MS Symptoms ??

Hello there

Well I thought that I would do the next few posts on how I started being ill, my varied symptoms and my journey to diagnosis and dealing with the daily issues and the psychological ramifications of having a chronic problem...a chronic problem that not many people have heard of!!

Well, back in July 2007 I had a bout of dreadful back pain. Back pain isn't something new to me, I prolapsed a disc when I was 21 putting a chicken in the oven and have had a "bad back" ever since. This period of back pain was the usual problems, but I was also absolutely tired to the point of falling asleep and having no energy to do anything. I had blinding headaches most of the time and I was getting numbness, pins and needles and pain in my arm joints and muscles as well as my legs (usual when I get sciatica). I was so racked with pain that it was keeping me awake in the night as I was worried what on earth was wrong with me, then I was falling asleep at other times as I was sooooo tired...I tried to go into work but I couldn't - just couldn't stand sitting in an office chair and all my other symptoms were driving me mad!! I had weakness on my right side, even in my right arm, the GP was perplexed as the damaged nerve in my back shouldn't affect my arm??? He referred me back to the orthopaedic guys at the hospital and I had to wait the usual time to see them and get referred for an MRi, then get that reviewed...all this took about 8 weeks...in the meantime I was a wreck!! I could not understand what all these other symptoms were about?? The summer was awful, I couldn't stand getting hot and kept in the shade most of the time, I was sweating all the time and ached all the time... Because I wasn't in the sun, if I did go in it..my skin burned like mad!??? It got to October and I was no further forward...I had a nerve root injection in my back to see if I needed another discectomy (previously had 2 done in 1993 and 2003). The nerve block didn't help my pain, so the surgeon told me that there was nothing he could do and referred me to pain clinic???? I was so worried and distraught that I couldn't stay in this amount of pain ongoing??? My GP referred me to a neurologist, again, back in the referral waiting game, it was January before an appointment with them came through....all the time I was in daily pain, all the time I didn't know what was wrong with me...my GP suspected Multiple Sclerosis at this point.... my bladder was weak, my right leg kept going from beneath me and I was getting pins and needles all over in sporadic episodes??? I felt dizzy at times and I was struggling to always find the words that I wanted...my 7 year old was finishing my sentences for me???? I was so scared and all the time I felt so ill... I spoke to a girl at work who suggested Lupus as a diagnosis, based on her Mum having it and it taking years for her to get her diagnosis??? I headed for the internet in search of some answers as I had never heard of lupus before???......

Christmas 2007 was spent on the laptop researching..then eureka!!! I had it!!!!

Thanks for reading..

Wendy