Hi all,
I'd really appreciate some advice as I am 110% convinced that I have MS, I see no other possible explanation. I'm a 25 year old female, so higher risk simply because of my gender and MS is most often diagnosed in those aged 20-30.
A week ago I started experiencing random pins and needles in both my hands and feet that radiates up my lower legs, with almost an electric shock feeling on the soles of my feet. The tingling tends to disappear once I'm up and moving and feels worse at night. My left leg feels a bit numb at night but I do tend to sleep on this side. I also have pain in the back of my neck near my spine, my left outer thigh and back of my legs, plus night sweats, general joint pain and eye floaters (I've always had these). I Googled my symptoms and surprise surprise, MS popped up!!!
Now I will admit that the week before I'd had a extreme health anxiety induced period after a few of my family members caught COVID (I didn't thankfully) but the constant testing made me feel seriously stressed and mimicked a lot of COVID symptoms. I was also worrying about having an autoimmune disease like lupus after googling muscle aches and fatigue but thankfully my ANA blood test came back negative.
I went to visit a doctor today (not my GP) and one of the first questions he asked was "is there any history of neurological disorders in your family"? To which I replied no but immediately started panicking. I questioned him about MS specifically and he said that although unlikely MS symptoms often come and go as flare ups, so it's worth speaking to my GP.
He also suggested I have vitamin B12 and folate blood tests as these deficiencies can mimic these symptoms, however I had these done at the end of November. Although my vitamin B12 was quite low at 221, it wasn't deficiency level. I should add I am Vitamin D deficient (levels at 29) but have received mixed medical advice on whether this can cause tingling! This has also scared me as I've read vitamin D deficiency can cause MS/ is common in MS patients.
Since then I haven't been able to get MS out of my mind and am convinced I have it, plus my symptoms felt much worse throughout the day. I can't see it being anything else. 😔 I truly believe my life is over, especially as I've read on average those with MS live 5-10 years less than others. I honestly can vision myself in a wheelchair being unable to speak.
I read a lot about the physical symptoms of anxiety being very similar to MS but I feel like these aren't my usual physical anxiety symptoms?
My health anxiety has been with me since 13 years old but has been MUCH worse since I had my gallbladder removed in August this year. I haven't felt fully myself since as the gallstone caused me to lose 2 stone in 3 months and I was only living off of rice, potatoes, bread and soup during this time, about 500 calories a day. I was also bed bound for most of this time other than trips to A&E. Since then my Googling has become much more frequent and I honestly believe I'm dying on a daily basis from something.
My anxiety riddled brain is thinking "if I was right about there being something wrong then (my gallbladder), what else will I be right about"? I spend so much time researching MS forums and a lot of the symptoms I'm experiencing have been listed by people who were diagnosed with it.
I'd really appreciate some advice as I've been told being referred to a neurologist and receiving an MS diagnosis can take months and how horrific the tests are. I really don't know if I can cope that long, I've already started to completely break apart over it. 😥
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