wow that's a lot of questions---i'm prepared to guess at privately, if your interested in my speculations but i do think you cannot pre-guess your mri, just have to wait for what it shows....

**what you can do, is ask for a cd of your mri at the time you get the mri---its pretty easy to see enhancing lesions in the cd so you will know before your appointment with the doc.

i had a relapse of ON, which the doc wasn't gonna do a mri of but i asked because my feet had become heavy & i was worried about that. the mri showed an ehhancing lesion on my optic nerve that was the ON i was complaining about,,,but showed no reason for my feet to have become heavy--she said that sometimes a new lesion cause old lesions to act up in ways i might not recognize..so my mri didn't show a relapse i thought i had and it did show a relapse i thought i had....so imo there is no answer to one of your questions you just have to wait for the answer.

i'm uncertain where your relapses where, but if your on tysabri your worried about it not being a relapse and being pml instead?

pml doesn't affect the optic nerve or spine, relapse soon after starting tysabri are common, thought to be from ms damage done during the dryout period where no meds were used. i had a relapse 12 months after starting tysabri, i assume that was my dry-out relapse. i haven't had a relapse since-- almost 2 years.

Thanks Lynn for your thoughtful and detailed response.

enhancing lesions: You said they are pretty easy to see. How so? Do they appear whiter than normal on the MRI? I will be getting the films so I will be inspecting them from my last MRI. I just don't know what to look for in an enhaning lesion.

"...but showed no reason for my feet to have become heavy--she said that sometimes a new lesion cause old lesions to act up in ways i might not recognize..so my mri didn't show a relapse i thought i had and it did show a relapse i thought i had.." So, my lesions might not show up if I'm in a flare. Thanks for that clarification.

Some of my symptoms did mimic the PML virus, but I wasn't worried about them because all of them did not. My doctor did talk to me about PML at the initial appointment. He wasn't worried either as he knew of the stress I had been under lately.

Having a relapse after 12 months on tysabri and figuring it is from the dryout period before you started ty seems strange to me. I would have thought your relapse would have hit you much sooner than that. I've been on ty for 9 months next week. The doctor mentioned that ty might not be working for me and that the MRI will tell him that.

I am impatient but will just have to wait for my appointment. I just know you guys always have answers to the strangest questions so I figured I'd throw it out there. Thanks for your time in responding too!

Wow, such a techo answer, MyMsBs, very impressive. Anyway, it is interesting who some docs use the MRIs a lot and some don't. Could be your doc just wanted to see what was going on and he really doesn't know.

I haven't had an MRI in over 10 years and I went to a lecture recently and the neuro doc who gave the talk said that he uses MRIs frequently (of course it makes a lot of money for the hospital he works for) and it does make it easier for the doc to see changes. But also this doc said that a lot of plaques mean a lot of disability which is the opposite of what my doc says and I have a LOT of plaques as seen on the MRI and I don't have a lot of disability. So I wouldn't stress out too much. My doc is VERY experienced and I trust him more and I don't think that the MRIs are as significant. So you doc may want to know whether the Tysabri is working. I hope it is. I don't know anything about a drying out period. Does that mean you stop taking it for a while?

Try not to get too stressed over it and do let us know what happens when you find out.

Oh yes, enhancing lesions is supposed to be active lesions. I probably have enhancing lesions now. Oh well. I don't want to know myself.