MS or Post Viral?

[ChrisD07]

I woke up about a month ago with my right arm and leg tingling, this subsided after an hour.  The next day I had tightness and burning in my shoulders and forearms, which turned into a constant internal tremor in my shoulders.  I've had constant muscle twitches throughout my body, lasting about 30 sec to 5 minutes.  I don't seem to have any weakness, but I have a constant shaky feeling whenever I lift, push or exert my muscles.  I was hit by moderate fatigue for 3 days.  I feel stiff at night and haven't experienced any pain.  Recently the tingling is not that often and occurs in my toes and both soles of my feet and I have almost constant slight vibration feelings in my hands and feet.  The only episode of numbness occurred in my right hand(woke me up at night) and lasted for about 5 min.

I am a very physically fit 23 year-old male.  This past month I have had a cervical and brain MRI, arm leg EMG, 2 blood and urine tests (testing for STD's, lupus, diabetes, testosterone, thyroid), esphogram and a chest x-ray.  All of which turned up normal.  My neuro's examination of me turned out normal as well. My GP thinks its anxiety and my neuro thinks it is anxiety.  I disagree, I think they and just trying to write me off as a young hypochondriac.  I am not feeling any sort of anxiety and I am very in tune with my body.  I had a dry cough that lasted for  about a month and a half (did not see anyone for this), once it subsided I started experiencing this symptoms.  I was wondering if all of this could be PVS? My neuro said I didn't have ALS, MS , or Parkinson's and looked at me like a nutcase when I suggested Post Viral Syndrome.  My neuro told me I can rule out MS.  Should I rule out MS?(I see lots of people on this forum that get clear MRIs and end up getting MS later) and what other tests should I look to have done?

I've been like this for a 2 months now and want to know if there is hope for things to get better.

Thank you
-Chris

[ChrisD07]

I also have had a feeling of constant pressure in my upper abdominal muscles and lower back ribs near the kidneys for the past 6 days.

[Lulu54]

Hi and come on over to the patient MS forum at
http://www.medhelp.org/forums/Multiple-Sclerosis/show/41

....where no one is written off as a hypochondriac.  Something is happening to you and there are plenty of possibilities. We can perhaps help you on what questions you should be asking next.

I invite you to come over and share your story there,
Lulu

[Quixotic1]

Hi, Chris, I'm sorry you have not had an answer from the doctor.  I read your post carefully and I have a different impression of your problems.  While the combination of things you have does not strike me as being MS-like, they are many of the things that people with later stages of Lyme Disease complain about, especially the

many different paresthesais
the burning
the diffuse muscle twitches
the stiffness
the cough

The famous "they" often refer to such groupings of symptoms as post-viral and I have also.  But, in reality I never "learned" this.  I don't know if this is a valid diagnosis.  I am a physician with MS, but was not a neurologist.

You are very welcome on our MS forum, but you might also want to visit the Lyme Forum.  The people over there that are familiar with Lyme vs. MS are Wonko, Speechgeek, Amyloo, and Hope.  Bounce your course off them and see what they say also.  California does have Lyme.  You do not need to have a memory of either a tick bite or of the classic "Bulls Eye" rash.  Lyme is very under-diagnosed.

So those are my thoughts.

Your second post does appear to descibe the MS Hug.  Whether or not this symptom occurs in Lyme, you should ask.

As to tossing all this off to anxiety, you yourself state that anxiety isn't a problem.  My experience with people who do have health anxiety is that they readily admit it.  In the absence of real anxiety I think using this as a way to get the patient out of the office is the work of a mediocre medical mind.

I wish you the best of luck and you are welcome to explore all this on our MS forum.

Quix