Hi,
I am new to the group and I am hoping for some support and
information. First a little about myself...ok, a lot. I am 21
years old and have been having symptoms of something that sounds
like MS for just about a year now. Just about all of my symptoms
are on my left side. Left sided weakness, tingling in my left hand
and from my knee down, tremors in both hands,fatigue, severe pain
(localized mostly in my left hip), tight muscles in my left knee (spasticity?)
I've found this to be very annoying but not really painful, unbalanced, and
recently pain in my left eye. Everything started very suddenly and I obviously
went to the doc. and I got tested for many things, all of which came back
negative. Then I got a brain MRI, which came back clean. The doc. was baffled,
gave me drugs for the pain and referred me to a Neurologist. I went to the
appointment and he told me to go to my home town (because I was down at college
and finals were almost over) and let them figure it out because it was not his
problem (he was a very big jerk!). Well, by this time things were better
(sypmtoms began as severe pain on my entire left side, tingling in my left
extremities, and severe left sided weakness.)

So when things got better we all thought ok, weird thing happened
but it's gone now! Well, 2 months later the same things happened
again but with an intention tremor in my hands and I couldn't move
my last 3 toes in my left foot. So I went to my family doc at home
and he was about to tell me it was stress (like everyone else) until
he saw I couldn't move my toes. He told me something was clearly
wrong! No kidding! So he referred me to a neuro. Unfortunately,
by the time the neuro saw me my symptoms were almost gone. She told
me the MRI I had done was terrible and re-did it but included my
spine too. She flat out told me she thought it was MS. We got the
MRI back and it was clean so then she told me all we could really do
was wait and see (we were hoping it was a post-viral thing because I
had been sick about a month before everything started). She offered
to do a spinal tap but said she didn't think we should at that time.
She gave me gabapentin and told me to start taking that if my
symptoms came back. I had some pretty bad eye pain and a headache
about a week before my other sypmtoms started (I don't know if this
has anything to do with the rest of this). Then everything started
again but now I am very unbalanced too (but I don't feel most of the
symptoms are as severe as before, but definitely enough to put a
hold on my life). I started the gabapentin but it was NOT
controlling my pain so I called my neuro and she doubled the dose.
I feel like my pain is controlled but what about everything else?!?
By the time I can actually get in to see my neuro I probably won't
have symptoms again! I don't know what to do and I feel like I
can't live my life like this. I am a nursing student and just want
to know what is going on. Is this MS? Does it sound like MS? I
would really appreciate anyone's opinion on what I should do and
what I should ask my neurologist when I see her. Sorry this is so
long but I think it'll help if people kind of know my story. Any
input would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!
~Jen