Dr please respond/bodywide pins&needles

[naynay363]

Hi. I'm 30 years old, only health issues (that i know of) are controlled asthma and high cholesterol, i'm a bit overweight but not obese. I suffer from anxiety ..especially health anxiety that I am currently attending therapy for and I  just had a baby via c section 11 weeks ago.

during my very stressful pregnancy i started getting alot of strange symptoms.

in october--twitching and muscle jumps started----ALL OVER my body...pretty much constantly. That still goes on, and since October I am still experiencing this. Ive been to a neuromuscular specliast/neurologist ...and she says I'm ok, that its anxiety, she will not do emg/mri because she feels there is no need to, and she sees me every 6-8 weeks for follow ups just for my own reassurance. She prescribed me klonopin and lamictal for the muscle twitching and jumps and for the anxiety.

on to the next----- the last 2 days, Ive been having pins and needles, prickly type and itchy feelings all over my body. primarily in my face, arms and legs.... I havent seen my neuro since this has started, and it's scaring me. Alot of people say its' also a symptom of anxiety.

what is your opinion dr?

[naynay363]

Thank you for your response. So based on only an internet conversation between the two of us... it sounds like your leaning towards MS ...while my neurologist and psychologist is pointing more towards anxiety., the neuro. says that because of the nature of my symptoms eg. body wide instead of isolated in one area--that this sounds more like anxiety. Should I get a second opinion? I had an MRI one year ago that came back "unremarkable."

hhhmm well..worst case scenario...is MS fatal???

[Dr Sharma]

Hi there. These symptoms are anxiety related particularly since you had these during your pregnancy. Trial of anti anxiety drugs would be needed to assess any improvement of symptoms. The other possibility which needs to be excluded is multiple sclerosis. This is a chronic demyelinating condition where the disease phase is characterized by active phase and remissions. It has multiple symptoms and signs and is a diagnosis of exclusion. The symptoms of multiple sclerosis are loss of balance, muscle spasms, numbness in any area, problems with walking and coordination, tremors in one or more arms and legs. Bowel and bladder symptoms include frequency of micturition, urine leakage, eye symptoms like double vision uncontrollable rapid eye movements, facial pain, painful muscle spasms, tingling, burning in arms or legs, depression, dizziness, hearing loss, fatigue etc. You have many of these symptoms. The treatment is essentially limited to symptomatic therapy so the course of action would not change much whether MS has been diagnosed or not. Apart from clinical neurological examination, MRI shows MS as paler areas of demyelination, two different episodes of demyelination separated by one month in at least two different brain locations. Spinal tap is done and CSF electrophoresis reveals oligoclonal bands suggestive of immune activity, which is suggestive but not diagnostic of MS. Demyelinating neurons, transmit nerve signals slower than non-demyelinated ones and can be detected with EP tests. These are visual evoked potentials, brain stem auditory evoked response, and somatosensory evoked potential. Slower nerve responses in any one of these is not confirmatory of MS but can be used to complement diagnosis along with a neurological examination, medical history and an MRI and a spinal tap.. Therefore, it would be prudent to consult your neurologist with these concerns. Take care.