Pre-diagnosis symptoms May 2003 and June 2005

A bit about me:
I was 33 when I first had symptoms of MS. Of course, they weren't recognised as such then. Having received the diagnosis I entered a new world.... Any family with MS: no. Brought up: Leicestershire (not known for being near the equator....) Previous major illnesses: glandular fever (one month), flu (two weeks), streptococcus infection (one month)
My interests were: hiking mountain-walking cycling (but I haven't been able to do them for the past few years)so new on the list is research into news about MS.... and distance-learning courses (molecular biology) to try to get a new career off the ground....

I know there are lots of sites dealing with multiple sclerosis, but none covers what happens prior to diagnosis. Also, my set of symptoms were not the norm - first RSI was diagnosed, then carpal tunnel syndrome. Two years later it was a burst blood-vessel in my brain as the diagnosis, for which I was shipped off to hospital, then perhaps early-onset Parkinsons. Five months after the hospital stay, eventually, MS was confirmed.
The "typical" first symptoms are:

• loss of vision
• double vision
• numbness
• muscle weakness
• balance problems
• bladder disturbance.

Nope, I didn't have any of them. The first symtoms I got in May 2003 started at the tip of my thumb, with a throbbing, which turned into pins and needles over the insides of my thumb and the next 2 fingers. After some months, my middle finger got better, but the rest stayed bad, with a feeling of electric shock if anyone or anything touched the inner faces of those digits. So my first symptom was:

• paresthesia

Two years later (June 2005), I became very very tired over the course of a week, and one day my right leg felt odd, but I couldn't (and still can't) describe how. The next day I struggled to cycle, especially uphill. I thought I was coming down with a virus. Second and third symptoms:

• something wrong with my leg
• fatigue

I then had a whole train-load of symptoms which put me in the hospital. I'll cover those separately - these were the ones that made the medical profession accept there was something wrong.