Questions About BFS and Numbness

StygianFox

New member
Hey all,I've been visiting your forums for quite a while now, and found them extreme helpful!I have a few questions in regards to BFS and if it is something I'm dealing with.About 8 months ago, I had an episode where I had I went numb from the knee's down and from the elbows to my finger tips. This totally freaked me out, but after an MRI revealed a broadbased disc herniation touching both my nerves and putting a slight pressure on my spinal chord these symptoms were explainable.Being quite stressed out about the whole ordeal and the possibility of surgery I started noticing other symptoms. Firstly I noticed the ratchet like moment of my fingers using the phone, this soon was noticed in pretty much every voluntary muscle in my body. I also noticed I had a buzzing sensation though out my body, only slight but it was pretty much there all the time, but aleviated when I slept.I then noticed i had the shakes, when I held the phone, my fork etc, only slightly but it would accentuate if I was stressed or put in a pressured situation. Never when I was at rest, or actively using my hands.The other odd symptom was my eyes are playing up. I have great vision normally and still do, but cannot focus on a moving object, making it very hard to watch sports and TV. Otherwise my eyes are okay.I've lost no real stength, though my muscles do shake excessively as if they've hit their working limit, but I can push through it with no ill effects.I've visited the Neuro twice trying to grt some answers, but all he's said was you don't have auto immune disease, but some of your symptoms are odd, and I can't attribute them to your disc herniation (shakes, ratcheting, vision issues) he also said I need to relax and not stress about it. Being unsatisfied with that answer I started to look into it myself, and stumbled across this forum where quite a few symptoms can be attributed to BFS. My physical therapist feels even the above described symptoms could be attributed to the disc touching my chord, but I'm not sold on that as all my other discy symptoms (pain, tingling, numbness) seem to change, while the above symptoms are pretty much constant.What are people's thoughts on what I'm experiencing ? I'm less freaked out about it all these days, but I'm still looking for peace of mind and answers ?Should I look into it further ? As it's not really affecting my life apart from watching TV (which I don't do much of anyway) Thanks in advance,Chris
 
Hi Chris-You are correct in that our twitchy condition often comes with a variety of symptoms, many of which may be caused by anxiety or other factors. The one thing I noticed about your story is that there was no mention of twitching. Is that because you forgot to include it, or are you without twitching? Its hard to diagnose someone with Benign fasciculation syndrome if there are no twitches.
 
Hi John,There was some sporadic twitching initially, mainly in my right tricep. It wasn't visual but I could feel it carrying on at least once every couple of days. Felt like it had a heart of its own. There was some slight twitching if in my fingers when I held them out in front of me, usually 1 of the fingers more prominent than the others. Twitching was never a big part of my symptoms, and now days I haven't experienced it for months. Chris
 
Well, you've had some twitching so that makes a little more sense for BFS, but most everyone here had present twitching (varying frequency) that continues from onset through months if not years. Also, some of your symptoms don't say "BFS" to me (ie: vision problems) but those could be attributed to other sources like the disc herniation and/or something else. The real positive here is that you've been to the neuro twice and he doesn't suspect any sinister sources so I would focus on that as much as possible. Stress and anxiety can cause a multitude of real symptoms in my experience, so relaxation and anxiety reduction may very well improve your symptoms in time.
 

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