Do I Have Multiple Sclerosis (MS)?

Q:  I am 18 years old. A few years ago my vision started getting bad and I started to get a lot of floaters in both eyes. I went to a retina specialists and he said it was probably caused by some type of auto immune disease because I had a lot of inflammation in my eye, so we did a bunch of tests for stuff like Lyme disease and a few others. They all came back negative and he said that it could possibly be MS but I didn't have other symptoms so we just kind of figured there is really nothing we could do. In the past few months I've experienced a lot of weird symptoms. A big change was bladder problems. I had to pee way too much and especially at night. And I had a feeling of it not being completely empty and also a hesitancy to urinate. Another symptom was one of my legs felt very weak and just felt really strange,and this lasted about 3-4 weeks. I also have found that my speech has changed, I tend to have trouble saying stuff or articulating my words, sometimes even slurring them. I am planning on getting an MRI when I go home for spring break from college but my question is do you believe that these symptoms are an indication that I could possibly have MS?

Answer:  Those are great questions. I can certainly understand why you would be concerned about MS. In fact there are many things that could be causing your symptoms. An MRI scan of the head and spinal cord as well as a trip to see a neurologist are definitely the first steps and should be done during your Spring Break. Keep us posted. We’d be happy to see you if you are anywhere near San Diego

--Dr Kinkel

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