My husband is 32 year old, east-Indian male. He has been complaining about numbness & tingling in his ring finger and big toe since 2006 (right & left side, more on the left side). In April 2007 he saw a neurologist who did blood tests and MRI of lumbar & cervical spine. Impression from the lumbar MRI report shows 1) congenital spinal stenosis, 2) mild disc degeneration L3-4, 3) moderate foraminal narrowing L3-4, L4-5 & L5-S1, 4) multilevel facet degenerative change, 5) small non-specific lesion L5 vertebral body, likely benign. Cervical spine MRI impression showed 1) multi-level disc degenerative change, most-marked at C4-5, 2) no intramedullary cord lesion identified. The blood test showed two abnormal values, RDW was 10.4 (normal 11.5-15.2) and CPK 16,068 (normal 49-397). The doctor decided to re-test the CPK & RDW again in 3 days. RDW was 10.2 and CPK was 498 (both still out-of-range). At the same time he was also diagnosed with carpel tunnel syndrome. The doctor ruled out MS. But the numbness & tingling continued every two-three weeks in 2007. These episodes don’t last for more than 24 hrs- 48 hrs.

In October 2007 I was going through miscarriage and it was a very stressful time for the both of us. The week we knew I was going to miscarry my husband suddenly had difficulty speaking. When he would talk his mouth would pull in one direction (to the left-I am not sure) which was accompanied by twitching of muscles near the mouth and the eyelid. We immediately saw his neurologist who did another MRI and blood tests & confirmed everything was normal. This episode lasted for about 48 hours decreasing in severity slowly and he was back to normal. His tingling & numbness has continued since then with a slight increase in frequency (every 2 weeks, once again lasts for about 24-48 hrs). He also feels tingling near his mouth & lips occasionally.

He had another episode of problem with his speech in June 2008 (which lasted for few hours). Once again he was under a great deal of stress that day as we were going through artificial insemination to get pregnant. This time it was not nearly as bad as the episode in October 2007 and it only last for few hours. Most recently, a couple of days ago he woke up in the morning and said he was seeing double when he looked to his right. He also informed me that when he woke up around 2.00PM the previous night he felt the world was spinning and he said he felt his right eye was moving involuntarily. Since I am an eye specialist I checked his eyes and noticed that he had a very slight restriction of right lateral rectus and he was seeing double (no difference in vision between the two eyes). We noticed this problem around 6.30AM in the morning and by the time we called the neurologist for an appointment at 9.30AM it was gone. He was back to normal with no double vision or restriction of the eye muscle within 2-3 hours. Being in the medical field I know a lot about MS and I am really worried that he might be showing early symptoms of MS. He will be seeing his neurologist very soon. My husband is also in the medical field and he doesn’t think he has MS. He has come up with his own diagnosis of small fiber neuropathy. I don’t believe he has that condition and I am more worried about MS. Please let me know what you think. He has never complained of weakness in his arms or legs, he is very active (plays tons of sports 3-4 days a week) and very healthy. However, he is a very light smoker (4-6 cigs/day for 8 years). We have both been tested for infectious diseases (Syphilis, AIDS etc) and we are both normal.