SakuraLover
New member
Hello, I'm new here and have a long history of symptoms, that seem to be changing in the last few months. I'm hoping to get some input from people and see what you guys think. I'll try to keep this as succinct as possible. Almost 2 years ago, I started to notice very mild atrophy in the muscle between my thumb and forefinger of my left hand. Didn't think anything of it as I didn't feel any effects functionally at all. As time went on, the atrophy got worse, very slowly. I don't remember feeling any other symptoms at all, only the atrophy.Last year, I started feeling very infrequent twitches in my legs, usually after a lot of walking or running. In January 2012, I started to feel some odd fatigue/weakness in my right hand. Nothing major, just a little weird lifting things, especially in awkward positions. But I figured I should have it checked out, given the stuff already going on in my left hand.I saw a neurologist, very reputable, who examined me and found the atrophy and weakness on the left but not on the right. I had some EMGs done and there were signs of ulnar neuropathy left more than right. Got an MRI of my elbow and sure enough, the ulnar nerve was inflamed and thickened. My symptoms were pretty consistent with ulnar neuropathy too. I was treating it as such, and symptoms improved. However, in the last 6 months I have been feeling other symptoms that seem to be changing each month. Here's a rundown:- Twitching has gradually spread all over the place. Face, tongue, arms, legs, feet. Some spots twitch more than others, like my right foot/calf, right tricep/forearm, and left index finger. Some days are worse than others, seemingly random.-Intermittent feelings of muscle fatigue that changes from week to week, sometimes day to day. I may do a very simple task that feels exhausting, but then the same day lift weights and I'm fine. However, my body feels EXHAUSTED the day after a workout. I should mention my working out has severely declined over the last 8 months or so for work reasons.- Very mild and infrequent cramping in my hands and front shoulders/pecs- Swallowing large bites, especially dry foods, feels "different," no choking or getting stuck or anything, just a little different going down. Liquids are fine. Chewing sometimes feels fatiguing in my jaw and tongue.- Lips feel fatigued when talking a lot, kissing, or whistling. Some days there is this tight feeling around my mouth like it needs to stretch.- Lots of tingling in hands and feet. Mostly positionally dependent, but not always for my feet. I'm very sensitive to positions, however.- At times I cannot take a full satisfying breath due to a feeling of tightness in my ribs. This was a lot worse a month ago, but has improved. No shortness of breath with exertion. - Strange feeling that my toes are not helping me walk or balance. My feet slide out behind me a little if I walk on a smooth floor. No actual loss of balance, just feels a little wobbly as the toes feel weak. Right foot gets tired when walking/running.- Lots of general achyness, nerve type pain on occasion.I told the first neuro about all this, and after second clinical exam, I had no actual clinical signs. She suggested a combo of anxiety and BFS superimposed over ulnar neuropathy. She said there is no way I would have atrophy there for 2 years and have no other actual weakness in my hand let alone the rest of my body and have it be something sinister. I saw a second neuro, who EMG'd and NCV'd everything including my tongue, arms, and legs, and told me the same thing. The only positive results show up in my ulnar nerve. I guess my questions are:1) Does anyone else here have a story like this (ie, nerve pathology on top of BFS)?2) Do those other symptoms I listed outside the left hand sound familiar to you guys?I'm still freaking out a bit. Had lots of bloodwork done and there are some things popping up, possible Celiac's, CRP and ANA values are positive, B12 and Vitamin D issues. Every medical person I've spoken to thus far is telling me to relax, but I'm having a hard time. Any and all thought are greatly appreciated, thank you so much.Steve
(it is because I am working without dayoffs and spend 14 hours a day in the net).Coming back to your issue: what I do know is that usually ulnar neuropaty results in certain atrophy because the neuro axon is not doing its work properly due to entrapment and inflammation. And this is the reason why people with ulnar or carpal syndromes are still even in our days of ENMG etc. could be wrongly diagnosed with MND onset. Just because the clinical picture is similar. However ulnar neuropathy is still reversible (in most cases, as far as I know) by means of physio therapy (including shock waves application which is quite new) or sometimes in severe cases with surgery. And it does not affect brain motor neurons, as ALS.There is no direct link, as far as I know, between BFS and ulnar/carpal neuropaties, except maybe the fact that the last is related often to typing for hours, and this means office work and stress, while stress is definitely one of BFS provoking factors.All the symptomes you describe in your list fit quite well into BFS and anxiety picture. if you get some search, you will find all of them here. For me it looks like swallowing and breathing problems are prominently related to anxiety (because I am a GAD sufferer and suffer both kinds of that crap for years), all the rest seem to look like typical sensory and fatigue issues assosiated with BFS. There are also people here who share your feeling of walking on unstable ground.Widespread twitches, sometimes in several points at the same time, are ususlly assosiated with benign syndromes. Anyway, without clinical weakness no twitches could be considered as sinister sign.There are also people here with neuropaties combined with BFS and I am sure they woudl respond to your post in a more experienced way that i did.regardsYulia
Last month I was on ibuprofen for a week and it helped, but I can’t take this medicine forever. Did the operations you had for the ulnar neuropathy solved the problem?