MRI HELP NEEDED

[SpiritualT]

So after a week in hospital with neurological symptoms and trying to rule out MS, I have been referred to a Neurologist. Unfortunately the wait is 6 months.

Could anybody please help me with my MRI results: it states

No imaging evidence of a mass lesion.

Single white matter rounded hyperintensities inferior right frontal lobe and posterior left frontal lobe insufficient to suggest demyelination.

No signifcant abnormality elsewhere in the brain, brainstem or cervical cord.

No evidence of optical neuritis or orbital pathology.

Anyone im out my mind with worry.

[RoyceNewton]

Calm down take a deep breath, what exactly is the problem, why ms. Are there other Neurologists that you can go to? Get some valium for your MRI. A GP can order an MRI, just get and read the results while you wait for the neurologist.

Just stay calm ms is not that big a deal, if that is what you have.

[SpiritualT in reply to RoyceNewton]

I’ve had the MRI. It’s the results that I have posted that I’m struggling with.

[Raingrrl]

Hi SpiritualT... we aren’t doctors here and shouldn’t advise you in that way. It would be irresponsible. The diagnostic process can be a stressful, scary thing because you’re dealing with the unknown. We have all been there!

You need to understand that there are multiple things that can cause something to show up in a brain MRI. A severe B12 insufficiency for example. MS is often a diagnosis of exclusion meaning doctors need to rule out the other things that can cause similar symptoms. This is to your benefit because you don’t want to be on one of the powerful drugs that treat MS if you don’t have MS. Here is some info about other conditions that can mimic MS. nationalmssociety.org/Sympt....

That same National MS Society website can give you more info about the criteria doctors are supposed to follow to diagnose MS.

Knowledge is power and can help you while you go through the diagnostic process. Good luck to you!

[greaterexp]

I’m sorry for the wait. That’s sometimes the worst part.

The wait is worth it, however, to get an accurate diagnosis. You didn’t share what your symptoms are which led to the MRI, but so many other conditions could be considered.

This is a great place to come for support, even though no one here can give you real answers to this question.

[RoyceNewton]

I am very sorry I am NOT under any circumstances a Trained Medical Profesional of any sort so I will not be able to give you any advice of that sort. What I can suggest is that you relax take a deep breath and enjoy the season. Maybe find a neuro who is a little quicker than 6 months. We are here for support it is okay to make use of us.

Royce

[Raingrrl]

SpiritualT ...it seems you have posted to multiple communities here at HealthUnlocked with similar information but slanted the posts towards each community. Your level of distress and leaping to conclusions is not going to help reduce your anxiety or get you to a valid diagnosis any quicker. As I told you in my earlier response, many conditions can cause the same symptoms so getting to the root cause takes time, proper diagnostics and people with the right expertise. The path you seem to be on of self-diagnosing and self-treating can actually obscure the real problem you are hoping to figure out and can cause injury.

There is a saying used in medical training here in the U.S. and that is "when you hear hoofbeats, think of horses not zebras". Your doctors will first want to rule out the common causes of what you are experiencing before looking at more exotic conditions. Maybe you can get into a neurologist sooner than the 6 months.

The most you should count on here at HealthUnlocked is sympathy and sharing of experiences not diagnostics. In the MS community we know that everyone's experience with MS and even the diagnostic process is different.

[SpiritualT in reply to Raingrrl]

I haven’t slanted anything towards any community. I’m looking for help and answers not criticism.

[Frances_B in reply to SpiritualT]

I have to concur with what Raingrrl has written above, however nobody is criticising you. We have all been through various stressful times while looking for a diagnosis, but I suspect that you are suffering quite badly because of the pre-existing anxiety problems you have talked about in some of your posts on other forums on this site. Anxiety often leads people to catastrophize what they are dealing with - a cut finger is going to put them in a coma with septicaemia, the headache they had last week is a brain tumour about to kill them and so on. I am not making light of your worries, but you do need to settle down and work through this with your medical practitioners.

psychcentral.com/lib/what-i...

And I note that a couple of responses to you in the B12 forum fail to pay attention to the fact that B12 measurements used differ between countries so what they have advised you about minimum levels etc is not necessarily correct because they have not converted what you've written into the measurement unit they are quoting. I'm talking about the usage of ng/L vs pmol/L vs pg/ml which will all produce different "numbers" for the tests done. For example, the 550pg/ml someone advised is the minimum recommended by Pacholok and Stuart is actually 400 pmol/L in another country (and Yes, I have their book and have read and marked it throughout).

You also didn't say in any of the other forums what you had been doing to increase your B12 levels from 281 ng/L to 581 ng/L in the space of less than 3 months. There is one of the B Group vitamins which can cause peripheral neuropathy if too much is taken. You also don't need to start sourcing injecting materials and injectable Vit B12 over the internet or from other countries as you were advised by someone else. Generally, unless you have a MEDICALLY diagnosed pernicious anaemia or other malabsorption problem you do not need injectable B12 - a high-potency sub-lingual methylcobalamin tablet can do the job just as well (if you have properly researched B12 deficiency or actually read Pacholok and Stuart's book you should already know that and wouldn't be wanting to know how you can force the NHS to provide you with injectable B12).

In reality, the best thing you can do is to stop asking Dr Google for his advice, because it's only making your anxieties worse and is not going to give you answers. You should also be cautious about taking as gospel the advice that some people will offer in forums such as this - and having said that you are, if you so choose, entirely at liberty to completely ignore everything I've written above...............

[SpiritualT in reply to Frances_B]

I am not going to substitute my B12 with injections as advised my someone. This is the thing I haven’t done anything to raise my levels in 3 months nothing I am aware of anyway which is why I was wondering about the my level in December. Our levels are measured in ng/L.

In September my levels were 281ng/L and I haven’t done anything to raise them no supplements etc, this is why I was thinking of supplementing a sublingual to see if this tingling etc goes away.

[SpiritualT in reply to SpiritualT]

I have also read Sally’s book when I started suffering with these symptoms. The only thing is, is I have had gastric problems last year with gastritis helicobacter pylori and ulcers. Maybe I haven’t been absorbing my B12 through my food? But then again it doesn’t account for the levels being raised in my blood tests last week. What are my optimal levels meant to be in ng/L? Maybe being low is contributing towards my anxiety also.

[Frances_B in reply to SpiritualT]

Re "Maybe being low is contributing towards my anxiety also.". It may be that you did have some absorption issues while you had the gastric problems, or perhaps your diet was inadequate in sources of B12, but at 281ng/L you were not low or deficient. At 281ng/L you had a reasonable "buffer zone" and at 581 you have plenty in reserve. The advice given above by everyone to stop trying to diagnose yourself and fix your unidentified problem by using Dr Google and various internet forums is still good advice. The internet is brilliant for researching things but it is a disaster zone for people with anxiety problems and a bunch of amorphous symptoms. The internet also leads people up some really dangerous garden paths if they do not have the necessary skills to be discriminating enough about what they find online and some advice given in forums like this can actually be harmful to people - especially when people post links to absolute garbage and present it as science - a pretty looking website or a believable video clip claiming to offer some miracle cure do not guarantee that the content is sound.

Probably the best thing you can do for yourself would be to try and address your existing anxiety problems as they are clearly making everything worse for you. Look at seeking out some Cognitive Behavioural therapy and I think you will find that in time none of this is as bad or as catastrophic as it seems to you right now. Despite your fears you may have nothing wrong at all, and at least the doctors are doing sensible tests to check out your symptoms - even if their time frames don't match your own sense of urgency. And that MRI report is actually a fairly reassuring one in the "MS Department" and if your symptoms warranted more urgent investigation I suspect you would be getting that, despite the NHS falling apart in some ways.........

[SpiritualT in reply to Frances_B]

“It may be that you did have some absorption issues while you had the gastric problems, or perhaps your diet was inadequate in sources of B12, but at 281ng/L you were not low or deficient. At 281ng/L you had a reasonable "buffer zone" and at 581 you have plenty in reserve”

In Sally’s book could it be B12....it states that it has been well documented that people whose serum B12 is between 200pg/ml and 350mg/ml have a B12 deficiency.

There has been symtomatic patients like myself whose B12 was between 200pg/ml and 300pg/ml and was told there is no deficiency. If you lived in Japan you are classed as low at anything 500 or under anything just about 500 like mine, is classed as a grey area and if they were symptomatic like me, would be treated.

I don’t think at 281 I was in a reasonable buffer zone. Just my opinion though.

I have had CBT for my anxiety and yes possibly it will be contributing towards my waiting for my scan result.

[kycmary]

I feel for you & I'll be praying also, I'm sorry I don't really understand MRIs.

[sashaming1]

Another way to eliminate a MS diagnosis is, while having the neurological symptoms, to infuse a med that always eliminates MS symptoms (a steroid? or another technically-named drug that I can't remember). If the issue goes away, then it is MS. If the issue doesn't go away, then it is not MS. This method doesn't apply to MRI results. Your MRI results should be looked at by a Neurologist with MS experience for a more critical review. Maybe get a steroid shot to see if your neurological symptoms go away or not? A doctor would have to make that call.

[Frances_B in reply to sashaming1]

Re "If the issue goes away, then it is MS. If the issue doesn't go away, then it is not MS." If only it were that simple. A single "steroid shot" is not part of a diagnostic work-up for MS. Steroids are known to reduce the duration of an MS relapse or episode but it is not a wonder drug which suddenly miraculously makes MS symptoms go away.

[sashaming1 in reply to Frances_B]

Agree. Then it's probably that other drug that was used (Immunoglobulin therapy? - "Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) is a medicine often used to boost the body's immune system and make it better able to fight disease. ... Treatment with IVIG may improve function and lengthen the time before a relapse in people who have relapsing-remitting MS. It does not seem to help slow the progression of MS."). I don't know what it's effects are in the short-term but the Dr. was able to determine if it was or was not MS during my hospital stay. It was more of a test to rule out MS causing my "Falling" issue.

FYI for other methods to diagnose MS:

"Spinal tap, also called a lumbar puncture, is a procedure doctors use to remove and test some of this liquid, called cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). It helps them diagnose disorders of the brain and spinal cord, including multiple sclerosis."

Blood Tests: "Currently, there are no definitive blood tests for diagnosis, but they can be used to rule out other conditions that may mimic MS symptoms, including Lyme disease, collagen-vascular diseases, rare hereditary disorders and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS)."

[bxrmom]

Are there other Neurologists in your area that you could see with a possible less wait time? I know getting into a specialist for the first time can be quite the wait, and I'm sorry for that. Please keep us updated on what you find out.

Jessie