@Dorothy 

Last reply

Dorothy

Am I having a relapse

Hi, I am new to this site, I have been diagnosed with MS since 2000, and have never had any problems, I was on Bettaferon, and now I am on Gilenya , an I have been in good health up until now and I am not sure whether my symptoms are MS related and I am having a flare up, I am having headaches and dizziness, I have also developed a stutter especially on words that begin with W, also my walking is not the same, having the dizzy spells and needing a hip replacement is not helping
@grandma

@dorothy sorry to hear you're not feeling too good. Your bio doesn't say anything about you so it's a bit difficult to advise getting in touch with your ms nurse cos I dont know where you are. Are you in the uk? Do you have a ms nurse? Can you ring the neuro dept at your local hospital tomorrow morning? If the symptoms are not 'normal' for you and your ms they need checking out because it's not necessarily a relapse but as you have no major experience of them (I.e. 18 yrs dxd and none before) Get in touch with you gp's surgery first thing tomorrow morning and get this checked out, an infection can mimic relapse symptoms so your gp/neuro dept will check everything else out first before they decide what action to take. If you've not had them before, the usual treatment is a course of intravenous steroids over 3 days which usually starts to work fairly quickly but can take 6-8 weeks to 'calm ' down the relapse symptoms, be it headaches, dizzy spells, stuttering, optical neuritis, leg or arm weakness whatever. We are all so different that what is normal and works for one will not be the same for another. I have had the beast for 25 years, 23 or rrms and 18 mths if spms, I used to relapse 2/3 times a year so I could easily tell the difference between a bad few days and a relapse but it is not so easy for you so tell the professionals and take their advice. Good luck😍

@Stumbler

Hi @dorothy and welcome. As suggested by @grandma above, we can also suffer from run-of-the-mill infections too. We need to eliminate these causes and your local Doctor is probably the quickest route to achieve that. MS could also be responsible for the headaches, vertigo and maybe the stuttering. You're right about your walking. With everything that is going on, it would be difficult to suggest that actual cause. Elimination of those potential culprits is the way forward..