I'm in my twenties and I suffer from MS symptoms.
I seriously don't even know what to think. By nature, I am the type of person who is concerned about various things health related. I think I tend to blow my symptoms out of proportion. Because of my stressful for various reasons childhood, I am a rather stressed out person that tends to worry. Getting to the point: almost a month ago I started experiencing weird symptoms as I was getting ready to go to sleep. I noticed my left eye kind of hurt, but I figured it wasn't anything special and went to sleep. On the next day some time (maybe 3-4 hours) after waking up I also noticed that I suffered from light paresthesia in my limbs on the left side of the body. It wasn't anything severe, it was rather a very light tingling in my arm and leg with maybe a slight feeling of the limbs becoming numb if I didn't move them from time to time. That already made me kind of worried, but the next day after that I also started to feel a little tingling in the left side of my face. That thing broke me and I rushed to the nearest emergency department. I was given a head CT scan which obviously did not rule out anything. Blood test results were also OK. I was told to go see a neurologist and called it a day. Some days later, with my symptoms still there, the neurologist told me to go for an MRI of the brain with intravenous contrast and an MRI image of the spinal segment without the contrast. That's where I'm today, as I'm waiting for my MRI scan, which is scheduled within a month from today (I live in a European country with public health system, but you still have to wait for your turn :>😉.
Ok, so given the background of the story, what I really wanted to talk about with you is my symptoms. As I mentioned earlier, I'm really anxious about my health, so I rushed to the computer and searched my symptoms. Of course, everything tells me that I'm probably suffering from MS, but that's always the case when you google your health problems. I know the symptoms vary vastly from one person to another, but there are some things that I cannot find an answer for anywhere, so I decided to ask you here.
1. My biggest concern is how long it normally takes for the symptoms to develop and how long do they last. In my case, they developed rather quickly (as mentioned earlier, in about a day or two), but the thing is, they don't seem to worsen significantly yet they don't seem to get visibly better also. They also come and go, and affect different parts of my body now. I feel like the light eye pain is always there with other symptoms, but I'm not feeling it 24/7. I don't know how it normally goes, but for example I felt pretty much normal biking for about 30 minutes, then after getting off and walking for some time, my legs started to lightly cramp up and felt painful. Then it went completely. I felt pretty normal for some time again, like 1-2 hours, then I randomly noticed light tingling of my arm. Basically, it looks like its relapsing, but really quickly, and comes back as quickly as it goes. It's been like that for almost a month now.
2. Is it possible that I suffer from optic neuritis but only feel pain and not any other symptoms? I don't think I got any severe vision loss that I'd notice, although my eye feels kind of weird and I'm obsessed on checking every now and then if its working properly. As I said, the pain is also not constant, but rather comes and goes with other symptoms really quickly.
As far as I know, my symptoms to this day were: slight tingling in arms, legs and face with emphasis on the left side of the body, left eye pain, rarely pain in legs and arms - with pain in the legs also came the tingling, and maybe slight feeling of dizziness sometimes, but that's likely from stress. All of these symptoms are nearly not as severe as some that I've read people on this forum had, but they are also too serious to leave unnoticed. I've maintained all my motor and cognitive functions and I'm feeling pretty OK physically.
I cannot really tell what I'm expecting writing this post. I'm really anxious. I have many wonderful people around me that I can trust and I'm feeling really lucky because of that. My heart shattered reading some posts on this forum about people feeling lonely and alone with their problems. I'm also in a healthy relationship with the love of my life that I trust with all my heart. The fear of becoming really ill this young just makes me melt. All of this overwhelms me.
I talk about this to my mom, my girlfriend, my friends - and they all support me. Yet, somehow this does not reassure me at all. I'm just that type of guy. For quite some time I noticed signs of OCD in my behavior and that would tick all the boxes for me.
Maybe this post belongs somewhere else, like in a mentcare forum, but a feeling in my gut tells me the bad things are yet to come, so I figured I could share my short journey with you guys. Actually writing this post was really soothing to me. Taking my time to tell everything that I have to tell, with no one hanging above me waiting for an answer.
I have yet to discover if I actually suffer from MS, if yes - I guess this post will be a great introduction of myself to this wonderful community.
And if I don't - all this stress got me thinking about how wonderful in life it is to stay healthy. People tend to undervalue their health until it gets really bad. There are so many absolutely wonderful and lovely people suffering from various diseases and conditions. It really makes you feel like life is unfair. And it is. But as simple and naive as it sounds - I guess we just gotta get our money's worth from life and live it to the fullest despite the conditions, hopefully surrounded by the people we love and care for. Always look on the bright side of life 😀
I hope that if the future me reads this post in some time, he will be happy with himself.
If you somehow got there without falling asleep, I'm already grateful for listening to me, and I'd be even more grateful if you shared your thoughts below 😁
I'll update this post right after I get my MRI scan results.