How do I bring up possibility of multiple sclerosis to my doctor?

[smarie18]

I've been trying to find the source of my symptoms for a few months now. I've been dealing with pain for a few years. I thought I had a pinched nerve in my neck that affected my shoulder. I remember getting this painful shock fealing when I would turn my neck, now I have symptoms of a pinched nerve. I also have fatigue, my vision is getting worse, my eye sockets are painful, especially when I move my eyes, my memory is getting bad, I pause a lot when I'm trying to talk, weakness in my arms, legs, and hands, joint pain, dizziness, headaches, I even have been suddenly peeing more, but no uti or other infection there. Other symptoms here and there as well.
I DID recently have an xray as well as an mri of my neck [only], and while there's some mild arthritis in my neck, my spinal cord has no pinching where my pinched nerve symptoms point to, nothing severe enough to explain my pain and other symptoms. I've had testing for RA, and that's negative.
My doctor wants to assume it's anxiety, but I don't believe that's what it is. She doesn't even seem to acknowledge MS (I haven't mentioned it). I do have mild vitamin D deficiency, but even then, I don't know.
I don't know how to go about asking her about MS, or who to see for an MRI to find out. I have been in pain and dealing with some of my other symptoms on and off for a few years, then suddenly earlier this year my health took a huge nose dive. I have periods where I feel fine, then it takes a dip again.
I just want to know what's going on so I can feel better. I'm miserable, I always feel confused. I'm exhausted.
Any advice is appreciated!!

[supermum_ms]

Hi and welcome,

It's never actually a good idea to say to any dr that 'you' think you might have MS, straight out of the gate the dr knows you're self diagnosing and googling symptoms, both are common behavioral red flags for mental health conditions like health anxiety, conversion disorder etc and if your dr is already of the mind set that some/most of your symptoms are due to anxiety, bringing up your MS concerns will honestly not be taken seriously, it's definitely unfair but a common outcome.

There isn't anything that you have mentioned experiencing that is particularly suggestive of a neurological causation but it might be worth requesting a physio consult for the diagnosed "arthritis" in your neck......if you are trying to be proactive and learn the basic stretching and strength exercises that you can do at home to keep it within the 'mild' stage, your dr is more likely to see the long term benefits for you to do that.

Physio therapists will usually do a basic neurological assessment on their clients to establish which level of function there is and it may or may not pin point some other issues that are not associated with an arthritic neck, you can always mention you experience "weakness in my arms, legs, and hands, joint pain" and get their professional opinion on if there is a potential neurological explanation and need to see a neurologist, the physio report will be beneficial to what could be causing these issues.

The other thought would be getting the health of your vision fully assessed, there might be something abnormal show up but keep in mind that even if something is abnormal, it still might not have any association with neurological conditions like MS. Three potential outcomes will come out of a visual assessment 1- if there are signs of optic neuritis, nystagmus etc you will need a referral to see a neurologist or neuro-opthalmologist. 2- if the health of your vision is normal it opens the door to the eye related symptoms being migraine related so you can request a consult with a neurologist for treatment 3 - you know exactly what is or isn't wrong with the health of your eyes.

Hope that helps..........JJ