Need advice, encouragement, help...

I'm a 29 year old female, healthy, active and fit.  I've had Type 1 Diabetes for about 13 years.  I've struggled with it, delt with it (long and complicated story), and am currently doing well with it on an insulin pump (the new and more advanced way to adminster insulin 24/7).  I'm also an xray tech working in a hospital/outpatient imaging center and they just got a new MRI machine installed.  So they needed guinny pigs to get the thing up and running and things squared away so they can begin doing patients.  So I volunteered and we decided to scan my brain.  It showed a lesion.  The radiologists took a look at it (out of kindness since it's not an official MRI with dr.s order) and with a worried look on their faces, suggested that I go see my Dr. and get an official MRI with Gad.  So what they've said and I've come to find out is it looks a lot like a lesion suggesting possible MS (not an official reading, just this MRI and nothing else so far.  This all happened only last Friday).  I've had no symptoms at all whatsoever.  Looks like we've just come across this totally by chance.  I saw my Dr. yesterday and she's going to refer my to a neurologist.  Of corse I've done some research on my own and things aren't looking good.  Since I allready have an autoimmune disease I grouped them together and did some searching.  I've found out that phisiologically (sp?) they are very similar and that often thay can go together.  Like I'm 2-5 times more likely to get MS than the general non-diabetic population. 

I'm not diagnosing myself, since I know that I'll have to endure more extensive testing, but I'm totally freaked out and wondering what you all might think.  I'm tired and worn out of medical things.  I broke my C1 last year (mountain biking) and wore a halo for 4.5 months with a total recovery time of more then 6 months.  I just got married and am ready to get on with my life.  I'd like to have kids and a normal life, but this just sucks if I'll have to deal with another huge medical blow.  I'm not sure what to think, feel, do.  Any advice would be great.

Julee

So the only thing I really saw in your reply was "all in the past."  I guess I don't really want you to say, but this means that you don't/can't do any of that anymore?

Can you give me the info on the state MS society?  California.  I guess I can just as well google it.  And what do you mean by getting a referal from them for a neuro specialist?  I believe I have to go throgh my Dr. with my insurance plan for that.  Maybe if I don't like the neuro person she's reffering me to, I can see about someone else.  I'll have  to stick with my plan Dr.'s for now anyway.

Thanks.

Thankyou, u-cats, for your response.  I really appreciate it.  It's what I need to hear to calm me down a bit.  I'm certinaly not hysterical or anything, but worried about the possible upcoming tests, etc.  I'm tired of Dr. visits, copays, results, xrays, drugs, diabetic stuff...etc.  It was a *radiologist* who told me to go see my Dr.  Several of them, actually since I work in radiology.  But maybe their concern also had to do with that they work with me and know me personally, and just saw me go through the C1 break and recovery.  I did land on my head to cause the C1 break, with a helmet of corse.  If no helmet, I would have probably died.  I know there could be other things that would cause this lesion, so I'm trying to think positive and not flip out.  It's just a bummer about the "long way off to any sort of diagnosis."  I believe your right, which sucks.  More this and that, and more waiting...

Anyway, thanks for your thoughts.

Julee  

When I said: "You're a LONG way from any sort of diagnosis of MS"...what I MEANT was this:

You say you've had no symptoms, no suspicion of having MS or anything like it.  You weren't, for example, experiencing "strange symptoms with no cause" that led you to a doctor.  You had an MRI simply because you were trying out some new equipment.  You don't have any numbness or tingling or weakness in your limbs (that's not explained by your recent accident and recovery), or bowel or bladder problems, or problems with balance or any of the usual MS-like symptoms.

The ONLY thing you have is this lesion showing up on an MRI, an MRI you had quite "by accident".  So it seems unlikely that indeed you have MS.   Sure, your neuro will want to examine the MRI, and maybe do the followup with the gad.  Or maybe not.  If I were a betting person, I'd bet "not". I'd bet that he'd take a thorough medical history, ask about your accident, maybe request medical reports from that, and then decide that...at least right now...there's nothing more to worry about.

Does this mean you'll NEVER have MS?  No. As I said to someone else here, just the other day, that's like saying, "I've crossed this road a thousand times and never gotten hit by a car. Therefore, I'll NEVER be hit by a car."   You COULD..somewhere down the road...develop MS.  And then look back at this one mysterious lesion and say, "..well, uppity, you were WRONG!!"

Or you could simply go about your life, thankful that you recovered from your horrific mountainbike accident, deal with your diabetes, and have those babies and all that. I sincerely hope this latter is true.

But...if indeed the worst case scenario is true, and you DO have MS...as Rhonda already indicated, many many folks have MS, go on to have babies, careers, live long and relatively OK lives, even with MS.  And even us oldsters who were diagnosed years and years ago before the benefits of the modern medicines (24 years ago for me) are alive and well and rocking along. So will you. Assuming you take care riding that mountain bike..  :)

JOD said...
I went to my first neruo appt yesterday.  I showed him my "unofficial" MRI with the lesion or spot.  He ordered an MRI with contrast/gad and another test that I believe tests my neuro response, but I've never heard of it before.  So once I get those tests, we'll go from there, or be done with it.  I guess if these two tests don't point to MS, I'll just have another MRI further down the road just to check and make sure nothing is changing.  I asked him a lot of questions trying to get a feel from him as to if I should be concerned.  He was very nice a reassuring, being professional and objective to the whole thing.  I realized how confused I feel about having the "unofficial" MRI in the first place, giving me reason, out of the blue, to possibily be concerned about something I would have never even known about, at least now.  I was just trying to help the MRI guys out.  Grrrr.  I'm really hoping that I can put this behind be soon.  I think I'll hold off telling my parents, so as not to get them involved in something that might be nothing. 

I really appreciate all your comments and thoughts.  I does help to have some communication with those who have personal experience with this stuff.

I'll keep you posted when I get the tests done.

Thanks.  Julee