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Avatar universal

what in the world?

Good morning,& thank you for taking my question. This site is awesome. I am very puzzled with the things that have been happening to me.  Right before Easter, I had my right leg start tingling. With an aunt having MS, I was a little worrried,& the doctore performed a MRI. It was fine.My lumbar mri was fine also. I didn't have a neck mri though.About a week after the tingling, my legs and arms began to twitch terribly.  My right leg also began to cramp,& I had a very sensitive spot on the side of my knee that would burn & sting uncontrollably if hot water hit it.  Those symptoms went away after a while,& then I had new ones appear.  My neck began to hurt &feel extremely heavy,& my toes would burn uncontrollably.  Those too, disappeared after a while, and my arms began become heavy.  First my left arm and then my right had all these symptoms and now they are everywhere.  I even had my right eye feel like it was exploding one night. I woke up and a very sharp pain shot through my eye. It burned and stung something fierce, and then it was better and I went back to sleep. However, it has continued to be very dry.  Recently, just these past three days, my neck (at the very base and right below the shoulders) has began to hurt very badly.  THe pain has been excrutiating ( my husband even had to lift me out of bed becasue my neck hurt so badly. My arms have also gotten extremely heavy. I have still been able to lift things, but I felt as if lead weights were put in them. My GP gave me a steriod and that seemed to help.  At first, I thought Als or ms. Now, I have no idea.  Why do my symptoms migrate and come and go.  The only thing constant is twitching.  Wouldn't a herniated disc be constant pain.  Also would a neck herniation cause all these problems?  I have a nerve conduction test scheduled this week, but I am going crazy because every day there is something new. Please help.
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Avatar universal
Dear Louise:

For your peace of mind about one thought you had, this is NOT ALS.  ALS does not have sensory changes associated with it.  Although these symptoms may be from MS, I do not favor this etiology as your symptoms are much to frequent and seem more severe than we usually see. However, there are rare types of MS that come on acutely and progress.  The negative MRI of the brain would sway me against this diagnosis.  The eye pain with vision changes can be a sign of optic neuritis.  I would suggest seeing an opthalmologist to further evaluate this.  This can be the presenting sign of MS (30-40% of MS present this way).  But, this might be something else than optic neuritis as you do not tell me about vision changes.  There are many other things that can give eye pain.  The extremity pain and muscle fasciculation you describe may be a peripheral nerve or spinal root problem.  The EMG test will give you a better idea about these possibilities.  I would think the chances of either of the latter would be high.  Let us know how it turns out.

Sincerely,

CCF Neuro MD
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Avatar universal
i forgot to mention differnt parts of my body seem to fall asleep very easily, and they will even jump when falling asleep.  i don't know if this helps or not.
thanks
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