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MS or something else?
Hi - my girlfriend Elizabeth (29 years old) has experienced a massive neurological attack over the last month, and I'm trying to help her with sorting out what exactly is going on. She is in a hospital rehabilitation facility in California at this point, and is being seen by neurologists, but they still are not 100% sure on the diagnosis. The most likely indication at this point appears to be MS. My purpose in raising this post in this forum is to question the broader medical community on any other diseases that could be causing her symptoms, and to get a better personal understanding for myself. Here are the facts we know:
- Elizabeth started experiencing vertigo and dizziness about 3 months ago. These were her initial symptoms, along with fatigue.
- About 6 weeks ago, she started experiencing numbness in her hands and feet. These symptoms progressed to cover all of her arms and legs, and after only 2 weeks (4 weeks ago) she was experiencing complete numbness across her limbs. She still retained the ability to experience pressure, hot and cold; just the light touch nerves seemed impacted. By the end of the 2 week onset of symptoms, she was unable to walk or even stand up with any weight on her feet; her hands lost most ability to grasp, even to the point of holding eating utensils.
- About 4 weeks ago, she started getting severe pain in her arms and legs. This included clenching in the hands, and cramping in the legs. She described the worst pains as being in the hip joint, hands and feet. The pain is not exclusive to her arms/legs, and she describes it as spreading across her whole body.
- Although she is still able to move her hands and feet, the numbness has also brought a difficulty in her basic motor functions.
- Throughout the pain and cramping, she has complained about a feeling that she describes as 'being like her bones and muscles were shrinking/tightening, and were getting constricted in her body.
- Headaches and migraines have been off and on for her. Chest pain has also been a fairly constant occurrence happening once every day or two.
Here is what I know of from the medical tests done to date:
- MRI: They have detected a 'shadow' around vertebra C2 through C7, although it is indeterminate as to what this represents.
- Spinal tap: Three have been done at this point, not sure if they found anything conclusive.
- Herpes: Test came up negative.
- Lyme disease: this has been ruled out based on their testing.
- MS: This remains the leading theory with our doctors. She does have a distant relative (grandfather's brother) that had the disease.
The current direction is that this is MS, but I'm curious if anyone has any other theories around what other diseases could cause such extreme symptoms. Thanks in advance for any comments or contributions.
Regards,
Pavan
- Elizabeth started experiencing vertigo and dizziness about 3 months ago. These were her initial symptoms, along with fatigue.
- About 6 weeks ago, she started experiencing numbness in her hands and feet. These symptoms progressed to cover all of her arms and legs, and after only 2 weeks (4 weeks ago) she was experiencing complete numbness across her limbs. She still retained the ability to experience pressure, hot and cold; just the light touch nerves seemed impacted. By the end of the 2 week onset of symptoms, she was unable to walk or even stand up with any weight on her feet; her hands lost most ability to grasp, even to the point of holding eating utensils.
- About 4 weeks ago, she started getting severe pain in her arms and legs. This included clenching in the hands, and cramping in the legs. She described the worst pains as being in the hip joint, hands and feet. The pain is not exclusive to her arms/legs, and she describes it as spreading across her whole body.
- Although she is still able to move her hands and feet, the numbness has also brought a difficulty in her basic motor functions.
- Throughout the pain and cramping, she has complained about a feeling that she describes as 'being like her bones and muscles were shrinking/tightening, and were getting constricted in her body.
- Headaches and migraines have been off and on for her. Chest pain has also been a fairly constant occurrence happening once every day or two.
Here is what I know of from the medical tests done to date:
- MRI: They have detected a 'shadow' around vertebra C2 through C7, although it is indeterminate as to what this represents.
- Spinal tap: Three have been done at this point, not sure if they found anything conclusive.
- Herpes: Test came up negative.
- Lyme disease: this has been ruled out based on their testing.
- MS: This remains the leading theory with our doctors. She does have a distant relative (grandfather's brother) that had the disease.
The current direction is that this is MS, but I'm curious if anyone has any other theories around what other diseases could cause such extreme symptoms. Thanks in advance for any comments or contributions.
Regards,
Pavan
My daughter had some unexplained neurological symptoms some 12 years ago. I discovered from that journey that MS is a diagnosis when all else fails. I think my daughter actually had lyme's disease and the tests were so error prone that it didn't show up. We ended up treating her with a 2 week course of IV antibiotics (I don't remember which one anymore) and her symptoms mysteriously went away. She did have a lesion in her cerebellum that was biopsied and nothing ever showed up. Have they done the western blot test for Lymes? Things may be different now but I'd investigate the Lyme's diagnosis and check into the success rate of those tests. They wouldn't treat her until they had ruled out all other bacterial and fungal infections. I was ready to get that antibiotic in her since I felt like there was no harm in giving it to her.
It is generally considered malpractice to remove all mercury fillings and believed that it can make the situation worse by messing with them. Although there is no doubt that some people have problems with them, I'd just suggest a cautionary approach. There is also root canal filing materials that contain formaldehyde lead and mercury that are also considered toxic. There are documented cases of anaphylactic shock from the formaldehyde so that does indicate that materials put into a porous tooth do not just stay there.
It is generally considered malpractice to remove all mercury fillings and believed that it can make the situation worse by messing with them. Although there is no doubt that some people have problems with them, I'd just suggest a cautionary approach. There is also root canal filing materials that contain formaldehyde lead and mercury that are also considered toxic. There are documented cases of anaphylactic shock from the formaldehyde so that does indicate that materials put into a porous tooth do not just stay there.
MS can be genetic, as suggested by her relative having it, and also it can come on quite suddenly like it did for her, and MS can include all the symptoms she's having. The "shadow" on her MRI report is equivalent to "lesion." Having lesions on the spinal cord is one of the indicators of MS. Another couple indicators are an abnormal spinal tap that shows antibodies in the fluid, and also positive results specific to MS from regular labwork. A third indicator is a troublesome "evoked potential" or EP type test, where they attach wires to parts of the body and see how they react to volts of electricity. There are other tests, as well, and sometimes MS people can have a positive test on all, and sometimes not, so diagnosis can be tricky.
You asked what else she might have. Sometimes MS can instead be dozens other diseases, to include these more common ones to rule out of Guillain-Barr, Sjogren's, stroke, diabetes, types of myelitis and encephalitis and ataxia, anemia and B12 deficiency. I might personally add that numbness, which seems to be an important feature of her health picture along with her chest pain, can be caused by circulatory disorders.
But in any case, there are many medicines for MS that a particular cocktail can greatly help people feel a lot better, and also a feature of MS is sometimes it will go into temporary remission, which is good. I've personally known people who have MS and they work, so not all is necessarily lost by any means. MS can cause emotional difficulties at times, especially since it usually hits between the ages of 20 and 40, the prime of a person's life, and this is not what we expect. So, it takes some time to grieve over the loss of health, to accept the situation, and to see oneself as a perfectly okay person who just has a tough disease. It will help her if you will tune into her emotions, recognize and sympathize with her woes, and when she's ready, cheer her and come up with positive solutions to the various health problems she may have.
If she winds up with a firm diagnosis of MS, then here is a comprehensive government link about the disease, but will take some time to sift through:
www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/multiple_sclerosis/detail_multiple_sclerosis.htm
You asked what else she might have. Sometimes MS can instead be dozens other diseases, to include these more common ones to rule out of Guillain-Barr, Sjogren's, stroke, diabetes, types of myelitis and encephalitis and ataxia, anemia and B12 deficiency. I might personally add that numbness, which seems to be an important feature of her health picture along with her chest pain, can be caused by circulatory disorders.
But in any case, there are many medicines for MS that a particular cocktail can greatly help people feel a lot better, and also a feature of MS is sometimes it will go into temporary remission, which is good. I've personally known people who have MS and they work, so not all is necessarily lost by any means. MS can cause emotional difficulties at times, especially since it usually hits between the ages of 20 and 40, the prime of a person's life, and this is not what we expect. So, it takes some time to grieve over the loss of health, to accept the situation, and to see oneself as a perfectly okay person who just has a tough disease. It will help her if you will tune into her emotions, recognize and sympathize with her woes, and when she's ready, cheer her and come up with positive solutions to the various health problems she may have.
If she winds up with a firm diagnosis of MS, then here is a comprehensive government link about the disease, but will take some time to sift through:
www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/multiple_sclerosis/detail_multiple_sclerosis.htm
Do you have any amalgam fillings in your mouth, or did you have your amalgam fillings removed lately? If yes, then I would suspect this being the cause, as amalgam fillings consist of 50% mercury, and an alloy of lead, copper and titanium - all extremely dangerous materials. I had my mouth full of amalgam fillings and developed a myriad of symptoms out of nowhere, to the point where I came down with paralysis and chronic fatique, and practically nothing was functioning in my body after 3-4 years.
Having your fillings exchanged for white fillings puts an extra load of mercury and toxic substances on your system, which can be enough to provoke symptoms like the ones you are mentioning, and is considered responsible for ALS, dementia and MS.
Another place to look would be your teeth, especially if you had a new dental crown lately, which is composed of incompatible dental materials, or if you have old root canals or wisdom teeth extracted, which can set up infections in other parts of your body. Contact Clifford Consulting & Research, Inc., CO for material reactivity testing of your dental materials at (719) 550-0008 and consult Dr. Robert Evans at Groton Dental Wellness Spa for checking on problems from your teeth. Robert Evans is a very advanced holistic dentist, and he saved my life. I had oral surgery carried out in a number of affected areas in my jaw, which revealed a blot clot. I got my life back after clearing the mercury toxicity from my amalgam fillings with DMPS-treatments, restoring my mouth with white fillings according to a protocol, and removing the blood clot. It was a 5-year process to survive this, and the first 4 years I was not sure if I would live or die.
However, contact a specialist before doing this, as it is dangerous to remove your amalgam fillings all at once, as it adds a further load of toxicity to your body. Ask more questions, if you need to. I am a survivor, whereas most people die of mercury toxicity. What saved me was that I read somewhere that if you can actually cope with the resulting diseases, such as cancers, ALS, etc. etc. until your mercury level has decreased to a point where your immune system can start to function by itself again, you will survive. I survived through multiple cancers, a malignant tumor, blood clot etc. and finally got restored, except for chronic trigeminal neuralgia,
If you have not yet suspected your teeth as the cause, I would suggest to look here. Read Hulda Clark's Book "The Cure for all Diseases", but only the part where she speaks about the dental clean-up (look in the index for that and read that part first). It will tell you everything about dental clean-up, and is also a good book in all other respects. It will talk about ALS as well.
I wish you the best of luck - and should you require further information, feel free to ask.
Kind regards,
Edith
Having your fillings exchanged for white fillings puts an extra load of mercury and toxic substances on your system, which can be enough to provoke symptoms like the ones you are mentioning, and is considered responsible for ALS, dementia and MS.
Another place to look would be your teeth, especially if you had a new dental crown lately, which is composed of incompatible dental materials, or if you have old root canals or wisdom teeth extracted, which can set up infections in other parts of your body. Contact Clifford Consulting & Research, Inc., CO for material reactivity testing of your dental materials at (719) 550-0008 and consult Dr. Robert Evans at Groton Dental Wellness Spa for checking on problems from your teeth. Robert Evans is a very advanced holistic dentist, and he saved my life. I had oral surgery carried out in a number of affected areas in my jaw, which revealed a blot clot. I got my life back after clearing the mercury toxicity from my amalgam fillings with DMPS-treatments, restoring my mouth with white fillings according to a protocol, and removing the blood clot. It was a 5-year process to survive this, and the first 4 years I was not sure if I would live or die.
However, contact a specialist before doing this, as it is dangerous to remove your amalgam fillings all at once, as it adds a further load of toxicity to your body. Ask more questions, if you need to. I am a survivor, whereas most people die of mercury toxicity. What saved me was that I read somewhere that if you can actually cope with the resulting diseases, such as cancers, ALS, etc. etc. until your mercury level has decreased to a point where your immune system can start to function by itself again, you will survive. I survived through multiple cancers, a malignant tumor, blood clot etc. and finally got restored, except for chronic trigeminal neuralgia,
If you have not yet suspected your teeth as the cause, I would suggest to look here. Read Hulda Clark's Book "The Cure for all Diseases", but only the part where she speaks about the dental clean-up (look in the index for that and read that part first). It will tell you everything about dental clean-up, and is also a good book in all other respects. It will talk about ALS as well.
I wish you the best of luck - and should you require further information, feel free to ask.
Kind regards,
Edith
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