MrH
18-02-15, 08:45
Hi all, this is a bit of a rambly post, but I just want to thank this forum for "talking me down" over the last few weeks.
Just after Xmas, I started getting a weird numbness in my face, as if I'd just had an anaesthetic at the dentist. This was soon followed by tingling in my right hand. A few days after that, I began to spend the evenings with an intense burning feeling in my ankles, calves and thighs, and sometimes in my lower back and buttocks.
Like an idiot I went to Google before the Doctor's, and yep, you guessed it, stumbled very quickly on MS. This fear was heightened by the fact I spent about an hour one morning with double vision.
I went to the GP and had some blood tests, and the symptoms subsided a bit while I persuaded myself it would just turn out to be some deficiency, or something thyroidy. However the blood came back clear and the doctor referred me to a neurologist. Even though MS was never mentioned, I became convinced that the doctor was referring me because he thought I had MS. After this the symptoms came back strong, and I spent a few miserable weeks in a state of panic.
Some time during my panicked Googling I stumbled on this site. I've suspected I've had anxiety for a while - I've had palpitations on and off for about a year, and late last year had a trip to A&E with chest pains, which after every test under the sun turned up nothing sinister, and now just happen occasionally and I don't even think about bar the discomfort. I've also had IBS symptoms for about 15 years, which I've never really worried about bar the inconvenience and annoyance.
But back to this story, the first thing I saw on this forum is that MS fear from random neurological symptoms is so common it's something of a first time poster cliche. And I learnt stuff that the "here are the symptoms of MS in handy bullet points" sites don't show. If it comes and goes throughout the body, it's unlikely to be MS, for example. MS wouldn't wonk out my eyesight for a short period of time, it would go completely and not come back for a while (far more likely my astigmatism was temporarily knackered from squinting at a video on a mobile phone in the dark...).
Over the last couple of days my legs have started aching loads, and my calf muscles are twitching like there's snakes under them (something I've noticed before to a lesser degree in the past and never really worried about). If it wasn't for this site I'd never have come across Benign Fasciculation Syndrome, which seems much more common and fits my symptoms much better than anything nasty, and is also a manifestation of anxiety. If I hadn't found this, I would have been listening to the sites that say twitching is a symptom of MS, or even worse getting MND in my head. The site has also made me realise the "muscle weakness" of symptom lists doesn't mean aching or getting tired, but I'd be stumbling and unable to use my legs properly. I went to the gym for the first time in five months this week, and by my usual unfit standards did fine.
So I have my neurology appointment on Monday, and I'm still apprehensive and have occasional wobbles - I'm not a doctor, and I don't know for sure there's nothing serious wrong. But this site has made me realise there is a much bigger chance of being fine. I know some people are terrified of their neurology appointment, but I'm actually looking forward to it, which I think shows deep down I know I'm probably OK.
For those having health anxiety, please spend hours poring over this forum, rather than anywhere else on Google. And I'll end on something to keep in mind, which seems like a tangent, but hopefully makes sense...
I'm a birder, and very often people will come to you saying they've seen a very rare bird indeed. They've seen something they don't recognise, put its features into Google, and come up with something that's almost comically unlikely - if not impossible - to find in this country. When pushed, it usually turns out they've seen something relatively common that they're just not familiar with, but they haven't got the knowledge to rule out the more likely options, or the skill to interpret the features they're seeing.
My point being that's exactly what we're doing by Googling our health, except diagnosing neurology is a million times harder than IDing garden birds!
So I'll post again when I've been to the neurologist, but thanks to this forum again for making me think a bit more rationally.
Just after Xmas, I started getting a weird numbness in my face, as if I'd just had an anaesthetic at the dentist. This was soon followed by tingling in my right hand. A few days after that, I began to spend the evenings with an intense burning feeling in my ankles, calves and thighs, and sometimes in my lower back and buttocks.
Like an idiot I went to Google before the Doctor's, and yep, you guessed it, stumbled very quickly on MS. This fear was heightened by the fact I spent about an hour one morning with double vision.
I went to the GP and had some blood tests, and the symptoms subsided a bit while I persuaded myself it would just turn out to be some deficiency, or something thyroidy. However the blood came back clear and the doctor referred me to a neurologist. Even though MS was never mentioned, I became convinced that the doctor was referring me because he thought I had MS. After this the symptoms came back strong, and I spent a few miserable weeks in a state of panic.
Some time during my panicked Googling I stumbled on this site. I've suspected I've had anxiety for a while - I've had palpitations on and off for about a year, and late last year had a trip to A&E with chest pains, which after every test under the sun turned up nothing sinister, and now just happen occasionally and I don't even think about bar the discomfort. I've also had IBS symptoms for about 15 years, which I've never really worried about bar the inconvenience and annoyance.
But back to this story, the first thing I saw on this forum is that MS fear from random neurological symptoms is so common it's something of a first time poster cliche. And I learnt stuff that the "here are the symptoms of MS in handy bullet points" sites don't show. If it comes and goes throughout the body, it's unlikely to be MS, for example. MS wouldn't wonk out my eyesight for a short period of time, it would go completely and not come back for a while (far more likely my astigmatism was temporarily knackered from squinting at a video on a mobile phone in the dark...).
Over the last couple of days my legs have started aching loads, and my calf muscles are twitching like there's snakes under them (something I've noticed before to a lesser degree in the past and never really worried about). If it wasn't for this site I'd never have come across Benign Fasciculation Syndrome, which seems much more common and fits my symptoms much better than anything nasty, and is also a manifestation of anxiety. If I hadn't found this, I would have been listening to the sites that say twitching is a symptom of MS, or even worse getting MND in my head. The site has also made me realise the "muscle weakness" of symptom lists doesn't mean aching or getting tired, but I'd be stumbling and unable to use my legs properly. I went to the gym for the first time in five months this week, and by my usual unfit standards did fine.
So I have my neurology appointment on Monday, and I'm still apprehensive and have occasional wobbles - I'm not a doctor, and I don't know for sure there's nothing serious wrong. But this site has made me realise there is a much bigger chance of being fine. I know some people are terrified of their neurology appointment, but I'm actually looking forward to it, which I think shows deep down I know I'm probably OK.
For those having health anxiety, please spend hours poring over this forum, rather than anywhere else on Google. And I'll end on something to keep in mind, which seems like a tangent, but hopefully makes sense...
I'm a birder, and very often people will come to you saying they've seen a very rare bird indeed. They've seen something they don't recognise, put its features into Google, and come up with something that's almost comically unlikely - if not impossible - to find in this country. When pushed, it usually turns out they've seen something relatively common that they're just not familiar with, but they haven't got the knowledge to rule out the more likely options, or the skill to interpret the features they're seeing.
My point being that's exactly what we're doing by Googling our health, except diagnosing neurology is a million times harder than IDing garden birds!
So I'll post again when I've been to the neurologist, but thanks to this forum again for making me think a bit more rationally.