I normally don't visit the board unless I'm having a flare up and normally I just read for inspiration.
But the more I think about my PAST symptoms I'm wondering if I have Fibro or if its MS. 8yrs ago I had all the pins and needles, weird electric sensations, and also the feeling of body parts being numb but actually werent.
My main problems now are off balance feeling, and my hips hurt like crazy..my hands turn blood red, hurt and feel like they are on fire when the humidity gets up there. Now the past week my whole body aches, I have this constant burning between my lower back and buttocks (only on one side). I was diagnosed with fibro, but from all I read Dr's are using this as a cookie cutter diagnosis.
So back to my original question, what is the difference between these two conditions?
Are you confident that your blood sugar levels, thyroid function & B12 status are OK? If you have not had labs recently, I would encourage to visit your PCP & ask for some. Diabetes, thyroid malfunction, and low B12 can each result in many of the symptoms you have mentioned.
For adequate thyroid testing, please ask your doc to run Free T3 & thyroid antibodies, if these haven't been done. The TSH screen usually run is not helpful for folks w/fibro.
B12 can be tested, but it's cheaper just to do a trial of sublingual methylcobalamin. You can find SL MB12 at most health food stores. There are many almost-miracle stories of people -- even w/"in normal range" B12 blood tests who improve pins -n-needles & numbness with B12 supplement.
Sorry I can't answer your MS question. But I would want to make sure that the "common problems" were not a factor before signing on for MS testing.
I've have had the diabetes screening, thyroid done..but not sure which ones. I have taken B12 sublin. for another problem (burning tongue) it helped this problem but none of the others.
I will have to make an appt and ask for these specific tests, thank you.
