Still Worried About Tingling/Numbness

[Grigoli]

I am still worred about *S and tingling. I had some tingling in my hands and left foot for a couple of weeks and then it went away for a couple of weeks. Now it is back, for the last couple of days and what scares me it that my calf feels funny along with with tingling, like something is on it or a little numb, but is isn't really numb, I can feel everything and do everything. I saw that *S has a band feeling, it is not strong or always there but I notice it.
Plus the tingling is mostly in my left hand and left foot. Also, how blurry does your vision have to be and for how long? My right eye has been twitching on and off for the last week, but no other twitches that are very noticable. I was just put on Lexapro for anxiety, but it is far from kicking in. My GP just thinks it is anxiety. But I still worry about the "Gloves & Socks" thing. (Ladies Only) I did see somewhere that the tingling in hands and feets can be a menopause symptom along with other things I have been experiencing, ie, just missed my monthly and I am not pregnant. ) I am so scared and wonder if I should push for a MRI? Does anyone know how bad the symptoms have to be to warrant an MRI? This fear is making me feel sick to my stomach.

I need some comforting words, I don't have anyone else to talk to about this, everyone thinks I am crazy and worried for nothing. I want to believe that too.

 

[TotallyynotyScaredAb]

Totally know what you are going through...

If you are as freaked out and scared as I was, I know how badly you feel. Talk to your doctor about getting an MRI (not because I think you need it) This can get you peace of mind that there is nothing there. The not knowing is a really really bad feeling. At least if it was something (WHICH IT IS NOT) at least you could know and try and treat it. This was my rationale at least. As afraid as I was (and still am on certain days) I just wanted to know. One way or the other. Period.

But I really think you are absolutely fine. Anxiety can do ANYTHING to the body. And reading about MS will make you feel MS symptoms (I did the same thing with the band feeling- About 3 or 4 days after reading about it, I got it in my arm and leg and foot- all on the same side) Give the Lexapro time to work. I started Zoloft and it took almost a month to kick in and slowly it has helped my body wind down.

Good luck and try and be happy... you are ok!

 

[LisaQ.]

Tingling and numbing sensations are extremely common with bfs and lots of other things (including side effects from anti-anxiety meds or even peri/menopause.)

The numbness associated with *s doesn't wax and wane, come and go, hide-and-go seek, etc. It hangs on like grim death until those brain lesions subside, or you get steroid treatment to force the *s into remission.

Tingling and numbness are also VERY common with generalized anxiety disorder.

I've had tingling on and off throughout the years in various places, some too private to mention, lol. My chin, my back, my forehead, my entire lower leg, parts of my abdomen, my er, uh, ahem-I told you it was too private to mention.

Many others here have experienced this as part of bfs also.

I know this is all so strange and weird and unsettling, but once you DO settle into it, make peace that it is entirely benign, you really stop noticing it at all and then...whoops? Where did it go? That goofy tingling is all gone.

And your vision wouldn't be blurry, nor would your eyes twitch. You would either be totally or partially blind or you would have significant double vision.

Please try not to worry, okay? If you need to ask for an mri, ask for an mri if that helps you sleep better at night. But in the meantime, stop fretting about what it COULD be (in less than one millionth of a chance,) and meditate on what you know, that it's spring, life is beautiful, and a little tingling isn't gonna steal your joy, by golly!

Blessings and hugs,
Sue

 

[Grigoli]

I am trying so hard to believe I am fine. I keep going back and forth between ALS and *S. Once I am convinced I don't have one then I think I have the other. My doctor is just blowing this all off to anxiety. Which I have plenty of. I don't know if I should push to go to a neurologist, or not, I truly feel like I am losing my mind. I did find a list of perimenopause symptoms and I have plenty of those as well. My left leg is still feeling funny, not weak, just funny and the muscles feel weird sometimes along with mild twiching. I keep walking around on my heels and toes and doing lunges and stuff just to see if I can do them. But I am afraid to exercise. I just sit around a lot feeling full of doom and gloom. Right now I definitely feel like I am going to go off the deep end if I don't get someone to convince me I am fine. I don't know what to do anymore.
To top it off my husband is out of town all week and I am totally alone!

 

[LisaQ.]

Aww...hugs to you, my friend.

I don't know if hearing back from lil ole me repeatedly is going to help you feel better or not, but in case it does, here I am with open arms. ( and open mouth, lol!)

Listen, bfs causes all kinds of crazy, whacko, bizarro, freakish weirdness. I remember always feeling like a lone loon, never able to describe my strange bodily sensations, my tingling, my numbness, my tremors, twitches, shaking, weakness, etc.

My doctors would spend all of five minutes hammering on me, having me squeeze and push against them with my hands and feet, and they always shook their heads and said I was fine. I even had one neuro describe my visible tremors as "anxiety tremors," which my *s specialist (who happened to be a woman...hmmmm) later scoffed at, saying "how would HE know?"

Bottom line-- if you don't trust your current doctors, you need to find someone you DO trust, HOWEVER, you can't just keep stirring the pot until you find one who gives you the diagnosis you think you have. You'll never find one, because you don't have *s, you dont' have **s, you dont' have any *s except maybe bfs.

Go, find yourself a qualified neuro or an *s specialist and get examined, but don't KEEP striving and struggling (as I mistakenly did) after enough doctors have told you that you are absolutely fine. I went through so many specialists I can't even count them (I think 5 neurologists when all was ultimately said and done,) and it took me until neuro #5 to finally settle down and accept that I didn't have *s.

In the meantime, try to settle into the fact that you've been examined and nothing ominous has been found, your tests have all been negative, and you are entirely well. Also, (and this was a biggie for me, personally) accept that in spite of the weirdness and discomfort of your symptoms, they really ARE common with bfs, which is a benign, pain in the a$$ little malady that doesn't have to dominate your life. In fact, once you get used to the strangeness and get past the anxiety, you will barely notice your symptoms.

Blessings,
Sue

 

[Grigoli]

Sue, you help me tremendously! Consider yourself my personal savior! I guess my problem is that my GP spent about 2 minutes with me and then told me I was fine. Don't want to bore you but I think it goes way back for me. I developed a heart condition when I was 11 years old. I would go into terrible bouts with palpatations. I went to doctors for 18 years before I was diagnosed. During those 18 years they all made me feel like I was doing this to myself and it was all in my head and caused by anxiety. When in reality the condition caused the anxiety. When technology finally caught up with my problem I was treated and made much better. They went inside my heart 3 times through my veins and were able to correct most of the problem. I am still on meds for it and deal with it daily, just not as bad. My cardio doc is at Mayo Clinic, the best in the country so I trust him. But it has always been a source of anxiety for me as well as distrust in most physicians. So I guess I am feeling like how can a doctor pretty much tell me this is my fault and I am making myself feel like this. I am getting so depressed and I want is to just forget how I feel, cause in reality I don't feel that bad at all! Most people would not even notice what it is I am focusing on. Now my eye has been twitching like crazy for over a week and I am actually happy about it, because it make me feel more like it is bfs rather than those other things. I am trying so hard to crawl out of this hole I have dug for myself. I want to enjoy life again and not be afraid of it.

Please know that your knowledge and words of kindness and reassurance are priceless to me. You sound like a wonderful, kind person and I am so sorry that you had to suffer so. I am so happy that you are better, and grateful as well that people like you are out there for people like me. So PLEASE keep those cards and letters coming! I need them desperately! So thanks in advance for listening to the broken record that I feel like I am being!

 

[Grigoli]

Well last night I went home and sat on the couch. My left leg started to hurt like crazy mostly on the outside. I started to freak out, but then I just started to tell myself I was fine. I walked around and felt twitching but no weakness and hopping around on one foot at a time like an idiot to see if I could feel a difference in one leg over the other. My cats looked at me like I was crazy! Well this morning I took your advise and got on my little stair stepper and rode it for only five minutes. My thighs hurt (out of shape) but my lower leg felt fine, just some twitching afterward. So my plan is to continue to do at least that, I was very nervous getting on it, afraid something terrible would happen, but it didn't.

My next challenge is to stay off the internet for ALS symptoms. I wish I had never seen that! They are so vague about so much of it and it is so easy to identify with all of it. I heard somewhere that the twitching comes after the muscle is damaged, but I don't even know if that is right. I feel like if I knew more about it I might be able to rule it out. But at the same time I am afraid to know more. What a vicious circle!

Well thanks again for the advice and support. I am one of those needy people who needs constant reassurance. So I'll take anything you got!

 

[LisaQ.]

Sounds like a plan, my friend....Good for you for getting yourself going this morning already. I'm still wiping the sleep from my eyes.

Yes, the twitches with you-know-what happen long after the muscle is dead. There would be significant weakness already, you would NOT be able to walk, lift the leg or bear weight at all if it were **S.

As for the avoidance of going on the internet looking at symptoms, this really is key. It is human nature to personalize and personify. I guarantee if you go on ANY internet site for ANY disease, you could easily convince yourself that you are afflicted with ALL of them, even if you have none of the symptoms.

We nurses joke about this often now that we are out in the field. We remember nursing school when each new chapter in our enormous nursing texts brought us a brand new syndrome or disease to self-diagnose and fret about.

It takes discipline and determination, but really if you can manage to avoid doing the "research," you really will feel better, both emotionally and physically. I made a deal with myself back when this was my struggle. I promised myself that if I ever DID get diagnosed with something, THEN and ONLY then I would allow myself to go online and research to my heart's content. Until then, I'm much happier being blissfully ignorant.

I've decided that if the sky really ever were falling, I would rather not be made privy. As long as I live every moment as if it were most precious and possibly my last, what difference does it make whether it is or it isn't, really?
Blessings,
Sue

 

[Grigoli]

You are so right, so I will work on that. I need to believe that I am strong, healthy and that I deserve to be happy. What I suffer from most is fear. I have been so blessed with so many wonderful things in my life and I am so afraid that I am going to lose it , that I am not enjoying it now. I had many bad and lonely years and now I have a wonderful husband who is a good man, and they are so rare these days. I often ask myself what I did to deserve him. I have paid my dues, and still am, to be with him I had to move from my home and family in Michigan. Including two wonderful sons who are now in their twenties but I miss them so, and there is no one here for me except my husband. It has been two years, but it is tough. And now it seems we will move again by the end of this year, to Connecticut, which scares me as well. The GREAT news is that my youngest son is coming to spend the summer here in Minnesota. That in it self will be great therapy for me. I think my husband knows how much I need that. Sorry I am babbling.

So you are a nurse, that is great, I wish I were one as well, then again maybe someone like me should not be. I have actually been questioned by doctors if I were a nurse, I always told them no. I have just spent alot of time in hospitals and learned through experience.

Thanks for the info about the twitching and muscles, that is a hugh relief! Now I just have to "keep positive" it is an everyday battle. I wake up wondering how I feel and any little thing just sets off my anxiety. What a pain in my own butt I am! But Spring is here and summer on it's way. A new beginning, hopefully for me too.