My Most 
Recent Episode

Beginning sometime around the middle of December, my chest began to hurt.  I thought maybe I was getting pneumonia or brochitis.  I went to my regular physician who told me he thought it was joint pain maybe even a touch of arthritis.  He suggested I try Ibrupofen to help with the pain.  Well, for the next 4 weeks I kept going back to the doctor and made two trips to the ER.  The doctors told me that I had pleurisy (inflammation in the lining around the lungs).  I was on several different anti-inflammatory drugs, which ended up giving me an ulcer.  I also tried going to physical therapy to help stretch the tendons in my chest and keep up my strength.  Nothing seemed to be helping!  I finally decided to call my neurologist's office because once some of the pain had subsided I could tell that I was having muscle spasms.  I ended up with muscle spasms basically from my chin to my waist.  The scariest being the ones in my throat!  My neurologist prescribed me Baclofen for the spasms and Neurontin for the pain.  They seemed to really help!  As of right now, the spasms seem to have lessened.  I still have them and the pain, but not near as bad.  I went to see my neurologist in February and he suggested that maybe the MS has gone into my spinal cord and that he wanted me to get a MRI (of the spinal cord).  I have never had one, only of the brain.  He also suggested maybe doing IV steroid treatments to end this, but he wants to see the MRI results first.  I'm not sure that I'm going to need that because I think it is going to stop on it's own.  Atleast I hope so!

Well, my MRI results came back with great news!  I do not have lesions on my spinal cord!!  Wonderful!  However, I was still experiencing the muscle spasms and having a lot pain.  I was also having a lot of dizziness and an all over 'sick' feeling.  My neurologist decided that iv steroid treatments were a good idea.  I had 3 days of iv's followed by 18 days of a Prednisone taper.  The first 2 days of steroids I felt really good, but then on the third day the spasms were back.  The dizziness seemed to have been knocked out of my system too for awhile.  I started noticing the dizziness again probably a week after the iv's.  My neurologist called in a prescription of Clonazepam to help with that.  It seemed to do the trick!  However, I'm thinking that maybe the dizziness might have come from the Prednisone.

It has now been a three weeks since the iv's and only a few days after being done with the Prednisone.  I still have the muscle spasms and pain.  Unfortunately, the spasms in my neck and throat seemed to have returned.  Yuck!  At this point I don't really know if the steroids helped me or not.  Maybe more time needs to go by to get the full affect.  From what I've been told some people notice a difference right away and for some it takes a few weeks.  I'm still continuing to take the Baclofen and Neurontin to help with the spasms.