Petrified as I think I have MS - Help or advice please

Hello all, this is my first post and to say I’m scared is an understatement.

I’m a man in my late 40s and all this has come on so quickly, literally this month (August 2019). I started getting random sensations on my body during the day, like something was crawling on me. Then the bottom of my right foot started to ache and felt tender and by the time I went to bed my toes were tingling and so were my arms. Whatever position I laid I had pins and needles in my arms, feet and legs. The next day was much the same but with electric shock sensations on random spots on my body and face, like I was being prodded with an electric zapper. Then the next night the back of my left thigh quivered all night, it was visibly moving and I got the odd involuntary jerk movement on my hand and legs. I’ve also had a buzzing sensation in my groin. At this stage I had googled the symptoms and everything came back to MS or neuropathy caused by diabetes (I’m not diabetic).

I went to the doctors and they sent me to go for blood tests and a chest x-ray, she didn’t seem overly concerned. My blood pressure and heart rate were perfect. The bloods came back a few days later and are ok, they are waiting on the glucose test and x-ray but the doctor said they weren’t concerned about diabetes as that would have been picked up by now. They suggested I went to the optician too which I did and the optician said he couldn’t see any sign of nerve damage in my eyes.

On my second doctor visit it was another doctor who again didn’t seem concerned and said he didn’t think it was MS, he got me to squeeze his fingers with either hand and he held my ankles and got me to push and pull against his hands and then he touched either side of my leg gently to see if I could feel anything (I could). He said it was likely stress but he would refer me to a neurologist if I wanted him to.

For the first time in my life I’ve had a very stressful year and have lost a lot of weight (not that I was overweight) and stress was something I went to the doctors with several months ago but decided against taking anti-depressants as I hate taking pills. In the last few months I have picked myself up anyway so I wouldn’t say I was stressed when these symptoms started but the doctor said it could still be stress related.

I have been very lucky that my neurology appointment because it has came through already, albeit in 5 months time. I understand some people go years without ever getting a referral so I can count myself lucky on that although I have no idea if they do an MRI that day or if its another 5 month wait !!!

The tingling isn’t as bad as it was when this started but I still get pins and needles in my feet if I sit down or cross my legs. The random sensations have calmed down too although they haven’t stopped completely and I’m still getting to odd spasms on my arms and legs. I am also getting an odd sensation on the back and side of my head now though but not headaches.

I’m trying to convince myself its stress, a pinched nerve or something that can be easily sorted. The trouble with googling stuff is you only hear of the bad stories.

Sorry for the long post. So will they do an MRI straight away when I go for my appointment? Any chance it could be something else?

Thank you for reading.

Hi welcome

It’s good that you have an appointment with the neurologist even though it’s in five months time. Sometimes the doctor will send you to get a MRI first, they did with me it was that MRI that I was given the appointment to see the neurologist, he asked me to have an lumber puncture and blood test. It was about then that I started to look at doctor Google, not a good idea, it can scare you silly but that was how I found this forum. It sounds that one of your doctor did some physical tests that happened with the neurologist, he said that I have a a weaker side on my left and that I need to see him again next year (I have the appointment now for April) he noticed that my left hand shakes which it is not doing so much but two of my fingers on my left hand is numb the same for my toes on the left. It will be a good idea to write down what your body is doing as you may find it helpful when you see the neurologist. In January, you might see him in January and put you forward for a MRI lumber puncture and blood test, these take time. I don’t know what your hospital is like for these things. There’s no need to worry about these tests. I did but it wasn’t as bad as I thought.

On here you can ask any questions you may have, some one will know the answer but they are not doctors and can’t diagnose you, they can only tell you about their experiences with ms. You can also have a good rant if you need to. They’re a friendly bunch here and will help you if they can. So good luck with your appointments.

Kay

[quote=“Anonymous”]

Hello all, this is my first post and to say I’m scared is an understatement.

I’m a man in my late 40s and all this has come on so quickly, literally this month (August 2019). I started getting random sensations on my body during the day, like something was crawling on me. Then the bottom of my right foot started to ache and felt tender and by the time I went to bed my toes were tingling and so were my arms. Whatever position I laid I had pins and needles in my arms, feet and legs. The next day was much the same but with electric shock sensations on random spots on my body and face, like I was being prodded with an electric zapper. Then the next night the back of my left thigh quivered all night, it was visibly moving and I got the odd involuntary jerk movement on my hand and legs. I’ve also had a buzzing sensation in my groin. At this stage I had googled the symptoms and everything came back to MS or neuropathy caused by diabetes (I’m not diabetic).

I went to the doctors and they sent me to go for blood tests and a chest x-ray, she didn’t seem overly concerned. My blood pressure and heart rate were perfect. The bloods came back a few days later and are ok, they are waiting on the glucose test and x-ray but the doctor said they weren’t concerned about diabetes as that would have been picked up by now. They suggested I went to the optician too which I did and the optician said he couldn’t see any sign of nerve damage in my eyes.

On my second doctor visit it was another doctor who again didn’t seem concerned and said he didn’t think it was MS, he got me to squeeze his fingers with either hand and he held my ankles and got me to push and pull against his hands and then he touched either side of my leg gently to see if I could feel anything (I could). He said it was likely stress but he would refer me to a neurologist if I wanted him to.

For the first time in my life I’ve had a very stressful year and have lost a lot of weight (not that I was overweight) and stress was something I went to the doctors with several months ago but decided against taking anti-depressants as I hate taking pills. In the last few months I have picked myself up anyway so I wouldn’t say I was stressed when these symptoms started but the doctor said it could still be stress related.

I have been very lucky that my neurology appointment because it has came through already, albeit in 5 months time. I understand some people go years without ever getting a referral so I can count myself lucky on that although I have no idea if they do an MRI that day or if its another 5 month wait !!!

The tingling isn’t as bad as it was when this started but I still get pins and needles in my feet if I sit down or cross my legs. The random sensations have calmed down too although they haven’t stopped completely and I’m still getting to odd spasms on my arms and legs. I am also getting an odd sensation on the back and side of my head now though but not headaches.

I’m trying to convince myself its stress, a pinched nerve or something that can be easily sorted. The trouble with googling stuff is you only hear of the bad stories.

Sorry for the long post. So will they do an MRI straight away when I go for my appointment? Any chance it could be something else?

Thank you for reading.

[/quote]

Hi oh dear Dr Google needs to be struck off really. You put pins and needles in most search engines their little spiders go looking for tags with this and usually end up coming back with pages of MS OR STROKE etc.

I NEVER googled when i first got sick as i never for one minute thought i had MS to be honest i had no idea what it was, and just hoped the doctors would find out for me. I literally couldnt walk around a car boot my leg was so stiff and felt like concrete in the morning i couldnt get out of bed and the rest is history. I had all kinds of odd things for several years, going blind, urine infections, fatigue the list was endless lol. I went from 2000 to 2016 waiting for a diagnosis.

MRI well it depends on your neuro exam as to whether or not he thinks it is warranted so early days yet. EITHER WAY you have FIVE months to wait, are you going to worry about this for five months? You say you had the worse stressful year, even if you think the stress is resolved sometimes it takes your body a lot longer to catch up with your brain. so it could in all fairness be still stress related.

IF you can afford it you can ask to see your neuro privately its not that expensive in the grand scheme of things providing he has a private clinic. Mine did. I went from a 3 month wait and saw mine in TWO days.

I also paid for my first MRI at cheltenham cobalt centre i think it cost 250.00 or something as i wanted to get back to work. It showed a large area of high signal foci in the deep matter of my brain. SOUNDS pretty awesome doesn’t it. NOT. the radiologist decided that as i was born in 1951 it was more likely down to my age but not a demylinating event. (I thought it odd he even thought demylinating.

and for 10 long years with the same neuro and far more MS symptoms then you seem to be having I was finally diagnosed with primary progressive MS.

on my first visit to neuro i couldnt even feel pin pricks on my left leg down from my knee, the tuning fork showed issue, so many positive signs but still no diagnosis and just wait and see, so i did wait and see.

STRESS is a terrible thing on our bodies. My prescription for you is to come off google, get healthy, eat well, sleep well, lots of vit D, no processed food, tons of fruit and veg, rest, and do something like enjoying your life.

Hopefully it will all resolve itself before you see the neuro, but in the meantime you are adding stress onto stress. you say your not stressed but you must be, as otherwise you would not be stressing over this.

BAN google lol. an MRI by the way may show nothing, then what? xx