Random fleeting pains and muscle fasciculations

[RainOfFire]

Hi Doctor,

I have been experiencing odd symptoms for the last 7-8 weeks.  It began with a pulsating pain deep in my palm that lasted for an hour or so.  The next morning I experienced similar random pains (except less severe and for a shorter duration) that could hit any part of any limb (e.g. a dull pain would shoot through a specific part of my foot for a second or 2 and then seconds/minutes later the same would happen in my hand/arm/leg etc).  This is my only constant symptom and has occurred every day since they started.  They are intermittent (i.e. I can go an hour or 2 without feeling them).

During this 7-8 weeks period I have also experienced burning sensations in my feet

[CCF-Neuro-M.D.-PW]

I cannot give you a formal medical opinion over the internet, as this forum is educational.
If you have not seen your doctor already, you should do so

There may be a variety of causes for your symptoms. They do not localize to any specific neurological location, so it is hard to show that the cause might be neurological on the basis of this information. Other non-neurolical possibilities include an overactive thyroid gland - can cause sensory symtpoms and fasciculations.

A regular negative HIV test can be negative in the early stages if infection. Rarely this is the case at 3 months out. If your doctor is still suspicious of HIV, then a repeat HIV test should be done in a few weeks. HIV seroconversion illness commonly presents as a flu-like illness with muscles aches, enlarged lymph nodes, and sometimes neuropathy.

Good luck

[Floxie99]

Have you, in the past year, been treated with a fluoroquinolone-based antibiotic (levaquin, tequin, cipro, floxin, etc)? If so, you are may well be suffering from a severe adverse reaction to that drug. These reactions can come on long after you are treated, and cause long-lasting pain and other symptoms like you describe. Very often those hurt think they have MS, or ALS, or fibromyalgia, or a host of other maladies.

If you are suffering these weird symptoms, I suggest you check out the following sites:
www.medicationsense.com
www.fqvictims.org
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/quinolones

[bryansj76]

Rain of Fire

I was wondering If you had any other news on your Symptoms. I too have exactly the same symptoms as yourself, I have been looking on the Internet any nothing seems to fit with any ofthese symptoms. I have been to see Doctors and they seem to put it down to Anxiety, which I know seems to be the easy solution for them, but like yourself the pains do not seem to go off when I am relaxed. I have had the intermittant shooting pains since for about 14 -15 weeks, and I suupose I am getting more stressed about them I have even started to have stress reliving massage to help. I was just wondering if you has any more news on your sypmtoms??? What are the main symptoms with the Thyriod problems that the Doc has highligted above??

Simon

[SteveIT]

Col, small-fiber PN can cause burning, but so can other things.

Most typically, small-fiber PN starts in the feet, is worse at night, and often progresses to the knees before the hands are affected. There is an extremely rare full-body type of small fiber neuropathy, but that usually affects the entire body.  

This poster's problem seems worse in the palms, and it is migratory, both of which suggest the problem could be something else, possibly (I do hate to say this) anxiety. There is very little literature on burning as a symptom of anxiety, but there is a growing mound of anecdotal evidence, some of it right here on this site. A stress-related magnesium deficiency can cause the same thing.

You correctly list the tests available for small-fiber PN; many of those are available only at neuromuscular clinics.

[cols]

It sounds a lot like small fiber neuropathy to me.  I have had a small fiber neuropathy for 1.5 years and I have a lot of those symptoms.  Most small fiber neuropathies are idiopathic and the doctor's can never find a cause.  You should go to a top neurological center and ask for autonomic testing or a biopsy to pursue a small fiber diagnosis.  Good luck.

[RainOfFire]

I should probably also mention that I have been worrying over this incident a fair bit and have considered anxiety as a possible cause.  However I doubt this as the pains, fasciculations and sensations still occur (though it seems to a lesser extent) when I am not stressing and my mind is being occupied completely by something else.

I guess I would like to know whether this situation sounds more like neuropathy or physical manifestations of stress.

Thanks for your time.