Hi everyone,
Thank you in advance for reading this - I saw my primary care doc last month for symptoms and have been referred to a neurologist, who I'm seeing next week. I saw another neurologist about 3 years ago for fatigue, imbalance, and tingling in my hands. MRI didn't show anything and blood work didn't point to anything either, he just recommended I take vitamin D. Symptoms relieved after 3-4 weeks and did not return in full force until early October this year. I'm now going on about 6 weeks with this episode. Blood work showed vitamin B12 and D were normal.
Symptoms included during October:
Fatigue to the point of it being difficult to keep sitting up for work, harder to drive, driven to tears several times, arms and legs felt so heavy like moving through mud.
Neck feeling stiff, like someone is holding me by the back of it
Feeling off balance when standing and walking felt different, couldn't keep my normal gait
Tingling in hands
Fell going down the stairs at home once
Also, this has been going on intermittently for some months now - periods of one ear turning red and feeling like it's burning, face near it feels tingly on cheek and jaw. Feels like it comes on randomly, sometimes sense of pressure around and in ear
No vision changes whatsoever
Today as I'm writing this, the fatigue hasn't been as bad over the past 2 weeks. But I'm still having balance issues, tingling in hands, and my left ear and side of my face have been burning/tingling all day.
I've only told my aunt and husband about it. It feels so vague and I'm very hesitant to tell other people that I'm struggling, especially at work. I also struggle with feeling like a hypochondriac. I'm scared though. If there is a diagnosis that explains it, even if it is MS, then I want to know. But I also am scared of MS as my mother has it, and her mother had it too. My mom has had a very difficult course since being diagnosed in 1996 - she was paralyzed by 2002 and has had a lot of complications. I felt like I needed to get some of this off my chest and don't have many people I feel safe to turn too, so I sought a board like this out. Any tips for coping with this uncertainty or just any words are much appreciated.