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worried it could be MS...

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Posted 7/9/2009 5:08 PM (GMT 0)
New here, worried, and here's my story...

My husband is a healthy 24 year old. Almost a month ago around 11pm he came to me feeling "funny." He was disoriented, dizzy, drunk feeling (but hadn't drank anything). The left side of his body felt numb and hurt. He didn't remember a conversation (actually a fight) we had just had 10 minutes before then. I was concerned but he tried to tell me he was ok. He laid down for a minute and seemed to almost fall asleep but when I talked to him didn't remember anything that had happened just minutes before, didnt know how he got in the room he was in. I got him a drink of water and he thought it tasted metallic. We went to the hospital and he was freezing (it was a summer night and he usually is never cold). He also started getting a really bad headache in one spot on his head. The hospital checked him out, did a CT scan, and said it was just a complex migraine. They gave him a shot of a painkiller and a prescription for a migraine medicine. After 4 hours or so at the ER we went home. The next day he didnt really remember any of the ER visit or what we had done earlier that day.

The next day he following up with his GP. They were concerned, said he seemed totally healthy (except for what happened and he still had the headache) and scheduled blood tests, MRI and MRA with and without contract, and a referral to a neurologist. His blood work came back fine, except for slightly high cholesterol. He was told the MRI and MRA came back fine. The neurologist checked him out and said there was definitely something neurologically wrong - his reflexes were off on one side of his body and he mentioned the pupil in one eye was bigger than the other. He said it was not a complex migraine and put him on a aspirin regimen since there were so many stroke symptoms. He scheduled him for some EEG tests but didn't go into detail in what he thinks it might be. On the note for the EEG tests (which are tomorrow) all I could make out in the dr. handwriting was VEP and BAER.

So following some suggestions of family and friends who asked if it was MS and doing some googling.... it seems like it could be likely, except he was told nothing showed up on his MRI.

He sees the neurologist again next Thursday but its so hard to play the waiting game not knowing what's going on. He still has a headache and is constantly worried he's going to have memory loss again. We first thought it was stroke related somehow, even though he's only 24, but researching MS it seems to fit. Now I'm afraid I'm focusing too much on something it may not even be... but I feel like I need to research something!
Posted 7/9/2009 5:48 PM (GMT 0)
I am sorry about your husbands recent episode.  Please let the neurologist do his job.  Do to the fact that his MRI/MRA came back normal then he probably won't get a MS diagnosis.  If he is no longer disoriented and numb or dizzy/drunk it seems unlikely it is MS.  With MS, when things come like that, they stay for a longer time.  They tend to come and stay for weeks or forever.  They get better very very slowly if at all.

The neuro has ordered good tests with the VEP and BAER and those should help figure things out.  VEP is the visually evoked potentials.  They will hook up electrodes to his head (painless) and he will watch a computer screen that has a flashing checkerboard pattern, while he is to watch the center dot on that screen.  The test takes about ten minutes although the set up and take down and other wait times make the over all test an hour or so.  BAER is a hearing test.  Like the VEP it is checking for nerve function in that process. 

You might google TIA.  That seems more likely than MS.  The fact that he has raised cholesterol at 24 could make him at risk for a stroke. I would take the cholesterol very seriously.  You need to also have his heart and arteries evaulated for stroke risk.  How is he blood pressure? 

Ok so those are just a few thoughts.  I do hope he feels much better real soon and that this doesn't happen again!!  Again, I am not a doctor so I am just sort of rambling here with my thoughts and opinions.  Here are some sites that discuss TIA.  The symptoms you mentioned are all there.

http://health.yahoo.com/stroke-overview/transient-ischemic-attack-tia-topic-overview/healthwise--hw226609.html 

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/tia/tia.htm

http://www.stroke.org/site/PageServer?pagename=TIA

 

Posted 7/9/2009 5:54 PM (GMT 0)
Here is one more thought.  You may want to post on the heart board here.  Tell them what you told us.
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