The all-over stings and burning pain are definitely not ms related. Nothing that migrates all over the body is caused by a central nervous system lesion.
Get that bloodwork done. I can't emphasize that enough. Get outside. Engage in the present.
It wouldn't hurt to get a urology consult -most urology issues stand on their own and aren't part of bigger issue. Could be something as simple as a uti though, which your Gp can investigate.
It might also help you to speak to a counselor. Mine has been invaluable. There is no shame in having someone help you walk through scary situations.
Health related anxiety can escalate the symptoms you experience when you google, and escalate your anxiety and fears. The researching of medical conditions instead of reassuring you and reducing your anxiety, it actually feeds your anxiety and you can start experiencing more and more of the symptoms you've been reading about.
Typically there is a medical related trigger eg a pinched nerve, migraine, pulled muscle etc etc to explain their symptoms but the more problematic medical issues is their high level of anxiety, which continues to escalate and make their situation worse and worse if left untreated and they continue to research medical conditions they are fearful of...
I'm not saying that is your situation just that you've mentioned your anxiety and it might be helpful to you if you're aware of what health related anxiety is known to do to people and try if you can to step back and focus on lowering your anxiety so it doesn't lead you to worry about medical issues you probably don't have.
See your doctor, try to keep an open mind and stop trying to diagnose your self online if reading about medical conditions is in any way making you feel scared or escalating your anxiety....breath!
Hope that helps......JJ
Ronald, I had body wide tingles and fasciculations for months. In my case, I turned out to be very deficient in magnesium and vitamin D. This can also cause spasms and cramping .. magnesium is a very important mineral and a cofactor in many important body processes.
It also tends to go hand in hand with a low vitamin D. If you haven't had a vitamin and mineral panel done, now would be a great time. As you know, all over symptoms are not typical of ms, and this might be your ticket.
See if your gp will do the necessary blood work. Once you've established your levels and supplemented if necessary, you might be in the clear. I rarely twitch now unless I get lazy with the supplements.
Just one idea.
If your thinking you might have MS because you can't walk on your heels, please try not to jump ahead and assume more than you know to be true if all it's doing is terrifying you. There is a heck of a lot more to MS than heel and toe walking, seriously even perfectly normal disorder/disease free people can have issues with these type of balance tests. I was a gymnast and have been very sports orientated through out my entire life, DS and DH dont have an athletic bone in their body, even at my worst, i'd still expect I could out balance them, now falling over whilst standing still is another story entirely...
It might be helpful to put it into perspective if you keep in mind the other related information you have stated about your gate, balance and strength...
"I can flex and extend my foot fine, I don't seem to have foot drop in the classical sense, my ability to pull the end of my foot up towards me when sitting or standing is normal and I feel the muscle has normal strength.....My strength is good, I have never felt stronger. I am better at walking up hills than I have ever been. My balance seems to be better than it's ever been - I can stand on one leg with my eyes closed for as long as I want, several minutes easily...."
There are usually 3 parts to the basic gate assessment, walking on heels is the most sensitive way to test for foot dorsiflexion weakness but you are saying you don't have any of the other elements that interrelate and would typically be more suggestive that something significantly abnormal is going on. It's not particularly common for people to watch neurological assessment clips and test themselves, which btw is very hard to do with any degree of accuracy but it's very common to misinterpret what you come across googling symptoms and medical conditions and becoming fearful, so please, please consider you really could be wrong, and go see your doctor!
Hope that helps......JJ
Hi Ronald and welcome,
Your much more likely to be reading more into this and unnecessarily becoming fearful of a condition you more than likely don't actually have.....breath!
You have become concerned that your unable to specifically walk on your heels for very long and believe it is a significant abnormal neurological symptom, right?
To be honest i'm not sure you could say it's even abnormal to not be able to walk on your heels when you have a developmental history of tight calves and flat feet.....the achilles tendon connects the calf muscles to the heel, and if this tendon is too tight it very common causes flat feet.
Keep in mind that flat footed people's tendons on the inside of the ankle work a lot hard than normal just to pull the foot up when walking, running etc, and walking on your heels for any length of time is expected to be even more difficult when you have flat feet and tight calves because your trying to prolong a rigid pose without the normal flexibility you need to do it.
You also stated..... "6 months I've developed paresthesias all over, in random spots on my body. A prickling feeling somewhere, a burning feeling somewhere else. Rarely in the same spot. They appear at random, come and go throughout the day. I've had this for 6 months on and off (a week on, two weeks off, another 3 weeks on, etc)."......which isn't suggestive or consistent with a neurological condition like MS because MS isn't known to cause an all over, random, moving from one location to another etc symptom pattern, the on off on off again time frame wouldn't be typical of a relapse/remitting pattern of MS either...
Honestly from everything you've mentioned there isn't really anything to suggested what your dealing with is neurological in nature......i would suggest you see your general doctor to get some basic tests done eg blood tests etc and 'consider' discussing the level of anxiety you are currently dealing with.
Hope that helps........JJ
Let me just clarify that this odd thing of not being able to walk on my heels (my forefoot just goes right down onto the ground when I try) is in both feet, not just one.