Re: Question about Lumbar Puncture

[Guest guest]

Anne,

When a lesion is active, or white on an MRI, that means, to my understanding

that there's inflammation there, and that the activity with the lesions

means it's doing some damage somewhere.. [However, on my last MRI, I had a

large lesion on the left side, but nothing strange is happening to the right

side of my body.. other than my toes doing their curl thing.. I had a small

lesion on the right frontal lobe, but that's where I'm seeing most of my

problems... go figure]

Inactive means there's no inflammation, therefore supposedly no damage

happening..

I'm sure somebody else will be along though, with a little more knowledge

than I, and they will probably explain it a whole lot better than I can.

|)onna

Re: Re: Question about Lumbar Puncture

> > They appear white

> > in an contrast MRI when they are " active " and gray when they are not

> > active, but they are still visible on the MRIs.

>

> Jackie,

>

> What is your understanding of " active " and " not active? " I mean, if the

> lesion

> is active, then what is that supposed to indicate? I'm still a little

foggy

> about

> that whole business.

>

> Anne

>

>

[Guest guest]

Anne

Active plagues tell the neuro which part of the brain or spinal cord

MAY be affected. For me, I had an active plague that the radiologist

report indicated may affect memory. I laughed when I read that

because I hadn't noticed I was having any more difficulty with memory

than usual. It was 6-9 mos. later that my work performance was

indicating that I wasn't remembering really important tasks, etc. Did

I remember reading that in my MRI report? Nope. Didn't even remember

having read that 6-8 mos. prior.

Another time, I had what I though was a creak in my neck. I thought

I'd slept on it wrong. I took lots of ibuprofen. The next time I saw

the neuro, he asked me if I was having any pain and I said, " no. " The

automatic resonse. He prompted me more by asking about specific pain

and I remembered about the creak in my neck. I told him but I told

him I don't think it was related to the MS. He sent me for my 5th MRI

and low and behold, I had an active plaque on the left side of my

cervical spinal cord. That's where the pain was coming from. He

called it neuropathic pain.

So, that's my understanding of how plagues relate to my specic

symptoms. I have more plaques than I can count (or care to), but I'm

still walking, talking, etc. The deficits that I'm aware of are

intractable fatigue and concentration ability.

I think that I had MS way before my first MRI, so it's hard for me to

relate to a " normal " MRI. I've never seen one. Mine have been riddled

which plagues since day one. If you are having some symptomology,

your MRI may point to the cause, but maybe not.

I don't have a ton of knowledge beyond my own personal experience so

I don't know how helpful I am. Sorry.

-- Jackie M.

> > They appear white

> > in an contrast MRI when they are " active " and gray when they are

not

> > active, but they are still visible on the MRIs.

>

> Jackie,

>

> What is your understanding of " active " and " not active? " I mean,

if the

> lesion

> is active, then what is that supposed to indicate? I'm still a

little foggy

> about

> that whole business.

>

> Anne

[Guest guest]

> Active plagues tell the neuro which part of the brain or spinal cord

> MAY be affected.

Thanks, Jackie. I know one of my lesions was enhanced

with the contrast and that was not good.

I have to have another MRI in March to compare it to the one

in August. If it looks worse, I can't imagine what they will do to me???

I've already passed all of their tests and I'm still not experiencing

any symptoms that I am aware of.

Oh well.....in the meantime, life is good and I feel very very lucky.

Thanks again,

Anne