Does the lesion or symptom occur first in multiple sclerosis and can the lesion appear 5 years later than the symptoms?

While early MS patients may have a normal brain MRI, often the spinal.MRI would show abnormalities. I doubt 5 years of true MS symptoms would go by without positive MRI findings though. A neurologist would be best to answer your question, however.

It is not uncommon for a patient with MS to have lesions consistent with the disease prior to symptoms (radiologically isolated syndrome). The typical lesions never would appear 5 yrs subsequent to clinical symptoms.