Hello Shelley-
Sorry to hear that you feel like you have been getting the run around... Speaking of which, you said you had Kaiser insurance... I am a nurse as well and fully understand the complexitities of Kaiser's "Healthy till proven otherwise" philosophy. And well, Kaiser docs won't go against another Kaiser docs dx... This is all my opnion on that insurance.
There are cases of people that, in fact, have MS with NO lesions seen on MRI. They still have MS. There are people that have very mild to very severe MS and EVERYTHING in between. There is no time line as to how long symptoms are around before they get worse, if they get worse. I don't know if you have MS. I do know that without lesions seen on MRI it is unlikely that any doc will dx you with MS because there are too many other possibilities of what can cause your symptoms, MS is just one of them.
Having said that, I FULLY understand the fustration KNOWING something is wrong, yet no medical dx, and the docs not understanding or knowing... Working as an RN in acute care and critical care, I have seen people DIE from small quirks and doctors not taking the patient seriously because their symptoms are so vague. For me, as a nurse, this can highten MY anxieties about my body and my health, not that any of these things has happened to me... Well being told I had MS was life altering ...
Since these symptoms have been going on for 12 years it is not emergently life threatening. You may never know WHY this is happening. You get to decide how much time, energy and money you want to put into figuring it out. Knowing that I have MS sucks. Somethings makes sense, other things don't. I WISH I NEVER KNEW!!! There is no cure, no defined course of the disease, medications are painful and expensive, and being diagnosed with a chronic illness really makes life hard in general, if it wasn't already.
And you thought you were long winded..lol. Well I wish the best of luck to you.
Sandy C.
Diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis September 2003 currently taking Copaxone SQ QD, Aricept 10 mg PO QD, Welbutrin XL 300mg PO QD, and Provigil 200mg PO BID.