New and undiagnosed Intro

[sherimom]

Hello!
I've been lurking around here the last week or so, hoping to find answers.  
I'll try to make this the Reader's Digest (short) version. I"m 45 and have had odd little symptoms of things for years. I was dx'd with Fibro in 1998, after a car accident, which was awful for about 4 years, then slowly seemed to go away. I have had some aches and pains, my hands, wrists, arms, and neck mostly, but attributed them to fleeting fibro symptoms.


Over the years my hand tremors have gotten worse (my mother had been dx'd with essential tremors and eventually beta blockers helped). They are worse when I am stressed or upset, and when I am trying to hold something like a plate or cup. This comes and goes. I have had a numb spot in my leg for years now, and previous doctors just dismissed it.  

Over the last few weeks, I have had problems, off and on, with my vision. It blurs, not necessarily double vision, just off...sometimes like things aren't as crisp as they should be. Saw the eye doc who checked it and sees no major issues in the eye itself. Went to the doc with tingling and numbness in both hands and pain in the right, sore neck etc....

He sent me for an evoked potential and that doc said that my knee reflexes are hyperactive, mild carpal tunnel in left hand, and I'm not sure about the right, except that he did not find any carpal tunnel. He said they should check for demyleinating diseases and for Chiari as my son had Chiari decompression last year. I feel pretty sure it isn't chiari, I think it would have been seen before now.  

So, off to get MRI of head and CSpine, with and without contrast. Here I sit, impatiently waiting for results. I tried to be slick and get the report from the lab but I haven't seen the doc yet....I got busted LOL.  It was worth a try. I hope to know tomorrow.

Of the symptoms, for some reason I find myself most concerned about the knee reflexes because I don't think that can be explained by fibro or even spinal stenosis. My family refers to me as "MD Wannabe" I know enough to be troublesome I guess. I"m making light of it so I can try to laugh instead of cry and worry.

It felt good to write this out though.  I'm also on the Chiari board for my son's issues and that was a tremendous help so I thought I'd try here for me.

Thanks for listening (aren't you glad I didn't post the LONG version :-)  )

Sherri

[sherimom]

Saw my doc today. Said that the report shows there are no leisions or anything else going on. He now thinks it is stress or my fibro acting up - I suppose that's possible. I'm glad there are no major things, but I still wonder a bit. I forgot to get copy of report and I usually am pretty good about that. Oh well. He started me on Lyrica so we'll see if that helps.

They all kind of blew off the knee reflex thing. I suppose if it were to get worse, I wold have another opinion or something. For now, I will take door number two, lol.  

Thank you for the support while I was waiting....I'll still be checking in though....

[Wobbly]

Hi there...Welcome to the forum and I hope you get some answers soon.  Have you seen the Neuro for results?  or do you have to wait awhile..

hang in there...it's not fun waiting and searching for answers
take care
wobbly
dx

[Lulu54]

Greetings, Sherri.  Welcome to the MS forum here- you will soon find out that this is a very smart, compassionate community and you've found a good place to "wait."

I had to laugh about the *MD wannabe* because my husband swears I could go back to school and work on a degree in medicine myself.  We have way too many books and I spend too much time doing research and trying to learn more.  Unfortunately, none of it sticks in my memory and I find myself reading the same things over and over.

There aren't many things that explain hyper-reflexes in the knees besides spinal lesions, from what I am remembering.  That is a good clue to the doctors that there is something more serious going on.

I have to admit I know little about Chiari, but will try to find out more when I have some time.  

Hopefully your neuro will have some definite information to share with you today - please come back and let us know how it goes and if you have more questions than answers.  

Welcome again,
Lulu