Chronic Twitching, Paresthesia, & Pain

[LolaBoozLolaNoel]

Hi all,I'm 29 (female), and since I was 22 I've been getting 'attacks' of all over twitching and paresthesia (burning, water dropping on me, sharp stings etc). These last a week or so and then go. It happens once or twice a year.This year, the twitching and tingling came back and hung around for 4 months. With it, I was getting pain down the back of my knees and the inside of my elbows, a vibrating body when I went to bed, a weak right hand and arm and dizziness when I tilt my head (though the dizziness could be BPPV or unrelated) and some other stuff. I've been to the doctors so many times, when this first started 7 years ago, several times since. I'm always dismissed- 'If this was MS you'd have problems walking' or 'if this was MS your vision would go'. This year, they finally tested me for vitamin deficiencies (came back fine) and sent me for an MRI of my head which came back 'perfectly normal'. I've never been so shocked- I was fully prepared for them to find lesions on my brain. When I last spoke to the doctor, he said 'well, you know, everyone gets twitches'. This made me so cross, because I twitch all over so badly that I twitch in my dreams too, and I constantly feel like my legs are sunburnt or that I have spiders crawling under my skin. I reasoned that I must be one of the 5% of MS patients who don't show lesions on MRIs. Then again, my sister pointed out that if I had MS and have been having symptoms for 7 years, something definitely would have shown itself. I have always severe health anxiety (at 7 I thought I had heart disease, at 8 it was AIDS, at 9 it was arthritis and I used to get up and check my joints every morning), so this year has been utter, utter hell. I resigned myself to this being MS and bought loads of book of Amazon, started following a diet for people with MS and started doing crazy long runs to prove to myself that I'm not dying. I have anxiety attacks all the time, I cry and cry, and must have wasted 100s of hours obsessively googling trying to work out what is wrong with me. My doctors are so useless I feel like they'll never give me any answers. Weirdly, my symptoms stopped completely a few weeks ago. I couldn't believe it. I later found out I am pregnant, and the symptoms stopped the time the embryo would have implanted, which makes me think this has to be auto-immune, since pregnancy calms the immune system down. Can I ask what pattern your twitching/parethesias follow? I think this is MS because it comes in attacks, which fade away. I can't find anywhere other people's BFS following this pattern of relapses/remissions. Thanks.

 

[loveu2]

Hi Loobyloo - i had to reply because i am shocked; you are the only other person I have read here who had symptoms disappear when pregnant! That is exactly what happened to me...twice! I also have severe health anxiety. Twitches started in 2003, saw a neuro mid way through 2004. Got all clear after EMG where he saw fasciculations but nothing he was concerned about. He didnt even ask for follow up - benign and type A personality apparently! In 2010 I got pregnant and in about week 10 I noticed symptoms easing, by 4 months totally gone. I was beyond shocked. They stayed away until about a year after my first daughter was born. Got pregnant soon after again and same pattern. My twitches returned with a bang in Jan this year (when my second daughter was just over 1). I must say I only twitch for the most part but get a lot of muscle tension. I twitch from any sort of strong use of a muscle. I get every single type of twitch and everywhere. Some days not so bad others insane. I do not have the 'attacks' you describe. Given the pregnancies I too have often thought it must be autoimmune...but I don't have a breeze what that might mean?? Are you thinking MS? I too have sometimes really been concerned about MS but I have absolutely no symptoms (I take it twitches are not really a symptom on their own?). At this stage I sort of feel, listen whatever it is it's been 11/12 years so maybe it just is what it is?! Is this how you feel or does the autoimmune thing scare you??HPC

 

[RedFalcon]

I've had your problems for over a year, and I'm a 29 y.o male. If you've had symptoms for 7 years without any progression or lesions, it's not MS. People who have MS and are fine usually control it with drugs. You don't even need those. My symptoms ramp-up when I get a cold. SOunds like being pregnant made them come back, and they dissapated as maybe you began to sleep more, or eat better. Maybe they'll even totally go away