MS or something else?

[tangwen]

Hi. For awhile now I have been waking in the morning with my hands feeling weird...tingly, swollen and weak. I have had a lot of hip, lower back, mid back and shoulder/neck pain for years so I was pursuing a dx around some kind of arthritis...had an xray that was fine. I also have a numb spot on my left big toe that has been there for 20 years, a patch of numbness in the center of my back has been there maybe 10 years, and last year I also had a weird episode where my gums went numb, but feeling mostly came back...there is only a small permanent numb spot on one side now. Then around the beginning of March I started waking up with tingling on the inside of my thighs that seemed more noticeable when I lay on one side. It started happening other times as well and progressed over several weeks to numbness/paresthesia of my entire saddle region all the time. I also have some incontinence and became worried about cauda equina syndrome so took myself to the hospital...they did a ct then an mri of my lower spine and both came back normal. Had a Neuro exam with a neurologist that was also fine. Also sometimes numbness in my feet when I wake. The numbness in my saddle region did begin to abate about 6 weeks after it started. I started seeing an acupuncturist and he placed needles with electrodes attached in the numb areas of my inner thighs and it did seem to bring more feeling back. Currently have much of the sensation back but not all. Now waiting to get another MRI of my brain/upper spine that the neuro and my doctor say is just a precaution...but I do suffer from anxiety sometimes, so I don't know if they are downplaying the possibility of ms. What do you think? Do my symptoms sound like ms? I have another 6 months or so to wait for my mri...and the waiting is what is making me anxious.

[supermum_ms]

Hi and welcome,

It doesn't sounds very MSish to me, suggestive of something going on but what i'd only be guessing, sorry i couldn't be of more help....JJ