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JR
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Joined: 09 Feb 2006
Posts: 2
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 Posted: 02/09/06 - 18:46 Post subject: I Am Questioning Neurologist's Diagnosis |
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I was referred to a neurologist after experiencing years of weird symptoms. Some of the different diagnosis I received over many years as follows: Migraine, Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue, Arthritis, and my all time favorite, Depression.
Most recently I have begun to have burning, itching which is intermittent and patchy - usually of tops of feet, hands, around neck and ears and sometimes thighs and abdomen. I seem to react to metal, plastic and hot (chlorinated) bath. My face feels cold to the touch and I can't get warm....other times I feel very hot. I have had some seizing of my legs in the pelvic joints and I can't move. This added with memory problems, weird ear ringing, dizziness, clumsiness and twitching fingers (I drop things) has me very worried.
The Neurologist spent very little time speaking to me, didn't want to hear my symptoms and based on an MRI showing lesions, and it seems based mainly on my age (59) says I have Microvasculopathy.
My referring physician thought I had symptoms of MS. Does anyone have anything that might shed some light on my situation? |
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Mick
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Joined: 23 Jul 2005
Posts: 310
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| Posted: 02/10/06 - 22:02 Post subject: |
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I am no expert but I did have some experience with MS. My wife’s aunt had a cluster of similar debilitating symptoms and went through hundreds of tests to be diagnosed with MS. Going through your symptoms I thought of MS instantly but like I said previously I am no doctor.
The thing is that MS can influence any part of the human body and its symptoms are divided into: visual, motor, sensory, coordination and balance, bowel, bladder and sexual, cognitive and others. You won’t have all the symptoms at the same time but could experience many over time. I am not applying you have MS, I am just sharing my knowledge with you.
The problem with diagnosing MS is that it could take ages ( months and years) as there are no specific tests and doctors do this by eliminating other possibilities. And the possibilities are wide: Tumour or other Cord compression, Stroke, Acute Disseminated EncephaloMyelitis (ADEM), Lyme disease, Sub-Acute Sclerosing Panencephalitis, Neurosyphilis, Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy, Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Cerebral Arteritis, Complicated Migraine, Diabetes, Hypothyroidism, Myasthenia Gravis, Acute Transverse Myelitis, Herpes Simplex Encephalitis, Polyarteritis nodosa, Sjogren syndrome, Behcet's syndrome, Sarcoidosis, Paraneoplastic syndromes, neuromyelitis optica (Devic's syndrome), HIV-associated myelopathy, Adrenomyeloneuropathy, other Myelopathy, Spinocerebellar syndromes, Hereditary Spastic Paraparesis, Guillian Barre Syndrome, Polymyositis, Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo, Parkinson's Disease, Cerebral Haemorrhage, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Mononeuritis, Huntington's Disease, Post-Infectious Encephalitis, Arteriovenous Malformations, Arachnoid Cysts, Arnold-Chiari Malformations, Cervical Spondylosis (these I found in the literature), etc. Some of the things I don’t even know what they are.
What a neurologist needs to do is listen to your medical and family history. If someone in your family suffered from MS, it is more likely that you could too. After listening to this, you should tell all about your symptoms.
Then they should perform neurological exams like your reflexes, stickyou with pins, tickle the bottom of your feet, test the senses with tuning forks.
They will then ask the patient to describe their current symptoms. The patient's description of his/her symptoms is an important indicator.
A person is never diagnosed with definite MS at early testing stages. They will be diagnosed with possible MS. Then there should come MRI scans, spinal taps, etc
To diagnose MS, a person must go through at least two episodes of symptoms and must be found two lesions sites in CNS.
I know this doesn’t sound too encouraging for you but you must be persistent and claim your right to know what is going on with you.
Have you been suggested treatment options? |
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