A number of symptoms are associated with the average patient’s MS onset. They include numbness and tingling in the extremities as well as other neurological symptoms. However, the severity of the symptoms, their progression and other nuances vary between patients.
Why a Patient’s MS Onset May Take a While to Become Apparent
As with many medical conditions, MS is not necessarily evident from the get-go. A given patient may develop a variety of symptoms over time, never thinking to associate them with each other. It is only much later, after the patient has been diagnosed with MS and has started to do some research on the disease, that he or she may realize that the earliest of those symptoms were actually indications of his or her MS onset. Thus, one patient may speak of experiencing numbness in the legs, developing an unsteady gait and feeling fatigue as the symptoms that drove him or her to consult a doctor. Then the patient may realize, upon diagnosis, that the flu-like condition he or she had experienced months previously was actually the first indication that something was wrong.
In some people, the development of new symptoms after the MS onset is only a matter of days. In yet other patients, it may take weeks or even months for new symptoms to be experienced. The new symptoms are typically indicative that a different section of nervous tissue has been affected. In other words, they may confirm that the demyelination and inflammation of the nervous tissue has spread further. Thus, a patient who starts out by feeling numbness in the extremities, subsequently develops an abnormal gait, then develops blurred vision in one eye is sure to be experiencing progressive damage to the nerves that transmit messages between the brain and the affected parts of the body.
In a number of patients, the MS onset is not marked by symptoms that are distinct to MS. For instance, a patient who experiences dizziness and balance issues due to MS is unlikely to be diagnosed correctly in the absence of other symptoms. The patient might be given the indication that she is suffering from a condition like an ear infection or hormonal imbalance. A patient whose only MS-associated symptoms are numbness in the hands and fingers is more likely to attribute these to carpal tunnel syndrome than to multiple sclerosis. Only with detailed analyses by a medical professional will the patient discover that carpal tunnel syndrome is not applicable to his or her case. Subsequently, the patient may be subjected to a series of tests that will ultimately reveal his or her MS onset.
