A quick symptom question for you all..

[seeking_help]

I will be posting a more extensive question in a week or so once I go for my MRI and get results.

I have been dealing with symptoms for about 6 1/2 years. I have also been reading many of the experiences here and I appreciate how everyone shares information and trys to help each other.  I am not DX-ed currently.

My main symptoms right now are -
  1) weird sensations in my face (both sides) but mostly on the right side from the corner or my right eye down to the corner of my lips on the right side. Feels like somthing crawling under my skin.
  2) pins and needles and prickly feelings - these come and go and can be anywhere. One moment it is on my scalp, then in my fingers, then in my face next to my legs or where ever.  It also makes me itch.
  3) I have burning sensations under the skin and it moves around  like the pins and needles and itching - not specific to any particular place or area.
  4) muscle twitches - mostly in calves all the time (for years now)  but also can be everywhere and is frequent.

My initial question comes from a post I read a while back - it said that ALL OVER symptoms are not usual of MS.  Is this so? Is this a general or clinical assumption? My symptoms are all over the place.

My second question is - do the Doctors still answer questions here? I posted by in 2005 so its been a while. A doctor answered my post then.  

Lastly, I need your support - my symptoms have never really gone away since back in 2004 and 2005. I haven't any tests since late 2005 except for annual blood work but I so need my life back and I am SO lost. If you search my username - I think you can see my post from back then and also take a peek at my current symptoms in this post.

Thanks to you all!

[LMonty]

great article, sllowe. thanks for sharing. that really clarified it for me, i wasnt so sure of the difference.

[sllowe]

  Hi again,
Sorry to take so long to get back to you. This is an excellent write up that will give you some background on the difference.

http://www.medhelp.org/health_pages/Multiple-Sclerosis/Muscle-Tone-And-Spasticity/show/159?cid=36

-Shell

[seeking_help]

Thank you for your comments -  I am sorry for what you are goling through too.

So some of your symptons have happened and then went away (except for the electrical feelings of late) ?

[seeking_help]

I am confused about spasticity.  I have tightness in my calves and I have muscle twitches all over my body but when I read about spasticity it seems to be different that I am feeling in my calves.  In my calves my skin feel tight but it doesn't hurt and I can still function ok. I do go running several times a week so I am not sure what is going on with my calves.

Can you explain the difference between spasticity and a really tight feeling?

Also since all this began in late 2004 - it seems that just about all my symptoms are sensory related. Is that the case with other people that have MS and people that have gone non dx-ed this long?  Additionally, while a few of my symptoms have lessened a little here and there - they never went away. That doesn't seem to be what happens with RR MS....... does it?  Could I have a different form?  I often feel that I am just on the edge waiting for something bigger to happen when I read about all the other symptoms peolple are having

Thank you for being kind and supportive!

[seeking_help]

I had a Lyme test back in 2005 but through a regular physican. I am not sure how to go about getting a lyme test that I see people dicussing on this and other forums for the area I live in.  I will check out the Lyme forum as well.

[MissLauraI]

Hello Seeking-
I am in the process of seeking a dx so none to date but I have electrical feelings in different parts of my body, but mostly my legs and arms.

When my left side of my face was semi numb and started tingling from my ear to my bottom lip and my left hand and outside of left arm did the same and my vision was double and blurry, that is when my PM doc sent me to a neurologist. This was several months ago. It also followed several isolated "events" one of which happened 2 years prior( just my right leg went weak and stayed that way).

Now however, the electric feelings and tingling seem to happen in many more places and much more frequently...in fact for the last few weeks it has been daily.

They come in waves so they don't last very long. Just comes and goes...comes and goes. It also feels a lot like goosebumps at times or like a tens unit.

I understand how badly you want answers to all the symptoms! I am suspected of having MS and share some of your issues so I hope this helps you feel you are not alone :D

[sllowe]

Hi there,

Sorry for the continued problems you are experiencing, and hope we can help you. I'll respond to the post you placed here, which is a patient forum. There are those doctor forums here on medhelp, but not this one.

I would say that in general terms those who have MS and other syndromes, and disease have some of what you describe here.

There is no way for us to assume clinically or technically based on lab reports or imaging results, etc. to say whether or not this is MS or not. But, in the context of MS, we can absolutely say, yes, we get parathesia and spasticity like you describe.  

Many MSers have multiple symptoms in multiple systems not exclusive to the central nervous system. Sometimes they are primary, and sometimes they are secondary to the disease itself.

You ask for our support, and you will absolutely get it here, no matter what the next phase of your visits brings you.

If you've not a chance to peek at our health pages - please do so. They are jammed with information on MS.

Thanks for joining us - hope to help,
-Shell

[Deb61]

Oh my goodness.  I hope you are seeing a different neuro.  I cannot believe the numb skull said that all your symptoms are due to anxiety.  Why is he disregarding your MRI?  Several problems are noted there.  

Have you gotten the second Lyme's Disease test?  Has this been completely ruled out?  I know very little about Lyme's Disease, but I have heard that you can have a negative Lyme's test and have had the disease.  There is a Lyme's Disease forum.  Have you posted the question you had about the posibility of having LD on this forum?  

I hope others chime in.  My knowledge comes from experience.  I know very little beyond my MS bubble world or the arthritis bubble world (when it was thought my problem was rheumatological.  

[seeking_help]

Here is my link to a post of my symptoms I posted here back in 2005.  Please review if you have a chance.

To answer your questions - for the most part - the "all over" symptoms did occur back in 2004.

http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Neurology/ALS--MS-or-something-Else/show/296496?personal_page_id=2176044#post_1819622

[Deb61]

When you initially started your symptoms, did they begin like that--all over your body?  You've had symptoms since 2004, so it may not be weird to have symptoms all over the body after accumulating damage to your central nervous symptom.  However, if they all happened at the same time and move around from place to place it would be highly unlikely that it's MS.  

The side of the face problem with a focus on the right, does sound like what I've experienced.  I've also had phantom "bugs" in my hair which had me looking for lice.  LOL

The burning sensation, itching, and pins and needles feeling I've also had.  It started on the right but then it began on the left at a less intense level.  

Have you had blood work in the past to rule out problems like B-12 deficiency, Lymes Disease, and autoimmune problems?  There are many problems that can cause the symptoms that you've described that will have to be ruled out, but since you've had these symptoms for a long time, MS can't be ruled out (unless it began all over initially) because lesions often times don't heal completely.  

Deb