to rely on it being MS from the outset is possibly cutting yourself off from a diagnosis of something else that can be resolved much easier than MS.
Sue
Great post Sue. I agree.
Mine well it could have been text book. 2000 going blind (they did that scene in HOME AND AWAY lol) and it made me chuckle she was diagnosed with MS within a few weeks.
I had many text book symptoms of MS, but hey ho, 2016 finally told it was Primary Progresive MS.
Amy, hon there are a lot of people with your exact symptoms. Google Fibromyalgia, ME., LUPUS, lymes. they are all exactly the same.
Oh and low B12 and magnesium can cause painful legs.
I had no idea what i had, and never googled it, as 2000 dr google was just in his infancy.
Maybe try and look at your life style and diet. But your symptoms my daughter has she has fibro some days can barely walk but she still works. We are different though. even though i have some of her symptoms we are not the same.
good luck i actually hope it isnt MS.