I dont know if I had lesions or not becuase the neuro wasnt that specific. The words were, "not enough there". He made a point of letting me know that my spine was "this large" and there would definately be motor skill difficulties without any question of a doubt. But he wanted to know, was I in any pain? Well, no. I couldnt walk well...I had resistent legs. I had left leg leg drop, drag left foot, jelly legs, and frankenstein legs. I had balance/coordination difficulties, chronic fatigue, difficulties chewing and swallowing. I had all over muscle weakness. I had tinging/numbness, pins and needles in my left arm and hand. Inability to funtion normally and smoothly in daily life and my quality of life greatly limited to pace of energy, but no, was not in any pain, although deluged with MS symptoms. I was not placed on meds. I was told to return when I was in pain. I will be returning to the neuro shortly as I have a scroll of new symptoms to add from that previous visit, including ear aches and eye difficulties and word drop, memory pause, speech stutter/speech slurr, fire sensations in arms and legs, brain fog, sensitive in ears with noises, ....the list goes on. I tell people I was diagnosed with MS symptoms and they are still determining things yet. Ohyeah, the spasms too. I get all over body earth quake shakes which can be very intense.

I just keep making my symptoms list, come here to Daily Strength and learn as much info as possible on it. I am at the point where, whether a doc can figure out what it is or not, or can be clear about it or not, I still live with it daily and its what I have to work with.

wishing you well and hugs Ellen

Hey: I was diagnosed with MS without any obvious pathonpneumonic plaques on the MR. My spinal tap screamed MS, (as did my symptoms)but there are other diseases that can have the same things on the spinal tap. We ruled them out with MS being the only thing left.
My neurolgist said that if he pooled 100 neurologists half would diagnose me with MS based on my entire picture and half would not, because of the essentially negative MRI (I have some dots that my neurologist thinks is connected with my disease.)
My argument with the McDonald classification for MS is the fact that your body has to have chewed a hole in the brain and it show up on MR to be given a diagnosis.

Advise: Find another doc. Go to a specialized MS center. I am checking out Cleveland Clinc in 2 weeks. Not that i don;t have a problem with my neurologist, but this is a huge diagnosis and we don;t have any MS centers locally and I want to immerse myself in as much knowledge and hands on teaching as i can.

good luck