do lesions not always show up right away?

Hi, I go back and forth between the MS forum and Fibro forum. I have a lot of symptoms of MS, but also get the soreness like fibro. However, my brain scan came out clear- no lesions. And c-spine was all normal as well. i have not had the follow up appt. yet, just had the receiptionist call me with the results (whom I do not totally trust based on recent experiences, btw).

I have only had my current symptoms for 2 months now, so I guess my question is, was it too early to get a brain scan?

The thing that confuses me is that heat definitely makes me feel worse-- I get light headed, my pain is worse, and my left cheek feels partially numb. I don't know how else to explain that, unless it is also a symptom of Fibro.

I don't want MS, but I am wondering if it is just too early for a diagnosis for me.

I have had others say they had symptoms for a while before the lesions showed up.  If you have L'hermittes, you might ask for a lumbar-spine MRI.  I have had that as well (I have since lost that symptom) and I do have a few lumbar lesions.  I don't have any cervical-spine lesions.  There is that theory that early MS may not show small lesions.  Have you had an evoked potentials test?  That is a good one to have.  That test is pretty reliable.  It was a very significant part of my diagnosis.  I had extremeties, vision and hearing.

For me, by the time I had symptoms, I had three lesions.  One was quite large and resulted in temporarily losing the ability to walk.  I was diagnosed very quickly but this is not usual. 

It is very difficult to get a diagnosis without lesions on an MRI.  Just keep at the doctors.  Good luck. 

meant "no" bulging discs in c-spine

thanks Gretchen,
I looked that up as I don't know much about that test. One of the tests sound like the Nerve Conduction Test I had (which was normal) Also, the vision test sounds a lot like one of the tests I had when I had my eye exam, but maybe not as intense. That was normal for me. The only thing that stuck out to me when i had an eye exam was that my vision was blurry when I read the letters, but I could still make out the letters, so to them, my vision was not that bad. I told them my eyes were blurry but they didn't know what it was from because all tests came our normal.