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Neurology (Expert Forum)
altered sensation in calves
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altered sensation in calves
by spenjo, Jul 29, 2005 12:00AM
A few months ago I purchased MBT walking shoes and began walking hard, no warm up, no stretching. 10 minutes into walking I noticed pain in the back of both calves near soleus but I continued. I've backed off the shoes and the intense walking and pain has resolved (unless I wear the shoes). I now seem to be left with an altered sensation in a 6 inch band above my ankle and below my knee, encompassing the area where the pain was. (No problem in feet). It feels like very mild tingling or a buzzing or exhilarated feeling. Since it has persisted I have had high anxiety over this to the point of a few panic attacks. No other symptoms - no pain, weakness, loss of strength, no problem with sleeping etc. The sensation is eased by a hot bath, warm days and activity. I walked around the amusement park for 8 hours, climbed a 450 foot dune, mowed the lawn and took an intense self defense class with no problems. In fact I do not notice it when my body and/or my mind is active. I seem to notice it when sitting when mind wanders to legs. PCP feels it is nothing serious and gave me anti-inflamatory meds for 10 days. Neuro testing he did - sharp/dull, temperature, Rombergs, reflexes, strength - all normal.
Could this be early MS? Could this be some type of spinal/brain compression (tumor)? PCP said he'd refer to a neuro if I wanted but did not feel I needed it. Should I see a neuro for this? Do I need any testing? Could this be caused by, or could this be lingering due to high anxiety? Any thoughts on what could be causing this?
Thank you very much for your thoughts.
Could this be early MS? Could this be some type of spinal/brain compression (tumor)? PCP said he'd refer to a neuro if I wanted but did not feel I needed it. Should I see a neuro for this? Do I need any testing? Could this be caused by, or could this be lingering due to high anxiety? Any thoughts on what could be causing this?
Thank you very much for your thoughts.
Doctor's Answer
by CCF-Neuro-M.D.-PW, Jul 31, 2005 12:00AM
Exercise such as walking a long distance can cause an element of trauma to peripheral sensory nerves which are close to the surface. The area you describe is innervated probably by the sural nerve, a purely sensory nerve in the leg. Although the discomfort might not be situated exactly where the trauma was, pain can be 'referred' from one site to an adjacent one, due to the nerve connections.
The fact that you can do so much without other problems is encouraging and would suggest that there is not a more widespread neurological disorder. MS usually gets worse in hot baths, heat not better. You do not seem to have any suggestion of a brain tumor or MS. Symptoms that would suggest such include weakness, clumisness, or sensory loss on one side of the body or inability to walk or pass urine.
It sounds like your anxiety is at least in part contributing to your symptoms and this should be addressed. One way is to seek personal reassurance from a neurologist.
Good luck
The fact that you can do so much without other problems is encouraging and would suggest that there is not a more widespread neurological disorder. MS usually gets worse in hot baths, heat not better. You do not seem to have any suggestion of a brain tumor or MS. Symptoms that would suggest such include weakness, clumisness, or sensory loss on one side of the body or inability to walk or pass urine.
It sounds like your anxiety is at least in part contributing to your symptoms and this should be addressed. One way is to seek personal reassurance from a neurologist.
Good luck
Contrary to what you apparently think, there really are people out there who have scary symptoms and don't know where to go first. Or perhaps don't think their symptoms warrant a doctor's visit. I have one of those scary diseases. I was diagnosed as a child so I'm not hanging in limbo, wondering what the heck is wrong with me. But if I didn't know I had Charcot Marie Tooth disease (yes there really is a disease out there by that name and it's not fun), my syptoms would be scaring me to death. I suggest to you that if you don't like what you're reading on this site, go to a different site. We pour our hearts out here hoping to get answers. We do not want to be judged.
And Spenjo, I really admire you for not doing what I just did. I guess I should work on the temper thing. I have a hard time tolerating comments such as crankys. He or she owns up to their name, don't they?!
I hope you find your answers.
Good luck Spenjo!
Kelly
Don't try to diagnose yourself based on other peoples symptoms, too many symptoms, yours and those picked up from others can mislead your doctor, delay a diagnosis or get you labeled a hypochondriac (spelling?)
I have little doubt that the doctor(s) who monitor these forums would answer each posting if there were enough hours in the day. I get the impression the short time I've been watching this website that a lot of the folks who write the postings here are expecting an answer from a doctor. Though all will not get that answer from the doctor because of time limitations I assume. Also from what I can tell, some of the forums get more responses from the docs that others. I'm sure it's all about triage. Do you know what that means, Cranky?
And as spenjo told you in his/her last posting, this symptom has been going on for 3 months. I for one have never had a strain that lasts for 3 months. And as spenjo just posted, he/she hasn't had a strain last that long either. So I would be concerned if this symptom lasted that long too. Spenjo wrote the initial posting on Friday the 29th. I would bet that Spenjo will get an answer from the neuro doc next week. We'll have to wait and see.
It's funny you say go to a website, pick a disease, and see if you have the symptoms. Then with the symptoms you just read on the website, go to the doctor with your concerns. That sounds to me like something a hypochondriac would do. Besides, most of the people posting here don't know what disease they might have based on their symptoms. So they go to a forum that seems to match their symptoms as far as they can tell, and write to the doctor they think they will get a response from. You know, the doc that does not have enough hours in the day to respond to every single posting. Are you getting my drift? So....the symptomatic people get to hear from us lay people who only know what they have experienced in their own lives. You must know what I'm getting at by now...those good hearted people who have a lot, some, little or no medical education, but have enough time to talk to those concerned folks who feel ill. Perhaps our good hearted people are just trying to ease their minds by talking about what they know, in lay term or in more educated terms perhaps.
Please try not to be so senical. This website and others like it are doing the very best they can. Their not perfect. And neither are the people who jump online and pour their hearts out, either as a patient or as a lay person just trying to help.
And as I suggested before, if you don't like what you see, you can always go elsewere.
Now, I feel I need to add a disclaimer so that someone doesn't think I am working for the website. I am a person who IS NOT affiliated with this website at all. I am a person with some health issues. I was looking one day for a website who could help me with some info I was looking for. I typed in "medical websites" in a search engine and probably 10,000 websites appeared! Imagine that! So I picked one. It was medhelp.com. I like the way the site was set up, so I've been sticking around so far. I will certainly leave if I am asked by the website. Until then, I am looking for answers and so far have found them here. Thank you Medhelp!
Good day all!
Kelly
I came to this board because I have a spinal cord injury that has not responded to conventional treatment and I suffer progressive neurological deterioration for which the doctors have no answers.
Everytime I try to ask a question of the neuro's the board is full of this I think I might have stuff, these people haven't even checked the symptoms of these disorders because if they did they would know they don't have them.
Sorry, pain meds aren't working anymore, in bed most of day, in a wheelchair the rest, afraid the test results tomorrow will be worse than three months ago and those were pretty bad.
This has gone way too far between you and I.
First of all, let me refresh your memory. I am not the person who posted the "altered sensation in calves" question. I am the person who, like you, has a serious neurogical problem. Remember me? Mine is not from injury but from a disease I got from my father. I have Charcot Marie Tooth disease. Remember me yet? A genetic, progressive periphial neuropathy. I choke on my food and drink all the time because of the CMT. It effects the muscles in my throat, although that symptom is rare in CMT patients. I cannot walk without Canadian crutches because of my wasted legs and use a wheelchair a lot of the time now because of the CMT. My hands, although the weakness is from the elbows down to the hands, are so weak that I can't even tear open a packet of Sweet N Low anymore because of the CMT. I use my teeth to tear into things now. I think you should be remembering my earlier post (C4) by now. In the C4 posting, I did not go into specifics about my disease because I did not think it was necessary. I know what I have. I was diagnosed at 10 years old. I was not a normal child by any stretch of the imagination. But since you are mixing me up with another poster, I felt it necessary to spill my "guts" out to you in an effort to help you understand who it is you're slinging your cranky accusations at.
I have not been able to post my question regarding my potentially deadly disease on this forum either because everytime I try, I get the "board full" message as well. You and I are not so different are we?
In my eariler postings, I was defending Spenjo, although I'm sure he or she did not need the defense! But I have this habit of sticking up for people who are too polite to say what I've have been saying since yesterday. I think Spenjo is being unfairly pointed out as a hypochondriac. Who are you and who am I to think that because we have devestating neurological disorders, we should go to the front of the line with regards to posting our questions? If there are such urgent questions and therefore we cannot wait our turn, then we need to go to our personal physician and if they cannot provide us the answers (because even doctors do not know all), then we find another doctor and another if we need to until we get the answers we're looking for. I really can relate to your frustration. And in my own way, with my own health problems, I am scared too about the future and how my body is turning against me at an alarming speed.
What few medications help people with CMT don't work for me anymore either. There is no cure for me either. My disease only gets worse everyday too. But I make myself get out of bed every day although I really don't want to and even if I'm only going to my livingroom (and that's usually where I stay all day). The only time I get out of the house anymore is when my husband is there so he can pick me up off the floor when I fall. And I will all. I cry every single time I fall, even thought I try so hard not to. I'm not crying because I hurt myself, I'm crying because I'm so embarrassed because I'm sitting on the floor waiting for my husband to pick me up while people pass by and stare at me. Some are sympathetic, some are just nosy. I suspect you know that feeling, whether you cry or not.
I feel your pain, literally! Can we be friends now? Or a least can we please not jump down each others throat's anymore?! All this typing is making my hands numb and painful. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the crutches that I have to use to get anywhere has also given me a raging case of carpal tunnel symdrome. I must have been Atilla the Hun in my past lie! Ha!
Good evening friends,
Kelly