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What were your intitial symptoms

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Multiple Sclerosis
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Posted 9/2/2008 8:25 PM (GMT 0)
Hi all, I am getting an MRI of brain and spine to rule out (or in) MS and other issues...I have had a variety of odd symptoms for 3 months and so far everything is coming back clear.

What were your initial symptoms and did they come on gradually or all at once? Thanks so much

Posted 9/2/2008 10:05 PM (GMT 0)
My very very first symptom was when I was 19 and I was driving to the bank for my employer and my eyes when black and blurry,I couldnt see. It only lasted about 30 minutes during it's worst. But after going back to work(yes I finished my day)I kept getting those black fuzzie in my perifferal vision. I ignored it,thought it was related to bell's palsey that I had just a couple yrs previous. Another early symptom was confusion I was getting at work,making the wrong change...I even started to forgot how to do my job...something I had done over and over again,suddenly seemed like a foreign language. My BIG symptoms..the ones that came right before the dr started to question MS and started the testing....was numbness in my face,hands and feet. It got so bad one day that I couldnt even move my face to talk...I could talk,but my lips werent even moving my face was so numb. This didnt happen all at once. It started gradually over a 3 monthes span.
Posted 9/2/2008 10:29 PM (GMT 0)

I had a couple symtoms about five (5) years before my DX.  I was at work (in a convenience store ringing up something)  and literally forgot how to do it.  I was the only one there so had to have my supervisor come in and save me....LOL  Another time within those 5 years I had a very bad headache and couldn't move my head without excruciating pain which kept me in bed three (3) days.  Then when I was diagnosed I was sick and so dizzy I just felt like I was being sucked down into a whirlpool.  All I wanted was to quite feeling so dizzy.  I was told I had shingles in my face.  That was early morning.  They gave me a shot and sent me home.  That afternoon when my husband came home from work I said you have to take me back to the hospital.  I had a different Dr. this time and he was so excellent.  He admitted me to the hospital and that is when the testing started and it was found out to be MS within a few days.  Don't know if this is any comfort but, I was so confused that night at work with the cash register I was scared that I was losing it.

Posted 9/2/2008 11:13 PM (GMT 0)
Hey King1234

My first symptoms were numbness and a wet feeling on my hands and face. The wet feeling went away rather quickly but was replaced with more numbness in my leg and a heaviness and jello feeling in my legs. I also had an extreme fatigue and that nice drunken walk problem. I finally went to the doc (er) when i got numb inside my throat and started choking in my sleep. Looking back tho, i suspect my very first symptom was back when i had my first daughter...she's almost 14 now. My right leg became numb in the hosp and lasted about three weeks. I was a little concerned, but was told it was prob due to the birth...it was a bit complicated. I shrugged it off for that reason and since it only lasted 3 weeks i dind't think about it again til all this came up almost three years ago. I'm not dx'd. In fact i'm told it's NOT ms, but i don't know what it is.
Posted 9/3/2008 12:57 AM (GMT 0)
the most memorable was the falling down. then i had the heaviness in my legs plus ants crawling up and down on one of them. i too forgot what i was doing... was driving home and got within a couple of blocks from here and then went totally blank on where i was and what i was doing. linda
Posted 9/3/2008 2:05 AM (GMT 0)
My first symptom was terrible vertigo.  It started in one day.  I thought it was an ear infection and got treatment for it.  My vertigo continued to worsen until I could not longer walk and I was then hospitalized.  After a few wrong diagnostic turns, I was eventually diagnosed with MS.  It took about 3 months. 

Posted 9/3/2008 4:14 AM (GMT 0)
Mine was my left leg going numb, then my arm, terrible fatigue and then heavy arms.  I was diagnosed a couple weeks later after an MRI with many lesions.
Posted 9/4/2008 5:16 PM (GMT 0)
I haven't been diagnosed yet, but have had the nerve pain all over my body starting five years ago. Also the drunk walk, slurred speech, fogginess, wet feeling on my legs and tingly feet and hands, most recently one tingly foot moved up my leg all the way to my hip.  Hope this helps

I used to be able to type really well. Now I get the keys mixed up!

flutterbug

Posted 9/5/2008 1:37 AM (GMT 0)
Probably headaches and ocular migraines and way too much fatigue even as a teenager. Then little things through the years. At age 28 I spent almost a year with terrible parasthesia (burning, feeling of ants crawling and pain) in my right arm, shoulder and hand. Lost some function in the hand. Was checked and treated for everything else. It went away. Age 33 very clear neurological problem with slurred speech, then balance issues, vision problems and terrible terrible fatigue. That's what finally got me diagnosed. Willow
Posted 9/6/2008 1:00 AM (GMT 0)
I have gone to a Neurologist and he said everything was fine. I told him about the numbness in my hands, fingers, feet and toes. I told him about my dizziness, off balance stuff, like walking into walls, doors, cubicles, you name. Constantly tripping and banging into things (I am so bruised). I had an EMG study on my hands and he said there was something definitely wrong with my Central Nervous System (this was after the Neurologist). Since then, my left leg has been going totally numb. The headaches are horrible, my swallowing problems (dysphagia) are getting worse. I also feel like I am going to pass out in the shower if it is too hot. Recently my vision has been getting blurry and I have had excruciating shooting pains in my right eye. One other thing, my lower back all the way down my legs get this very heavy feeling. I haven't had a spinal tap or anything major to diagnose MS except for the things they do in an office visit. I CANNOT TAKE ANYMORE. I also suffer from Fibromyalgia, Diffuse Esophageal Spasms (extremely rare)..imagine your most worst muscle spasm ever and that's what I get in my esophagus. I'm to the point where I actually want my doctor to remove the whole esophagus. I just had Botox injections AGAIN and AGAIN they didn't relieve a thing. I have had so many tests just for the spasms that I wasn't noticing all the other symptoms. I am in Surgical Menopause, have and underactive Thyroid or and had to have my Thymus Gland removed due to a tumor. I also have Raynaud's Phenomenon and Carpal Tunnel in both wrists. Also, I have really quick fainting spells where I am walking one minute and on the ground the next. I don't remember these. PLEASE, SOMEONE GIVE ME DIRECTION. I live in Pennsylvania. If anyone knows of a really good Neurologist, please let me know. I AM DESPERATE!!!! I feel so alone and I don't know if I can take anymore. SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME!

Just a footnote, I have no one that even remotely tries to understand what I am going through, which includes a husband and three teenage sons.


Phyllis
Posted 9/6/2008 12:51 PM (GMT 0)
Looking back now, my very first symptoms were right after my son was born and my pupils of my eyes were unequal and I had extreme headache issues. Multiple cat scans and dr visits couldn't find a reason, so they said it was new mom stress and offered tranquilizers and antidepressants which I promptly refused. They ruled out a tumor and that was all that mattered to me.

From there the balance kind of set in somewhere along the line and everyone just thought it was funny, and I figured I was a clutz. But the next real symptom was a major numb spot over my right knee. I told my PCP then and she said something to the effect of, "you must've hit too hard and traumatized it, it'll come back to normal at some point, or just be a neuropathy, people get those".... later it had alot of pain in that area as my right leg had issues with burning sensations, electrical shock pains etc... so my current PCP sent me to a vascular dr who ruled out any vein thrombosis and said wear pressure stockings now and charged me $35 for those monstrously awful things! It didn't stop any of it, so I quit them.

Then the next stage that set in noticeably was '01 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. I couldn't make it to our regular seats without stopping and trying to catch my breath and rest my legs! In '98 I'd waltzed up there no problem. This was when I realized something was drastically out of order on my body but no one would listen. I was newly dx'd Hypothyroid and had gained wt so that was their reasoning... but my legs didn't feel right, they were like Frankenstein legs.

From there it's been a multitude of annoying little pains but nothing definitive til July 06 when I lost fine motor control of my right hand after spray painting some furniture... had an appt with my PCP and she saw it, ordered the Neuro & he immediately dx'd MS but had to go the gamut of tests, which didn't pan out, the next 18mos though of documenting over and over, finally when more numb spots, more gait issues, balance failures and finally Optic Neuritis in March 08 - that clinched it.... I had a definite dx.

Most of my symptoms are below my waist though with severe spasticity being my greatest nemesis... I've only had ONE 3wk period of sheer bliss free from it... and am back in another major flare of it now, waiting for it to pass... I pray. It's a long road of elimination to get to the right dx.
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