How long to get diagnosed?

[Guest guest]

Hi Gang,

Greetings and good thoughts to all.

Maureen - you asked how long ago did I have symptoms? My first symptom was

speech problems 9 years ago. I saw neurologist and he said my left side was

slightly weaker than right (I hadn't noticed), but my speech was ok during

the visit, so he said come back in 12 months. In the meantime the local

doctor said my speech problem was psychological due to stress. I liked this

diagnosis better, so went along with it (curable) and I had counselling and

hypnotherapy relaxation sessions for 3 years till I couldn't fool myself any

longer. I was tripping, falling over, speech getting worse, left hand

weakness, and depression - now I was really stressed. I asked doctor to

send me back to neurologist, and I then had 2 MRI's, electrical tests, 2 PET

Scans, but no diagnosis. I looked up my encyclopeadia, and decided my

symptoms matched MND, but no doctor would commit himself to a diagnosis. It

was dragging on so long, that I decided myself that I more than likely had

Motor Neurone Disease. I then saw nine neuro's in a panel - nothing

definite. Then saw Dr Rowe at the MND Clinic at RNSH - and was diagnosed

with PLS in 1998. He had only seen one other case of PLS, and that was

overseas in UK. What a lot has changed for me in 9 years.

Best regards

Janet in Australia