Neurologist appointment questions
I saw my neuro Thurs at relapse clinic after leg pain not easing despite gabapentin. He said my MRI scan back in may that led to DX was a terrible mess with multiple lesions glowing. He was surprised I was only presenting with one symptom at the time. Since then I've developed burning feet, bladder retention and my mobility has gone from 100% to maybe 10% in that short time. He gave me a prescription for steroids, took blood and urine samples and is booking me in for a Lumbar puncture in around 5 weeks. He also gave me info on DMD to start straight away after he gets LP results. Said it should show any lesions on spinal cord. Head was spinning. If there are lesions on the spine and these steroids have no effect, does that mean my mobility is unlikely to improve much? He told me to keep on the gabapentin, said it could have been working and I could be in real pain if I wasn't taking it any more.
@hartleybear , wow, that's a quick deterioration, with all of those additional symptoms since Thursday! It does sound like relapse activity, so a course of Steroids is the usual medical response. These will dampen down the inflammation on your Central Nervous Symptom (CNS), causing the relapse. This should then allow you to recover some or all of the lost function, although this may take several weeks. A Disease Modifying Therapy (DMT) would seem to be an obvious next step, given the severity of this relapse. You might find this tool useful in your deliberations :- https://www.mstrust.org.uk/about-ms/ms-treatments/ms-decisions-aid The Gabapentin is the usual medical response to neuropathy. The following article describes the types of pain we can experience. You can then determine whether Gabapentin seems to be the right choice.
@stumbler sorry I typed it wrong, I've had all these new symptoms appear one after another since July. I was walking around a festival August 31st and when I got home I put my feet up. When I stood up, my legs hurt like crazy, since then I can't walk more than 20 meters, need my kids to support me walking into a clinic to check in. 6 weeks for mobility to reduce 90%