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?
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?
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?
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?
It really sounds like to me that you might have Lyme's diease. My step-father has been through a similar situation with mis-diagnosises and neurologists seeming to ignore him about his symptoms. Many doctors refuse to diagnosis you with Lymes based on the CDC telling them not to, and blood testing comes up negative many times because the pathogen might not be present in the portion of the blood that is drawn. The Western- Blot- Test is the only test that comes out positive if you have Lymes diease. But finding a doctor to give you this test is almost impossible. Treatment is not covered by insurance and costs up to $50,000. Lymes diease is debilitating and deadly if left untreated. Im currently attending school for nursing and have experience with my step-father having this. So my words of advice are to research and fight for your rights to find a doctor and testing that will indefinitely determine if this what you have. Keep in mind many physicians will deny that it is even a possiblity due the CDC. So, good luck and God bless!!
Several neurologists have given me so many different diagnoses - some epileptic & some definitely not. No one seems to agree except that they don't know what the cause is. After 18 years & several ineffective medications (Lamictal, Dilantin, Keppra, Depakote, Neurontin), switching to an organic, vegetarian diet has been the ONLY thing to terminate my seizures. My seizures began in 1993, the same year the FDA began approving the usage of man-made hormones & pesticides in our food. I decided that if changing my diet had no affect, I would just go to McDonald's. I haven't been there since 2010. It was definitely worth a try.