acutelyaware
Member
Hi everyone. I'm new to this site and would like to share my story. I'm sure it will sound familiar to everyone, but I've never had a chance to talk about it. So here it goes.Since I was a child I would have twitching occasionally as most people do, always on my eyelids. It would usually only last a couple of days, or maybe a week, and would only happen maybe once every two or three years. Over time I realized that things could trigger my twitches such as eating too much fruit or drinking too much juice (the vitamin C I suppose) or being around things that triggered my allergies, such as dander or dust. I would make sure to avoid these things, but I always had a fear that there would be a time that my twitches would start and never stop. And my fear came true.When I was 23 I was working as a teacher's aide with 1st grade students. I never was around children that much before, so from working with them daily I was always sick, as many 1st year people in education are (I suppose this is when I got the virus that started my bfs). I got a twitch in my eye after being sick for about the 5th time that year. It was especially annoying and would twitch 24/7, but I didn't think much of it. From previous experience I figured it would go away in a week, and I made sure to stay away from the usual triggers. But after a month of non-stop twitching I became worried. I looked on the internet for possible solutions and found that lack of calcium in one's diet could cause twitching. I figured this was reasonable because my diet did lack calcium. I purchased some chewable calcium supplements and took one daily, stopping after two weeks. I went on a camping trip with the students a week later for 5 days, and had no twitching the whole time. The day we got back my twitching started all over again, much worse than before. Instead of my eyelids it was now my whole face, tongue, arms, hands, legs, stomach, butt, legs, feet, everywhere!!! It was driving me insane.I began taking my calcium supplements daily, and figured I would have to take them a lot longer than two weeks for the calcium to get into my body and for things to normalize. About two months later, I had terrible food poisoning and wasn't able to keep anything down. I didn't take my calcium for 3 days and the twitching came back. When I was better, I began taking calcium daily again. But after a week the twitching got even worse becoming severely violent, and causing me to feel sharp stabbing headaches, a crawling feeling in my anus, and closed up my sinuses. It was clear the calcium wasn't helping. I researched on the internet again and found that calcium, zinc, and magnesium relieved twitching. I found a supplement that contained all 3 and within an hour of taking it my twitches stopped. I was seriously concerned that there was something really wrong with me and I went to my general practitioner. He looked at me like I was crazy and said it was just stress, but I insisted on a blood test. The blood test came back normal. Next I went to neurologist. He did a few small tests and said I was fine. Still with no answers I saw an allergist. I remembered that my twitching was triggered by dust and dander and thought that was the problem. That doctor gave me some prescriptions which did nothing for my twitching. I saw another general practitioner. This time I was armed with lots of research I found on the internet and demanded numerous tests. The doctor refused to do some tests, but agreed to others. All those tests came back fine.I realized that I probably wouldn't find a doctor to take me seriously, and that I was the only one who could help me. I ended up diagnosing myself with bfs. After years on the internet and trials and tribulations, this is what I have found:-Around the same time I developed bfs I also became allergic to dairy. The dairy products would cause even more twitching and would cause my throat to itch and close up, and the diarrhea I suffered from the dairy dehydrated me and caused even more twitching. I cut out all dairy from my diet. This has helped greatly.-Allergies do cause me to twitch. Especially dust and dander. I stay away from these things. If I do encounter them I twitch, and the only thing that clears these things from my system is taking a hot shower, blowing my nose repeatedly, and eating a meal to clear my throat.-Magnesium is a life saver!!!!!!!! I used to take magnesium by itself, 250 mg, but now I take it in a multi-vitamin and it works the same. If I don't have my magnesium at roughly the same time each day I twitch.-Around the same time that I developed bfs I also developed tinea versicolor. It's a fungal rash of the skin. It's treatable but annoying and leaves your skin in splotches for months and recurs yearly. I figured the fungus and the twitching were related, so I went on a candida diet. This helped my fungus as well as my twitching. Now I eat very little sugar and processed foods, and lots of fresh vegetables. I had to use a sulfur mud to completely rid myself of the fungus, but that's another story.It seems that my twitching pops up anytime my body goes through something it doesn't like: stress, allergies, poor diet, diarrhea, having to hold your #2 when a bathroom isn't available, illness, medications, etc. I take my multi-vitamin with magnesium daily and that is a miracle, but occasionally my twitching flares up when its triggered. My fear now is that the magnesium will stop working and nothing will be able to stop my twitches. I try to lead a healthy lifestyle to keep my twitches at bay, and simply to be healthy. I've heard that drugs to treat Tourette's(sp?) syndrome also helps with twitches. But I hope I never have to resort to that. I wish doctors would understand that bfs is a serious problem for many people and would conduct research into finding a cure. I don't think I would be able to live with severe twitching all over 24/7 for the rest of my life. I know that supposedly it goes away or subdues after a few years, but I'm still waiting for that day. I've heard of people who have had bfs for 7, 10, 15 years. As long as the magnesium works I can deal with it, but I am just so scared that one day it will stop working.