Nerve twitches, chronic sharp pains, tingling, etc. Diagnosis?

So many symptoms, so little space. I am a 46 year old man, slim, formerly athletic, otherwise healthy, no drugs or cigarettes, sometimes a drink.  For three years I have been suffering from severe lower back, lumbar and neck pain, elbows painful to touch, nerves (esp. calves) constantly twitching/"crawling." Hips and knees hurt.  Pain constantly "shoots" up or down one limb, then another -- goes away then comes back.  Joints throb briefly, then stop.  Legs fall asleep after 30 seconds in a crouch.  Tingling plus chronic sharp "sticking" pains in my hands and bottom of feet. I cannot sit for more than five minutes without serious back pain. Always changing positions. Nerves feel "alive."  Feet always close to cramping.  Worse in morning.  Back of legs and feet feel "cold" when they shouldn't.  Lower back and hips feel sometimes feel "hot" as if inflamed, but MRI shows no back change, no inflamation (inflammation).  I am male, so fibromyalgia?  
All tests (you guessed it!) normal.  No Lyme.  No ankolosyne.  No diagnosis.  Need help.  Anyone?

[patsy10]

You sound like me and a lot of us here.  You could still have lyme even with negative tests.  You could have fibro too.  Less common but possible in men.  Remember, it's just a group of symptoms without a known cause so even if you get diagnosed with fibro, you still don't know what you have.  The long thread started by Curmudgeon has many interesting posts in it if you haven't read it yet.  I wish you the best in finding out what you have.  I haven't after 2 years.

[tjmorrell]

quick question-have you had your B12 level checked?  I have a lot of those same symptoms, and that was my problem.

[FrustratedAlli]

[FrustratedAlli]

What about RLS? I mean, I have fibro, and it sounds like you could absolutely have symptoms of that, but you also sound like you have the symptoms my husband has with RLS. Just a thought, I sure hope you get an answer and get to feeling better.

[findacurenow]

Sure sounds like the points of Fibro that are bothering you. Also sounds like RSD with the nerve pain, twitching, throbbing. But, it sounds like you have more than one thing going on for sure. I have Fibro & RSD, carpal tunnel, tarsal tunnel, and also have an SI joint dysfunction that took years and a hand full of so called specialist to finally be diagnosed. The SI joint is in the lower area and has the same symptoms as a bad disc in the lower L spine area and hip pain. I had numbness in my feet after sitting for a short time, so bad that when I went to get up once, down I went, with no feeling in my feet, I crushed my foot to pieces. I also had shooting pains down my leg, numbness down my leg, standing for a long time caused severselow back pain, ect. It turned out to be the SI joint that does not show up on MRI or any other test they usually do. I got so upset I told the MRI Readers they we wrong and had to be reading the films wrong, as I knew what I felt and there had to be somthing there. They just thought I was crazy. It probably took 5 or 6 years before I went to another spine specialist & he immediately diagnosed that I had SI joint dysfuntion. I believe the only way they can really diagnose it is with an injection in the area, under semi awake anesthesia, they put a tube in and shoot in cortizone and a pain med, and if you have no relief from the cortizone the diagnosis is SI problems.  There is also something called Piriformis (spelling may be wrong) that has about the same symptoms as the SI joint. One doctor diagnosed that, but then it was ruled out. I don't know but it sounds like you may have both Fibro, possibly RSD, & possibly an SI joint problem. All the other points of your pain and problems are sounding like Fibro areas, and the twitching and nerve & throbbing sound like RSD. Good luck, its very frustrating. I would go to a "good" ortho and ask about checking your SI, & check for piriformis, then go to a "good" pain management doc who knows about Fibro & RSD. They should be able to diagnose you once and for all. Lotsa luck.

[findacurenow]

Sure sounds like the points of Fibro that are bothering you. Also sounds like RSD with the nerve pain, twitching, throbbing. But, it sounds like you have more than one thing going on for sure. I have Fibro & RSD, carpal tunnel, tarsal tunnel, and also have an SI joint dysfunction that took years and a hand full of so called specialist to finally be diagnosed. The SI joint is in the lower area and has the same symptoms as a bad disc in the lower L spine area and hip pain. I had numbness in my feet after sitting for a short time, so bad that when I went to get up once, down I went, with no feeling in my feet, I crushed my foot to pieces. I also had shooting pains down my leg, numbness down my leg, standing for a long time caused severselow back pain, ect. It turned out to be the SI joint that does not show up on MRI or any other test they usually do. I got so upset I told the MRI Readers they we wrong and had to be reading the films wrong, as I knew what I felt and there had to be somthing there. They just thought I was crazy. It probably took 5 or 6 years before I went to another spine specialist & he immediately diagnosed that I had SI joint dysfuntion. I believe the only way they can really diagnose it is with an injection in the area, under semi awake anesthesia, they put a tube in and shoot in cortizone and a pain med, and if you have no relief from the cortizone the diagnosis is SI problems.  There is also something called Piriformis (spelling may be wrong) that has about the same symptoms as the SI joint. One doctor diagnosed that, but then it was ruled out. I don't know but it sounds like you may have both Fibro, possibly RSD, & possibly an SI joint problem. All the other points of your pain and problems are sounding like Fibro areas, and the twitching and nerve & throbbing sound like RSD. Good luck, its very frustrating. I would go to a "good" ortho and ask about checking your SI, & check for piriformis, then go to a "good" pain management doc who knows about Fibro & RSD. They should be able to diagnose you once and for all. Lotsa luck. I also have a post, but haven't had anyone respond to it yet. I know how crazy you can get trying to get answers. We all know what we feel is real, but getting a real diagnosis is another story.

[Frustrated-in-Wash]

Wow, everyone is so quick and generous with advice.  I really appreciate it.  I am going to go over all of it in detail and then make my next trip to the doctor.  It is so frustrating, bouncing from specialist to specialist and test to test, only to be told "everything looks normal."  The only manifestation of this that can be observed is the twitching and jumping of my nerves.  It sounds crazy, but I am glad that I can at least show people the problem.  They are then more likely to believe that the other symptoms are there as well.  
I will be traveling for a week or so, and then I'll see if I can track down my next specialist.  I'll report the results here.  
Thanks again, everyone, for all your input.  More advice and stories of course are always welcome.  You never know what will trigger a diagnosis.