Does this sound like MS?

Hi all,
I have been following this forum for over a month now and have finally plucked up the courage to post a message. I am a 19 year old female from London and have been having some strange symptoms for the last month or so. It all started one morning with my right hand being slighlty numb, I know this is normal but it seemed to be numb for no reason at all ( no nerve compression due to sleeping position etc.). This however went away fairly quickly and I soon forgot about it. One morning, however, I woke up to find both my hands tingling! I found this very strange and spent the whole day panicking and researching the symptoms and potential causes on the internet (MS being one of them). The following day, I woke up to find my feet tingling and then the next day my calves! It felt as though little ants were crawling all over my lower legs! The tingling has since gone away but has been replaced with a vibrating sensation in both of my feet( like a mobile phone vibration) and occassionly in my right hand. My muscles (all over-mainly legs though) have also been twiching too! And after getting out of a hot shower/bath, the vibration in my feet seems to be more intense (not, however, when I am in the bath). I have been to my GP and he tested my eyes, reflexes and didnt think that it was anything to worry about. However, these symptoms have been consuming all my thoughts lately and I am sick with worry about the cause. I was wondering if you think this could be the inital signs of MS? Or something else like anxiety? electrolyte imbalance? Some other things that you may want to know is that I had a noro virus about three months ago, allergic reaction to penecillin and a really tight right calf following vigorous exercise.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this.
Kindest regards,
Nicola

[toadaleh]

Hi Nicola,

First of all, you need to see your GP again and ask to have some bloodwork done.   As you'll see on this forum, loads of us stuck in limboland are waiting a long time for an answer, so don't panic, there are so many things that have symptoms very like MS, most of which are considerably less grim than MS.  Anxiety also makes a lot of these symptoms worse (whatever the cause), so try not to worry too much.  
I know that seems easy to say, but don't focus on the worst possible outcome, and if you still have concerns, badger your GP.
Good luck

[Lulu54]

Hi Nicola,
Welcome to the MS forum.  Since you have been reading here, you already know that we are not doctors and can't tell you for sure what is going on with you.  That said, we can still venture a guess or two.

Your symptoms don't sound like MS to me, they are occuring in too many places of your body and about the same time.  MS doesn't normally work that way.  You could be feeling the residual effects of the virus still in your system.  And you already acknoweldge the role that anxiety can play in our feeling symptoms in an exaggerated manny.

Do you feel comfortable with what your doctor is telling you or would more testing help?  You could always ask for the blood tests that would eliminate the MS mimics, such as Lyme, Lupus, B12 deficiency, Theres a whole list of MS mimics on our health pages (yellow icon, upper right side of this page).  

I hope something here is of help to you and you will return if you have more questions. You're welcome to come through anytime.

be well,
Lulu

[Nicola10]

Thank you both for replying to me! Its extremely comforting to hear your opinions and advice as I generally bottle things up and keep them to myself! Im going to post a message on the expert forum and see what the online doctors thinks too (which is proving difficult as the daily limit is always reached when I get onto it-time dfferences hey!)

I definately think I need to go back to the doctors to get some more testing done. Do you think I should book an appointment straight away or wait longer to see if the symptoms go away by themeselves? Ignorence is bliss afterall!

Thank you SO MUCH again,
Nicola

[Quixotic1]

I am so sorry I left you in the lurch without a response.  You have been so magnificently patient.  this was one of those weeks when I didn't have an analytical response in me.  Too tired with Kentucky Fried Brains.

I'm sorry you are so worried and this is clearly disrupting your quality of life.  Right off the bat, do I think this is just anxiety?  No, I don't, your sensations are too localized and too specific.  Do I think your current anxiety OVER these symptoms is adding to their strength?   Absolutely, I think that is possible.  Anxiety and fatigue magnify our paresthesias.  But, just as a baseline, do you usually suffer from Health Anxiety and the need to research symptoms with fear of having severe diseases?

No one can diagnose anything about anyone online, so I am giving you my "gut" sense and will try to explain it when possible.

Your sensations began in just the one hand, but the episodes of numbness were lasting for less than a minute, but you had them over several days at least.  This was followed by tingling of both hands and the next day tingling of both feet.  (I don't know what to make of the brief sensation of having a "tight calf muscle.")  You felt clumsy that night and had a heaviness (where?).  ll this lasted a few days.

The next thing you noticed is a vibraqting sensation in both feet and again the right hand.  The vibratory and tingling is less prominent when showering and moving around.  This is true of a lot of paresthesias - they are most prominent when we don't have a lot of other sensations taking up the brain's attention.  Your foot sensations are worse after being warmed up by bathing.

You also by now have all over tiny muscle twitches called fasciculations.  These are when a few fibers ofd a muscle group quickly contract and release.  (They drive you batty, don't they?)

Then you had the sensation of both lower legs having ants crawling all over them.  All that went away to be replaced by a sensation of vibration in both feet and sometimes R hand.

Most recent symptom is dizziness that seems most severe when changing position accompanied by ringing in the ears.

Well, this is not all in your head, but it doesn't seem like MS, either.  I think this is because of the fleeting and rapidly changing nature of the paresthesias.  MS tends to cause symptoms that are more unchanging in nature.  The twitching all over is not characteristic of MS.  We do get those twitches, but mostly in our weakened muscles.  Having them all over is more suggestive of an infection, like a virus or something like Lyme Disease - which is a thought for you.

The new dizziness may be a new neurologic symptom, but at this point you are so worked up and anxious that you might be in a state of adrenal arrousal (lots of adrenaline pumping through your system, even when you are asleep.  The dizziness "may" be due to some hyperventilation.

Now, in all fairness, there is enough stability to your symptoms to make me want to rule out MS completely.  What I mean by this, is that most of your numbness, tingling and vibrating is occurring always in the same places - your feet, lower legs and R hand.  This is the ONLY thing that makes me want to keep MS in mind.

I am glad you are seeing a neurologist.  The little exam your GP did is not nearly enough to assure anyone that MS is not in the picture.  I would like to see an MRI of your head at the minimum along with a thorough neuro exam.  As for the other things you mentioned:  The Norovirus is NOT known for any neurological effects.  It is a gastrointestinal thing only.  The penicillin allergy should not have caused this either.  An elctrolyte imbalance would be felt with all over symptoms and with cramping or heart irregularities.

The changing of the weird sensations from numbness to tingling to vibrating is interesting and shows that the irritation was jumpting from one nerve-ending type (touch) to another (vibration)  Vibration sense is the least affected in MS typically.  My vote is some viral infection's aftermath - known as a "post-viral syndrome" and I don't even know how often this actually occurs.  The other is something like Lyme Disease for which you should be aggressively tested - not just the screening test.  Are you outdoorsy or around the outdoors a lot?  Have you had a tick bite in the last year?

If this is MS, you have all the factors for it being a less aggressive form - female, young, sensory symptoms only.

I hope this has helped.

Quix

[Nicola10]

Thanks you so much for your thoughts on this Quix! It has helped alot!
The vibrating sensations seem to have died down a little bit but am still going to go to the doctors.
Will let you know how I get on,
Thankyou again!!
Nicola