Frustrated With My Gp, Could These Be Symtoms? Posted: 02-19-04 20:20pm
Hi everyone-
looking for a little advice, hoping all of
you can help!
I am a 33 year old male from southern
california. My story starts in 1997,
where I had a really bad case of vertigo
while in college. It was so bad that a
friend told me I was walking in a complete
circle for almost 10 minutes.
In the summer of 1998, I began
experiencing sever pain in my right ear.
A day or two later, I noticed that I was
losing feeling on the right side of my
face, and the next day had been diagnosed
with bells palsy on the right side of my
face, since I have recovered about 95%.
The bells palsy lasted about 12 weeks.
In january of 2001, I had a bad case of
what I thought might have been the flu,
with exhaustion, heavy diarrhea, weight
loss, fatigue, and night sweats. Most
prominent was the fatigue and the bowel
problems, which wiped me out. I was under
a bit of job related stress at the time as
well. After about a month the symptoms
cleared up, only to return again about
three months later (april). They
continued for three months. I lost 20
pounds from the bowel problems and
decrease in appetite. My doctors were at
a loss, and I was tested for everything
viral from hiv to hep a,b,and c, all tests
coming back neg. Stool samples all
returned negative as well. Towards the
latter part of the second bout, I had
problems with inflammation and vision in
my right eye for about five weeks. My
vision was so bad that prescription
glasses couldn’t correct the problem. My
eye felt huge, almost dry. I also
suffered from a weeks worth of the worst
migraines I have ever had, keeping me in
bed for two days. Oy!
Since then I have not had any major
relapses, just periodic bouts with
numbness in my upper left leg, that seems
to be worse when I am laying in certain
positions. I have also been diagnosed
with depression, and am on 20mg prozac
daily. I also have periodic problems with
the need/urge to urinate, with nothing
coming out. Sometimes so bad it keeps me
up at night (this lasts for about a week
or two at a time). I have also had very
slight hand tremors, but only on a couple
of occasions, as well as off and on bowel
problems.
When I have approached my general
practioner about this in the past, he has
told me that I am just depressed and been
reading to much on the internet, and there
is no way these things are interconnected.
Its frustrating because I would like to
see a neuro and ask some questions, but
cannot do so unless I get a referral. My
questions to you are this:
1. Does this sound like a case that would
need to be referred, or is my doc correct,
and I am just over reacting.
2. Are these symptoms consistent with
those found in ms patients?
3. Anyone else heard of someone having
bells palsy with ms?
Thanks again for your help!
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litekpr2
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 20 Feb 2004 Posts: 23 Location: USA
Posted: 02-20-04 02:17am
I have had ms since being clinically
diagnosed in june of 1997. While some of
your symptoms do not "seem" to match the
major symptoms of ms (i'm thinking the ear
pain specifically), other symptoms you
mention certainly are ones that I myself
have had, like numbness, extreme fatigue,
vertigo (i too had an episode of severe
vertigo years before I was actually
diagnosed and it was chalked up to an
inner ear virus).
Bell's palsy is not connected to ms;
however, there is no reason why a person
could not have ms and yet other chronic or
acute diseases, also. I do. The visual
problems you speak of could certainly be
signs of optic neuritis which is common in
ms, but one symptom I have yet to
experience (thank you god!).
I think this needs to be your call about
seeing a neuro or not. Have you directly
asked your gp if he would refer you to
one? I used to have that type of
insurance too and would get really
frustrated with the referral business.
Perhaps your gp is reluctant to refer you
because he feels somewhat helpless in that
he cannot himself diagnose the problem.
An ms diagnosis comes only after ruling
out any other possibilities; it is a
diagnosis of exclusion. Would your gp be
willing to order an mri of your brain and
spinal cord, with and without contrast?
That's the top test right now to see about
ms, although a negative mri does not mean
you don't have the disease. Some
neurologists also want their patients to
undergo a lumbar puncture (or spinal tap)
to see the results there.
In my opinion, you should see a
neurologist to further investigate these
mysterious symptoms that return like they
do. If you can't talk your gp into
referring you, you might have to think
about changing to a gp who is more
"user-friendly."
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purple333
Extremely EHEALTHy
Joined: 01 Dec 2003 Posts: 1420 Location: Sydney
Posted: 02-20-04 07:08am
I won't pretend to know anything about ms
but I do believe that you are doing the
right thing in researching on the net. A
dr is merely a mechanic your body is the
car, but if the mechanic doesn't do the
job right on your car you a) do not pay
& b) change mechanics. Do the same
with a dr!!
A couple of suggestions that might help
with a research: life extension foundation
(or organization) they sell stuff but also
have alot of free info on tonnes of
conditions).
Also as there is no doubt (since you are
human & not a machine) that this must
be stressful & some of your symptoms
may be caused or made worse by stress so
some things you could do to help in this
area are:
try taking 50 then up to 100 mg 5htp a day
(research tryptophan or pm me) also sam-e
a natural antidepressant which may also
help with some of the other symptoms &
side effects. Then do some relaxation
therapy.
Last but not least if you don't have then
get someone to talk to, someone you can
vent with, it is needed.
|
Waldo
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 04 Jun 2004 Posts: 1
Medical Answer Posted: 06-04-04 02:08am
I am an eye doctor who also happens to
have ms. Although your symptoms might be
from ms, they are much more likely to be
due to something called susac syndrome.
This syndrome of vertigo or tinnitus, eye
problems and encephalopathy is common in
young people and fortunately, self-limited
(usually). You should absolutely see a
neurologist for this work-up. If you
take vitamins and monitor your diet, it
will go away on its own. But, if you
smoke cigarettes and use iv drugs, it will
also go away on its own. Please, see a
neurologist for this condition - hopefully
it's not ms. Good luck!
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kt1976
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 25 Mar 2008 Posts: 2
Posted: 03-25-08 21:37pm
Definitely see a neurologist. We have had
similar issues with doctors, and you
definitely have to be assertive. We have
the same kind of insurance, and we have
learned that if we are still unsure we
need to push the doctor for the referrel
and not just go home disheartened. My
husband was having vision loss issues. We
kept getting sent home and told to come
back if something happened again. Hello!
We had to wait until he lost more vision
to go back? Well, we finally learned that
we can't keep doing that. It was only
getting worse. Don't wait until things
are too far gone. I don't mean to be
discouraging. We have just learned we
need to drive our own ship so to speak.
We researched and came up with other
specialists beyond eye specialists for the
doc to send us too because the eye
specialists weren't finding anything. So,
if the neurologist doesn't find something
go to a rheumatologist. Keep going to
people until you get answers.
