Me again. You know that I've been told I've got MS? Well, he didn't say what to do if I felt unwell. I'm feeling unwell (a little), NHS direct are not picking the phone up.

[FluffyBunnyGoneBad]

a little eye ache/blurred vision and some numbness in one leg. I don't know too much but can it wait or do I need to go to A&E for some steriods?

Dh was told that they run three tests before confirming MS. One is the MRI, one is the lumbar puncture and there is one that is to do with something like the optical nerve. His MRI indicates MS as did the third one but his lumbar puncture was inconclusive so he has just had another. It seems a bit like a diagnosis via process of elimination. Not sure where they found the lesions though.

steve had a brain scan and a lumbar puncture in 1990, in 94 he had cateract op, MS was never mentioned to him until the scan in jan 07 which he was told was to rule out MS and a brain tumour, it was complicated for steve cos he had both it was often hard to know which things were down to MS and which things were down to his tumour

I hope you get on ok at your exam tomorrow. When my vision went funny I was able to continue working at the time. There is no harm in seeing your gp but if I was you and having those symptoms i wouldnt go A & E. (I try to avoid that place as much as possible! ) maybe see how you get on tomorrow after your exam ? Im never sure about posting messages but really wish you all the best, you're not alone

Sometimes life sends the most horrible of things to people. It's so fragile.

Thankyou all

FluffyBunny, so sorry about the dx. I was dx in 2003 after years of symptoms which were unexplained until I completely 'lost' my right side, at which point I had an MRI, but they still didn't tell me for 6m until my GP returned from maternity leave and told me by mistake!

I'm not sure what they can do if you're feeling unwell. I generally take some painkillers and go to bed and try to rest as much as poss - easier now that dd is nearly 10.

What sort of unwell?

I've been having odd symptoms for years, they put it down to post viral fatigue, IBS and probably some hypochondria (I should ask to see my notes!)
Just a bit of eyeheadache, blurred vision, pins and needles in my feet and a little leg numbness (it feels numb but it's not IYKWIM). I have felt alot worse though, at least I don't feel off my face again, can remember basic things and I can walk OK, which is good.

I don't know your MS, but if I were having those symptoms I would take some painkillers for the eyeache and go to bed.

In the morning I would contact the appropriate person at your Uni(?) and tell them how you feel so you are covered for the exam and try to carry on.

Tell them you may find that you tire more easily and quickly and also that concentration is hard. If your vision is blurred you may need someone to help you read and write your exam so be prepared for a bit of fuss about that. With luck, they'll give you a lot of extra time.

I don't want to give you bad advice, and do call NHS Direct if you can get through, but ime there's not a lot they can do. It's not like going into casualty with a broken leg or a bit of glass in your eye .

I used to call my ms nurse (because they told me to if there was 'any change' in my symptoms) but 99% of the time I got an answerphone and never got a call back.

Have they told you what sort of ms it is? R/R?

It seems like R/R, I felt so much better after the last weird episode, the pins and needles/numbness went away, they are now back though. I think trying to read stuff on here to revise hasn't helped.

You're probably right there - screens are much tougher on the eyes than books (bummer!).

Are you still trying to contact NHS Direct?

Stress and exhaustion will make you feel worse too.

No, I've given up now, they must be still filtering through flu calls. Ds is in bed now anyway so there's no chance of going to see the out of hours. It'll wait.

I had an exam on thursday, the background was blue, white boxes, grey writing. Couldn't see a thing!

Well, hopefully you'll get some help for tomorrow's.

And with luck, this current flare up will be down to the exams and will disappear when you've finished. Now take some painkillers and go to bed. What you need now is rest.

Yes mum.

Oh and phone your GP later tomorrow just to get it noted; he may want to see you as yours is a fairly new dx. You could take the opportunity to have a chat with her/him about it all, and what to expect, what medication if any, and so on.

Will do. Night, thankyou.

night night, sleep well

I hope you have gone off to bed to get some rest but just incase ....

The heat plays havoc with OH's MS. It makes all of his symptoms much worse.

His main symptoms are fatigue, nerve pain and unsteadiness.

The best thing for him is:
rest
painkillers (paracetamol or nurofen)
Keeping a cool as possible.

He also exercises everyday (unless he is really bad). He finds this helps a lot. He mostly uses his exercise bike.

He was diagonosed because he lost the sight in one eye (got some of it back). He didnt tell me he was blind in one eye. He made a few comments like 'can you see anything in my eye, it feels a bit weird'. When I finally realised what happened I had to drag him down to Moorfields. If this had not happened I think his diagnosis wouldve taken a lot longer. He does not 'fit' the profile because apparently 'black men dont get MS'. Yeah right .

Take care and good luck with your exam.

I've not gone yet. I'm waiting for the washing machine to finish or poor ds will have no school uniform tomorrow.

I am waking up sweating at the moment which isn't nice. I'm not sure if it's the heat as it's cooled down here at the moment. Ds has the fan in his room, it's cooler downstairs but sleeping on the sofa isn't the best of ideas.
The eye thing's weird, the neurologist said that he'd have expected me to have lost sight in one eye, not to have blurred vision in both. It's not all the time, when I've been sleeping alot they are really sore and I can't see properly, everything's hazy, small print (newspaper) looks as if it's moving/holographic. I did have neuralgia in my face, legs that felt like jelly when I walked, this was at the same time I felt really ill. It started with a warm wet feeling in one leg, then walking into things, then forgetting things, then cold pain in my face, then wobbly leg sensation, then blurred vision/fatigue/feeling drunk. I went to see a chiropractor who found that the muscles in my neck were in spasm, he released them, it got better, he jolted my neck and it came back, now it's gone again. I'm not sure if it was a couple of things or not.

Hi Fluff.

I can only speak as a partner of someone with MS. It has taken OH a while to get 'used' to the odd things that MS does to him. There are so many weird symptoms and they come and go at odd times.

His neuralgic pain seems to travel up and down his legs over the course of a few months. He also gets strange sensations in his face but this is less common.
He has tried acupuncture and physio at our local MS therapy centre.

He is not much of a chatter though. He doesnt talk a lot about his MS. I have had to develop ESP to work out what might be going on.

Getting enough rest and sleep seem to be really important though. SO go to BED woman

Washing machine's still going. I must invest in a quicker one!

I can cope with alot of things, the memory problems are really pissing me off though. So's the pins and needles now I think of it.

Did the acupuncture work?

He thinks it did help.

The memory thing is a pain isnt it?

OH has the same thing. It has taken me a while to realise, I thought he was being deliberately obtuse

I had severe memory problems following the death of my DD. The only way to cope is to invest in small notebooks and write it all down. As soon as you get a date, number etc write it down and make a note of why.

We have a family calendar and diaries. I never leave anything to chance. I also use my moblile phone to set alarms and reminders.

I have a washing machine that does a half hour wash BTW

I'n on a radiography course, I often know what I'm looking at but can't remember the name of things. It's

Good luck with your exam today Fluffy.

How are you feeling today?

How was the exam? My mum was a radiographer - loved it. I almost grew up in the X-ray dept, and had holiday jobs developing film on the X-omat(?)! Great fun. I've recently been thinking about radiography as a career as my old career has ground to a halt.

I often have blurred vision in both eyes. The thing to watch out for is pain. If you get really bad pain inside your eye you need to get to the eye clinic and ask about uveitis. Likewise if you get red-eye or floaters. Needs to be knocked on the head quickly.

Chegirl, does your H take anything for neuralgia? For years I have been taking low-dose anti-depressants (have a 'magical' quality in low doses on neuralgia). Now I've moved on to Pregabalin which is much better, but sends me off to another planet for an hour or so a day I like them!

I have a bad prob with my memory. DH is only jsut beginning to put things on the calendar for me as he's learnt to his cost that if he's got a gig and it's not on the calendar I am likely to arrange something for dd which clashes. DH doesn't really like believing that I am now less capable than I was or something and seems to find it hard to cope with the day-to-day effects of ms.

Thanks. I get eye pain all the time, it's like they are going to explode some of the time.

Exam was OK, not great though. I asked them last week to change the colour of the screen and font as it's blue with cream writing so it turns into a blurry mass over time. They didn't do anything though I can see x-rays OK, you can enlarge them which is useful and they are black and white. I've always wanted to study medicine so this is still in the pipeline at some point (hopefully).