Hi all,
I was diagnosed with Fibromayalgia however, I still have many unexplained symptoms that do not fall under fibromayalgia. They do however fall under MS. I was at the ER Saturday night from my leg pain and numbness and no meds helping and I was put on crutches and it was suggested that I be re-evaluated. has anyone ever been in a similar situation? I want to ask my PCM to be re-evaluated without basically telling him he was wrong for the fibro diagnoses...
The criteria for a MS diagnosis almost guarantees a mis-diagnosis.
They have to see an MS criteria event at a minimum of two times. The first event will almost always fall under a certain diagnosis. If the second MS event falls under a different diagnosis criteria that is very strong evidence that MS is the true diagnosis.
The fibro diagnosis wasn't wrong really, MS nearly always acts as other diseases. Until the second event there just isn't anyway to consider MS. Many will recieve a whole slew of wrong diagnosises before MS becomes the answer, each MS event being explained by other diagnosises.
Ask for a brain MRI to look for lesions if you have those then a spinal tap and they can diagnose MS. Without those two tests they will never diagnose you with ms based on symptoms alone.
myelin damage will only show up on imagining during a MS event, and even then it may not be visible in the brain. Spinal tap isn't 100% positive test rate either. They can be good evidence if someone looks for them at the right time. They have a very high false negative rate though.
I have heard of MS being diagnosed based off symptoms, age of onset and recovery from symptoms. It is notoriously difficult to definitively diagnose.
