A Thread for Newcomers Worried about Multiple Sclerosis (MS)

[CoraB]

Hey there,

A lot of what you said resonates with me. I'm sure there are people out there with the same symptoms as me who haven't even been to the Drs yet but to me it build up into some kind of urgent need - sometimes when I go i am convinced they will have to admitt me straight away.

Today my cramps and pains in my legs are bad and the dizzyness is back again. Especially in my left calf so then that starts me worrying about a blood clot.

I've booked an appointment for two weeks time and i am going to try in those couple of weeks a few self help things:

1) no googling symptoms - this is so hard for me but I need to kick the habit so I have two things i can do if I absolutely MUST - I can google symptoms followed by the word "anxiety" or I can ask my husband to google for me.
2) I'll be carrying on with normal life as much as humanly possible including any chores or jobs and days out etc. I will try not to binge-eat (I do when i am very depressed with my HA) and just eat normally.
3) I am going to continue taking vitamins, doing daily stretches and taking daily walks even when I am in pain i will just go slower. I will also carry on doing my meditations and having epsom salt baths once a week.
4) I will be reading my self help books and completing the exercises and really trying to help myself approach my health anxiety thoughts in a different way.

What sorts of things do other people do? I feel like i have to have a plan of how i am going to approach things and i have to write it down because my mind is so full of other thoughts and feels heavy with worry.

[SmithsFan]

Hi Cora,

Like you I have a long-standing problem in my left calf. it was this that first got me fearing MS.

This started off like a numbness so it felt like my trousers were rubbing against it all the time. The feeling spread and I wouldn't really know how to describe it now.

Anyway, as I got more worried I experienced more and more symptoms. I'm in a much better place than I was even a few weeks ago and hope the improvement continues. As my mental state has improved, so have the symptoms. I still have the weird feeling in the leg and have feared everything from a blood clot to cancer but all I can say is that everything else has got better so I hope this will too.

All the best.

[CoraB]

I still have the weird feeling in the leg and have feared everything from a blood clot to cancer

Thanks so much for the encouragement. Still obsessing over my symptoms. Right now it is a pain in my left arm but it jumps around making me sound crazy when I try to describe where the pain is because its everywhere.

Sometimes i think it must have spread for me to have pain in all these places and that makes me panic like crazy.

Does anyone get a feeling like their arms are really heavy / legs/ arms have a tight band around them? It feels like an effort to type.

Smithsfan can i ask what do you feel has enabled you to get back on the right track with your symptoms?

[SmithsFan]

Thanks so much for the encouragement. Still obsessing over my symptoms. Right now it is a pain in my left arm but it jumps around making me sound crazy when I try to describe where the pain is because its everywhere.

Sometimes i think it must have spread for me to have pain in all these places and that makes me panic like crazy.

Does anyone get a feeling like their arms are really heavy / legs/ arms have a tight band around them? It feels like an effort to type.

Smithsfan can i ask what do you feel has enabled you to get back on the right track with your symptoms?

Here's what I wrote on another thread:

"I was in a cycle of stress, anxiety, physical and mental symptoms, insomnia, and low mood. Since then I've (hopefully) broken the cycle with some time off work, counselling and a prescription of Prozac.

I'm back at work and feeling much better than I have for months. I'm sleeping well and have taken steps to simplify my life and de-stress as a result.

And guess what? My symptoms have all but disappeared.

I know this is early days and I still have to challenge my "but what if it is?" thoughts regularly but I'm feeling much more able to take on my HA now and, with a bit of perspective, can say that stress and anxiety can most definitely cause the physical symptoms you have described."

The tight-band analogy described as well as anything the feeling I get in my lower left leg. In all likelihood it is caused by some compression or other problem with the nerve supply but an MRI ruled out a problem with my lower spine and it doesn't follow the classic sciatica pattern. Set against that, the problem is much worse when my leg is in certain positions or after exertion so that again suggests some sort of nerve problem.

[CoraB]

I badly need to de-stress too. I feel like there is so much I could achieve that I haven't and I am constantly planning I sometimes forget to just relax and enjoy life and the little things. I'm trying to start looking after myself a bit more and accepting that I just need to give myself a break right now but there is this persistent voice saying I am wasting what precious time I have "chilling out"!

[CoraB]

So i'm at the doctors tomorrow, i'm kind of proud of myself for forcing myself to wait three weeks but it also scares me that the symptoms haven't gone away - in fact my tingling sensations and weird internal vibrating in my leg is worse.

I'm worried about coming across as a complete idiot and them not taking me seriously if i list too many of my symptoms but then I am left with picking out the ones that worry me most and they ALL worry me.

I've been looking at my previous posts on this board and what strikes me is that since my last posts I've been getting more headache type symptoms as well.

Dreading work tomorrow as well feeling really down and worried about the pains. I guess what i really want them to do is refer me to a neurologist who i can talk to properly about these MS type symptoms but I know it's going to be a battle. I just feel like I am losing my mind over it all.

[itwillbefine]

Wish you the best, Cora. Please, update us tomorrow. Good to hear you're back at work, even though it's tough for you.

[CoraB]

Just starting to feel a bit more sane after my drs visit yesterday which, i've got to be honest, frightened the life out of me and i've been in a state of almost constant panic since last night.

He started to say virus and has prescribed me some more pills for dizziness he wants me to try and then go back in two weeks. He mentioned chronic fatigue but said he didn't think it was that. My hubby asked him directly about MS in the end as he knows thats what i am dreading it being. Then he said the words I dreaded "I had written down MS on my differential diagnosis" and i just thought OMG he thinks its that he thinks it is MS if HE thinks its MS then there really is a chance it could be.

I have to go back in two weeks, then he is going to look at bloods and maybe a referral to a nuerologist. I know I wanted to be checked out and I already knew my symptoms matched some MS symtoms but this seemed to confirm my worries are valid.

I should mention he said the risk is low and it is "bottom of the list". However, this gave me little reassurance and last night I had the worst night panicking. I really am worried I'm having a nervous breakdown.

Somehow struggled into work thinking if i can just make it to the xmas break I can try and pull myself together but I'm so bad and the symptoms are definitely not going. Today I was panicking trying to look at things and see if i could remember were they blurry before or not.

Please I need some help how can I get through this :-(

[itwillbefine]

Cora, so glad to hear from you, but sad to see you're feeling like this.

I hope one of the more experienced HA sufferers will reply here, because I don't know how to advice. I feel your anxiety, I would be in the same condition as you are.

How to come back to your wits when your anxiety is raging? I'd like someone to help us with a few tricks. It's so difficult.

Your doctor does not seem to be too worried about you. I know you're thinking that simply the fact that MS is on his list, makes it all unbearable. But he did say BOTTOM, not top. There are countless possible explanations on his list, and MS is in the bottom. You're diagnosed with anxiety, right? I bet anxiety has a WAY higher score on his list.

From what I know and read about HA, you are presenting a typical HA behavioural sign by finding it difficult to cope with doctors' "come back in a few weeks, then we'll do some tests". They say that because in their experience many symptoms change over the course of weeks. Their job is to RULE OUT diseases, and MS is so far down on his list that he is not even ready to start ruling it out. He thinks MS is very unlikely, and even though it's in your family, the risk is low.

I'm rambling on trying to tell you what I would have tried to tell myself. I hope others will help me out here.

I'm not absolutely sure about the menaing of differential diagnosis, but is it adviceable for doctor with an anxiety patient to tell what's on his list of diffential diagnosis. I mean, this causes so much worry, and yet he says "give it a few weeks' time"

[YareYareDaze]

Thank you for this thread. What you said pretty much describes what I've been going through. Last month, I got tingling in my right leg and numbness in my right cheek. I had trouble swallowing, too. Now, 35 days later, I have numbness/weakness in my right leg, my right arm, and my right cheek, as well as worsening vision and a feeling of pain/heaviness in the back of my head. I believe I can still swallow okay at this time. But yeah. I'm scared that this could be MS, a blood clot, or even an oncoming stroke. But if I'm still able to walk, my face isn't drooping, I can still raise both my arms, and my speech is still okay, then it is likely not a stroke. The symptoms fade, but then they come back within a few minutes or so. This is causing me to eat less and only be able to drink fluids. My parents won't take me to a doctor unless it is an absolute emergency. However, I have a ophthalmologist's appointment next Monday to get this eye issue looked at. Putting my glasses on appears to help, but I was told when I first got the glasses that they could make my eyes weaker. I honestly don't know what this is, and I'm convinced that this could actually be Health Anxiety. I just don't know it. Are there any actual stroke survivors or HA sufferers that can tell me what is going on?