Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Support Group
This community is a place where members can discuss current events and weigh in on what's going on in the world.
I have an MRI tomorrow on my cervical and lumbar spine. to rule out or rule in MS. I am clinically diagnosed but until lesions start to show I can't get the medication to stop the progression. I have heard that you can get a positive diagnosis from just having 2 separate sx incidence. Example I started to have numbness and pain in legs and falling probably about 2 years ago and then at least 6 months later I had an episode of Optic Neuritis. I am trying to find the literature to give to my PCP to show him I don't have to have a positive MRI or LP so just an update of what is happening. I have been a member for a really long time I don't always post.
Take Care
Dave
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald_criteria
Amy
Before being officially diagnosed with MS, patients usually experience a first neurologic event suggestive of MS, defined as Clinically Isolated Syndrome (CIS). It lasts for at least 24 hours with symptoms and signs indicating either a single lesion (monofocal) or more than one lesion (multifocal) within the central nervous system.
If you are diagnosed with MS or a first-time MS event, you should consider talking about starting treatment as soon as possible with your healthcare team. Researchers have found that MS often causes more damage in the first year than in later years.
Starting treatment early and staying on treatment can make a real difference in managing your MS symptoms and slowing the progression of your disease.
It is important to start multiple sclerosis treatment as soon as possible. Many studies have shown that permanent nerve damage can happen early in MS, and that treatment is more effective in the early stages of MS.
Even if your MS symptoms are mild, it is still important to start therapy when you are first diagnosed or even as early as your first symptom!
Doctors have changed how multiple sclerosis is diagnosed, based on strong evidence for the benefits of disease-modifying therapies. Disease-modifying therapies for people with multiple sclerosis have been shown to have two main benefits, A reduction in the total amount of clinical "attacks" associated with the disease, such as periods of paralysis, loss of vision, or other debilitating symptoms. Less disability over the short term. That means that within six months to two years after diagnosis, people who started therapy were less disabled than those who began treatment later. But exactly how much do these therapies really change the course of your disease? If you start on MS medications now, will that mean youll be less likely to be in a wheelchair 10 years from now than if you waited until later to start taking them? I think youre unlikely to be able to reverse that damage by getting on preventive medications later on.
Early treatment is very important because irreversible damage to the brain and nerves can occur even in the early stages of MS, and because people can develop brain lesions (damaged areas in the brain) even when they are not showing any symptoms of MS.
My daughter was dx on first flare and previous symptoms. I was dx ten years after mine started. No LP for either one of us.
Hope all goes well
Alma