Getting the APPROPRIATE Help with the Appropriate Physician
If anyone shares my suggestions of similarity, RUN, DO NOT WALK, to your nearest MS specialist. Don't think for a minute that a neurologist (general) is the 'end-all' in the ability to diagnosis such a mysterious disease. With all the intricate and elaborate tests, the MS specialist will be your 'shortcut' to ruling out this disease.
As young as 19, my body was on the MS track, tingling, blurred vision, balance problems, a two-week bout of meningitis, all signs of other conditions that are SIMILAR but not necessarily MS. I was referred to a rheumatologist. After a discussion on symptoms, he prescribed anti-depressants (for bedtime only), convincing me that the death of my mother was causing me to 'not sleep' deeply enough and that fibromyalgia was his diagnosis.
I spent year in various specialists' offices. I was fatigued all too often by someone my age. I had tingling on the left side of my face, running down to my arm. This was easily explained by offering that perhaps I had a congenital defect in the nerves in my back. I weighed a lot, so the verdict to ANY problem was due to my obesity.
I had a gastric bypass, shedding 150 pounds. Still, I suffered from balance problems, blurred vision, tingly hands and feet. With each little bout, somehow the symptoms came and went as mysteriously as they had arrived.
One day, after moving from Virginia to Washington state, my gastro doctor was treating me for an ulcer. During the discussion, I mentioned how odd it was that I could make my left cheek tingle to my knees just by lowering my head. He sent me to the doctor who became my MS savior.
He put me through the following before the final diagnosis was made. This doctor was extremely conservative in his approach. I had an MRI, showing the plaque in my brain, quite a lot, signifying that I had probably had MS for some years.
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