I had my second neuro appt yesterday. I'm concerned about something that he said. I had had an MRI w/o contrast of my brain around Christmas, they were looking for a brain tumor, not MS. At my appointment yesterday, I asked about all of the possibilities for what is wrong, I asked about MS (because another dr said it was a possibility), he said no, because no lesions showed up on my MRI, I asked about it being without contrast, he said that with MS, you don't need contrast to see lesions. I thought that you DID need contrast to see the lesions. He did then order another MRI with contrast of only my C-spine though. I also have an EMG today (was May 28th, but this morning they moved it up, GAH). And I am meeting with a Neuropsychologist tomorrow for the feedback session from my memory test. The Neuro did tell me that there were memory problems, and the psych is going to blame stress, but he still believes that something "organic" is happening, but to follow what the psych says for the stress anyway. (I'm only as stressed as your average homeschooling mom, nothing major, I'm pretty happy with my life).
I'm just concerned about the MRI with out contrast remark.
I know that you all have read my symptoms already, so here's a quick rundown... jerking right hand, memory problems, on and off speech problems, dizziness, numbness in fingers and toes, pins and needles, Feet feel like they are burning sometimes, muscle twitches (not painful but big), joints very stiff on and off (heat has a lot to do with it, warm or hot showers, and warm to hot days... very very hard to move) but with no swelling. I've also started blacking out sometimes, no seizures though.
Although I agree with Jayhawk, the reasoning behind using contrast is because lesions which are too small to see without contrast wont show up. they have to be developed and large enough, to show up without it. Also, if you are having an active MS attack, those lesions will glow WHITE on the MRI....so its easier to justify "why" you feel like you do, when they can confirm that something is actively going on.
The flip side of this is whether they are there, or whether they are there, but are too small to see AT THIS TIME, they will show up eventually...its just a matter of "do you want to wait and see" or "know NOW".
