Not sure what is going on........

[2johndeereboys]

I am a 41 year old woman that has been experiencing INTENSE dizzy spells for the past 2 weeks. I have never come so close to passing out. My last spell was this past Saturday (11/7/15) I don't get a headache or anything and it seems like the spells last forever!!!

I have also been having a swallowing problem. This has surfaced in the past couple months. I get choked very easily. Infact I have had to quit taking one of my daily meds because I just can't swallow the pill anymore. I get choked on liquids as well as food. And noticed that sometimes it takes 4 or 5 tries to get the food I have chewed to go down my throat.

I am experiencing numbness & tingling in my fingertips & toes also. Not at the same time tho. This can last so long sometimes that it actually starts to hurt. I should mention that I am Bipolar and am taking Topamax and numbness & tingling is a side effect of Topamax. But I have been on it for 16 months and to the best of my knowledge, I haven't had an increase in this med for 6 months or more. So I am not sure if the numbness & tingling is from the Topamax or something else.

I got DX'd with Pars Planitis (fancy name for eye inflamation) in September. In my right eye. I have an appointment with my PCP tomorrow morning. I have heard that PP is associated with MS and I would just like to hear what y'all think......

Thanks in advance!!
Lisa

[HVAC]

The dizziness does not sound fun. Has anyone done a neurological exam that is reflexes and such? If a regular doctor finds that abnormal they might send you to a neurologist. If it were me I would not worry about MS this early on. There are plenty of things it could be. You might be sent for many tests. With a MS diagnosis most of us go to a neurologist for at least a couple years.

Alex

[supermum_ms]

Hi Lisa and welcome to our little MS community,

I had a read through you posting history to see if i could find anything else you've mentioned that 'could be' suggestive of a neurological condition like MS and apart from noting you've got a few different diagnoses and have had a lot of non-MS related medical issues going on recently, there wasn't really anything that would typically put MS on the radar....

Pars Planitis is one of the rare eye diseases and whilst there 'might be' an association to MS, only 30% of cases are actually associated with another disease, the majority being isolated (idiopathic 70%), the most common medical condition that it has been associated with is sarcoidosis at around 22%. MS is less than 10%, so theoretically it's much more likely that it's not due to MS than the probability that it is...

To be honest, whilst there probably is a possibility you've been dealing with an autoimmune condition, the medical conditions you've already been diagnose with would more easily account for most if not all of the symptoms you've mentioned, possibly hormonal and or medication side effects thrown in there too but I genuinely think MS would be the less likely answer with most of what you've dealt with is unrelated with MS.

IF anything autoimmune is going on, i think it's more likely to be one that has a connection to what you already know about, which will connect it altogether, than for you to also have a neurological condition like MS which wouldn't connect your puzzle pieces together.

Cheers...........JJ