case study not question...ha ha

[samantha051867]

I am a May baby.  I have been in the orthopedic medical field for 20 years and I don't know what came first the chicken or the egg.  I am 41 and my mother just died at 58 she was a severe alcoholic and I believe now due to bipolar or major depression of note was a great artis...lousy mother (she died last may, also a May baby).  I was a little taken aback by the May comment...I am currently undiagnosed..but suspecting ms.  We know my mother suffered from depression and so do I.  I had a grand ole time on Prozac for 10 years..  I think it made me manic or possibly happen manic...I always had irritability.  Anyway, I have been out of work for 18 months with severe non-responsive now DX Biploar I mixed.  My most disabiling factor was severe fatigue...I could sleep 20 hours a day.  I took lamigtal (sp) for 8 days only in May 2008 and have had a downhill course.  They thought I had Steven Johnson Syndrome...I still have the rashes.   prior to that my doctor put me on adderall for fatigue and that helps ok.  I have to take weekly breaks because my body just wants to sleep.  I have had concurrent since may, 6 trips to e.r. dx uti's and sinus and ear infection, as well as eye discharge and some pain.  I haven't gotten to PTP because I have been so sick.  Of late depression seems to have lifted some finally never had this long an episode and then recent onset of numbness and tingling in fingers and toes and over two days became numbness and migranting twinges all over body mostly upper and lower extremities, but some abdominal. Go to E.R....btw our medical system is broken...six prescriptions of cipro and not even a thought of an ultrasound or something to check kidney's (mostly blood in urine, sometimes protein, and hyaline casts and some other casts)  Being on the other side of the fense ***** and I am glad I helped so many patient's with their issues...unfortunately...I am rare.  Ok now just occasionaly muscle twinges and numbness in feet and then severe headach with stiffness of first left than right side of neck.  Start to get better within a couple of days of the parasisias...Then ear infection and sinus pain (had swollen turbinates and polyps in nose since May med reaction.) So I decide to take antibiotics and then second day into cipro..I get numbness in feet, a few involuntary movements in legs and arms and worsens to severe pinching cramping biceps, triceps, hand, fingers, calves, anterior and posterior thighs...read medication reaction and could cause this symptoms went to E.R. they didn't think so but switch meds to be more upper respitory because of swelling in nose and fluid in ear.  She say's you want to stick around for blood and urine...I said nope..already know what it shows and your bandaides do nothing and quite frankly are irresponsible to put a patient on Cipro six times in a row without doing any DX testing and luckily I a smart enough to know better not to take them....most blood work shows slightly elevated WBC but last time normal, I h ave no painful burning urination, I do have frequency, hesitation and urgency without results.  But that has been for several years.  To further complicate matters, I have a disc herniation at I believe C6-7 that touches the cord and exiting nerve roots as well as instability of C4 on 5, and a T7-8 some say HNP some say not but get rib radiation.  Oh after first incident of numbness got severe left sided rib radiating pain that went away in a day or so.  Most spinal pathology is on the left, I have a thoracic left scoliosis and lumbar compensatory right scoliosis with degerenation and facet scelrosis.  With my depression I have had terrible memory problems.  OK I know I need work up, neurologist...but just a few questions maybe you can answer...I'm not happy with possible MS after all I have been through...I know who is...second to last E.R. visit suggested MS an ordered an MRI of the brain...

Speculating only, do you think the depression issues came first or were they onset of MS? The fatigue for months unrelenting 18 months prior to any MS symptoms...Haven't even had radicular symptoms before although pathogy would suggest I would (doctor said I would be back for neck surgery and no one should every have thoracic surgery due to risks) Do you think the medication reaction to Lamigital caused an immune response that could have activated the MS? Do my symptoms sound more MS like or something else or radicular...I get the twitches and spasms and on both sides 10-1 left-sided spinal pathology mostly left-sided. I have either right or left wrist pain never at the same time and mostly left hand fingers ache.  Of note, for some reason I cannot toloerate SSNR'I and SSRI's don't work.  I suspect that I am not tolerating adderall well either because still have pinprick rash, sinus red swelling and hands get red at night upon taken Adderall earlier in the day...but I can not fuction without it.  I tried the amazaing Provigil...bought one pill and slept the entire day...so whatever those people have...thats one thing I don't.  

The common denominator with the SSNRI'S, Adderall and Lamigtal is they increase noripherine or have an effect on such....I know I can not be allergic to it because my body produces it but maybe something it is mixed with or sets off an immune response. Of note mostly WBC is slightly elevated and when had bad reaction in May it WBC count dropped significantly...psychiatrist says indicitive of immune response.  

I also have symptoms consistent with SLE following lamigtal which is one side effect that is suppose to go away but has not..  

So what do you think came first the chicken or the egg...I am worked very closly with physician's and soak things up like a sponge.  Any guess is purely speculative on know and the only thing that would bother me at this point would be ALS but I did have a week inbetween and currently symptoms not too bad...so I think that can be ruled out.  

Is there any correlation between HPN's, DDD with the onset of MS. BTW rearended four times in my life thats where all the spinal symptoms come from (that is a chicken and an egg also case, pathology could have been there which became symptomatic due to the impact of the accidents..i'm sure you know)    

Just looking for medical probabilities not specific answers....really I wonder if I should get off the adderall which wouldn't be hard except for the fact I can't function and I have children to run to school and cook for...being in a coma is not good for them.

Also, I was copying some medical records...and found I tested postive when I was 18 for ANA but they found strep positive also...so may not mean much.  RA was negative...havent had any of these tests yet.. I have a long family history I depression and possibly mood swings, my mother, my mother's father, and my mother's father's mother...so was just treating with the psychiatrist...not one to go to the doctors and yikes look at all this **** I have to work out.  

I also get floaters in the right eye mostly look black dot with a string some light spots rarely and ringing in the ears rarely.

Thank you in advance for any speculative opinions,

Samantha

[Deb61]

Have you had any other ANA tests since the one you tested positive for?  The rashes, bring up whether or not you may have lupus.  The Steven Johnson Syndrome thing is rare.  How did this come about?   Why was lupus not considered?  Blood and sometimes protein may be another indicator of this.  Depression does go along with many chronic diseases, like lupus.  

I haven't a clue if this is MS--there's no way to really know this based on your symptoms.  The symptoms that you have can be present in many other problems and diseases.  

As suggested by Shelly, I'd read the Health Pages on this forum.  I'd especially pay attention to the mimics of MS.  The spinal cord injuries do complicate things.  This could cause problems such as numbness and tingling,  Plus you mentioned something in another post about brittle hair.  Hypothyroidism may cause many of the neurological symptoms you mentioned.  

Best wishes,
Deb

[samantha051867]

Shelly

Thank you for the welcome.  yes, I know the in"s and out's of depression all too well.  My main doctor thus far was a psychiatrist who has requested me to see several doctor's but changes his mind wihen my symptoms change constantly since the medication reaction...

My MRI's were taken about two years ago and I have the films...there are some white round dots on my vertebrae's in both my cervical and mostly thoracic spine, however, don't they have to show on your spinal cord? Yes the MRI of the cervical spine showed it was touching the cord...it was a flexion and extension type of MRI scan.  They take pictures in different positions, your sitting upright.  

The physician that ordered the MRI's was an orthopaedic surgeon due to my symptoms that occurred secondary to getting rear-ended for the fourth time.. This time just stopped at a light driving to a metrolink station to take me home when a young girl on a cell phone rammed into the back of me, cause significant damage to the back and front end's of my car as my car was thrown into the car in front of me (although I was stopped and so was the car in front of me).  

I got all kinds of therapy and acupunture also (the aucpuntrist spent four hours working on me and she said my entire system was a mess..two years ago).  I got used to the neck and back pain and only had minor extremity pain...until recently.  

Thanks for the welcome,  

Samantha

[sllowe]

Welcome, Samantha.

Boy, this is some case...lol.  No, seriously, I am glad to hear you are seeing a Dr. and I hope it's one that will sort this out.  We'll be here w/you along the way.  As you do know, depression is very serious, and important to treat.  Your spirts seem well, despite so much unknown going on.  Is this Dr. a Neuro? What type of work up has the Dr started, or has he not mentioned?

When was that batch of MRIs studies completed that said your HNP was touching the cord? What Dr. ordered it? Have you noticed any relief? Did you get therapy for it, etc?

Sorry for all the questions, but it will take a bit for us to sort this through.  In the meantime, check out our health pages ref. MS.  You'll find good info there to get you started.

See you around soon,
Shelly