Finding Relief From Numb Feet

[TimThomas24]

Very glad to have found this place and at least realize 1) I'm not alone with my symptoms and 2) Its not in my head.I'm 36 yr old male. Woke up 3 weeks ago in the middle of the night and notices my left foot had pins and needles, almost asleep. The right one felt the same but not as bad. Ignored it but it didn't go away and every morning I'd get up the first few steps felt like the left foot was asleep. Several days later, I wake up again during the night, after returning from bathroom to bed, I notice my calves are twitching, my feet are twitching, and pretty much out of the blue I'm twitching in my arms, hands, eye, nose, buttocks. All over the place and the onset was literally over night. That was two weeks ago. I went to my PCP a few days later, who called them fasciculations and suggested the fact that I'd gone from daily vigorous exercise to once a week and sitting at work and in a new class 8 hours a week that this could have set it off. He also said a bad stressful week I'd had before it started and a viral infection I'd had the same week could have set it off. He didn't even examine my reflexes (although he ordered several blood tests- all normal, and sent me on my way. I confided my fear of ALS and he laughed it off. He also pointed out the fact that my twitches started so suddenly and so widespread (eyes and nose) as proof this wasn't anything too sinister. I felt huge relief and felt better for a few days with some but lesser twitching. Than I made the mistake of googling twitching and pins and needles in the feet and 5 hours of my life later I'd convinced myself it was ALS or MS. Brings me to today. 3 weeks into this worrisome nightmare and I pretty much have the tingling pins and needles in the left foot which is worse at night/morning. And mostly calf and feet twitching (more severe in the left lower leg but definitely in both). I am running the same and lifting weights and don't feel weaker and while the gym used to be an escape from stress its now become a weekly test to see if I notice anything different or lost muscle. I've taken to staring at my calves and actually found a small dimple on the lower left one and wonder if my hands are skinnier than before...its really making me feel mental and even ashamed. I try to dismiss it but then I look at my little 2 and 5 yr old and get a wave of fear that this could be something dreaded that takes me before I see them grow up. My questions for you guys are:1) does this sound like BFS?2) should I listen to my doc and others and put ALS/MS out of my mind given my symptoms? I keep telling myself the sensory symptom (pins and needles) along with the fact that the twitches started all over and so suddenly point to something other than the dreaded ALS. Any answers or reassurance would be appreciated. Thanks,-TJ

 

[Krackersones]

My symptoms came on suddenly and were widespread also (calves, feet, lips, cheek (face and buttocks), and yes the tongue). I had blood tests that showed extreme high levels of autoimmune antibodies on two occassions followed by a test a few months later that was totally normal. I also had two negative sensory nerve exams (clinical and NCV test) before ones that showed severe abnormalities. The fact that your symptoms have decreased is a good sign. Mine never did. I still have no weakness but I think it's clear something in my immune system set off my symptoms. I mentioned my test result history because it proves to me at least that the clues can be easily missed if the tests aren't given at the moment in time when the clues are present or that some of these tests are prone to being done incorrectly. I've learned that the immune system can indeed impact the nervous system and show up in a range of types of symptoms to very mild to extremely severe and that both types can heal. I don't know what happened in your case but the phenomenon is well documented just not well understood. If you've getting better, focus on that. That is a big deal.Krackersones

 

[simonw00]

The way you describe the onset of your symptoms and the progress since then sounds just like mine own BFS (I am almost 6 months into it now).The generalised nature of your fasciculations, affecting multiple body sites, it typical of BFS and totally uncharacteristic of other neurological diseases.Good luckSImon

 

[Outlook1958]

Hey there! As from all I have read, you have a whole of three four that would actually rule out **S:1) Your twitching is bodywide - **S-twithces use to start in one limb and progress over time2) You don't have any clinical weakness. Maybe you have some perceived fatigue or something, but trust me: If you had clinical weakness, the neuro would and have noticed it and you would have mentioned it - this is nothing you can "maybe not notice" becaus you "haven't looked at it closely enough".3) Pins and needles actually never occur in **S-patients. **S affects only the motor neurons, i.e. the nerves that control movements. Pins and needles feeling is (in the most most MOST worst case) a malfunction of the SENSORY nerves that transfer information like heat, cold, touching and pain from your skin to your brain. Once more, sensory nerves are NOT affected by **S.4) In addition to that, the neuro did not suspect anything.Oh and please, do not look for dents and dimples on your body... Almost every person is somehow assymetrical. In case of muscle atrophy some sort of weakness will occur long before the muscle atrophy (e.g. in the leg) becomes visible by the naked eye.Trust your neuro, try to calm down and concentrate on something pleasant. This helps a lot against anxiety... You can battle it.

 

[TimThomas24]

Thanks so much to all of you who responded: Imok, Krackersones, Simon and Angst. I much appreciate your comments. Krackersones its interesting you mention autoimmune irregularities as a possible cause in your case. I've had acute pancreatitis before (the only other health issue I've really ever had) and they never figured out a cause despite a number of tests. But one thing one specialist mentioned was that it can be a subtle autoimmune cause and he thought I had a possibly overactive immune system. Anyway, although I've not seen a neuro, just a PCP, I feel a lot of reassurance from the comments I got concerning my symptoms. I was actually able to go out to dinner with the kids and enjoy the first evening in about 3 weeks. Even though my wrist was twitching, I just shrugged it off. I've noticed that exercise really helps me feel less twitchy afterwards that day even though the pins and needles in the foot occurs when I run. I still feel much better afterwards. So thanks for all the input and I'm done with Dr. Google. There's no point to it anymore.