The second coming......

Well folks, it looked like (as I kind of thought it might when I was writing the entry) that I spoke a little too soon on the previous entry.

A very mild but familiar feeling came over me last week when I was driving up and down this great country and almost instantaneously I rang Lourdes hospital in Liverpool to get booked in with my consultant neurologist Dr Nicholson.

The mild feeling is similar to that described in the beginning of my blog over a year ago http://mj2000uk.blogspot.com/2007/03/today-medication-starts.html and I recognise the cramp like feeling coming on and moving down the left side of my body making me feel like a complete spastic while it happens. As I say, this is a mild version of it so spasticity is not quite there yet but I know what this will develop into so I was straight over to Lourdes!!!

Anyway, Kerris and I went to see the consultant tonight (I always like to take Kerris as she seems able to fill in all kinds of blanks that I cant) and after explaining all that's going on on top of the usual hand numbness and balance on the left side we came to the rather obvious conclusion that what happened to me last year was not a one off. I don't swear much but........*******ks.

I now face the very real possibility that this could be MS.

We had quite a long chat with the consultant and decided that there is still a chance that it may not be and that I can be tested for a further condition (neuromyelitis optica or Devic's disease - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devic's_disease) and that the best course of action was to hold out to see if these attacks get worse and if not there will be a note sent from my consultant to my GP for a course of Methylprednisolone and anyone who reads the blog will remember the fun I had with that last year.

All in all though, I feel quite upbeat. The attacks aren't severe, I have a course of treatment on standby if they change and I am being tested for something other than MS (although the consultant did say that MS was the better of the two to have!!!).

If over time I can find something to control the numbness and weakness and the worst case for me is a course of steroids once a year then I can handle that. There is also a strength in me that says "Listen Mike, you have been here and stared this in the face before" so I am not heading into territory that is unknown. So yes, I feel more up than down.

Also on the plus side....just downloaded the new Def Leppard album. Now there is a reason to be cheerful!!!!