@aintist @StillIRise1963 @samhainnight
BEFAST symptoms indicate a potential neurological emergency. One of the things that can cause those symptoms is a stroke, but they can be caused by other things. Medicine isn't a tidy group of singular causes for singular symptoms, it's a messy beast where one symptom could be caused by a dozen different things. If one of those dozen things can be life-threatening, then you go to the ER and get the life-threatening things ruled out (or confirmed and treated). If I have chest pain, it could be gas, heartburn, a sore rib, a rib muscle spasm, or a heart attack, so I'd have to go to the ER to see if it's a heart attack. Numbness on its own could be a sign of a stroke, so it's safest to make sure it's not one, but it can also be due to MS as you said, and it could also be caused by a brain tumor, head trauma, brain abscess, encephalitis, viral infection, lupus, B12 deficiency, diabetes, hypothyroidism, kidney problems, and other causes. When in doubt, call the primary care provider and have someone there triage whether you should schedule an appointment or go to the emergency room, since they know your history. If they are closed, try to see an urgent care that is in the same health system so they can see your records easily. When in doubt, check it out (in the ER).