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Undiagnosed Symptoms Community
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persisten muscle problems
by foofoodyne, Oct 31, 2007 08:34PM
I am a 36 year old, average health male with no history of related problems prior to this.
About three months ago I woke up one day and was sore all over like I had done a very heavy workout. Over the next week or so my muscles started to twitch and spasm more and more. Not such that it interfered with function, just very annoying.
Since then, for the most part, the pain, twitching, and spasms have continued for the last 3 months.
The pain, stiffness, twitching, etc are mostly confined to my left side, but not entirely by any means, and it's more in my legs than arms. I have a longstanding neck injury that causes numbness in my left arm at times but this seems unrelated.
The symptoms are very hard to accurately describe because the pain is not truly cramps and not exactly like muscle soreness from workout, but very similar. My arms and legs are also somewhat stiff. The muscles in them constantly feel strained from doing the slightest thing, such as going up my steps at home. Even leaning over to tie my shoes or something, the leg muscles in my thigh feel tired. I haven't noticed any actual weakness, just always feel too "tired" in my muscles to do much and it seems to very easily be agitated by doing anything.
More recently I feel a slight tinge of pain in my abdomen, but nothing I'd normally concern a doctor with. It doesn't respond to touch or pressure.
I've seen three doctors: GP, neuro, and rheum. They've done full blood works, physical exams (including neuro eval), and a set of brain MRI including with dye for blood flow. All have come out normal. Metabolic panels were normal (so no deficiencies noted).
While I would say exhaustive tests haven't really been performed, my docs have said they see no real signs of ALS, MS, etc. I would tend to agree on the ALS. MS is still in the air since it's so hard to pinpoint but I would have suspect the neuro would have seen it on the MRI.
I take magnesium, calcium, omega fatty acids (with E), multi-vitamin, C, and a natural allergy pill. Most I've taken since long before this began.
The only possibly triggers I can think of leading up to this are:
two weeks prior:picked up a wild snake, left a nasty odor on my hands; swam in an ice-cold creek
one week prior: went on pretty hard hike (for my conditioning), pushed myself into discomfort and pain but had typical soreness and recovered prior to onset of current symptoms
Had a tetanus shot shortly, maybe a week or two prior.
Anyone else experience something similar and have any success tracking it down.
The only other persistent conditions I have is dry eyes, lots of allergies (taken plenty of meds for it over the years too), and raynaud's syndrome.
About three months ago I woke up one day and was sore all over like I had done a very heavy workout. Over the next week or so my muscles started to twitch and spasm more and more. Not such that it interfered with function, just very annoying.
Since then, for the most part, the pain, twitching, and spasms have continued for the last 3 months.
The pain, stiffness, twitching, etc are mostly confined to my left side, but not entirely by any means, and it's more in my legs than arms. I have a longstanding neck injury that causes numbness in my left arm at times but this seems unrelated.
The symptoms are very hard to accurately describe because the pain is not truly cramps and not exactly like muscle soreness from workout, but very similar. My arms and legs are also somewhat stiff. The muscles in them constantly feel strained from doing the slightest thing, such as going up my steps at home. Even leaning over to tie my shoes or something, the leg muscles in my thigh feel tired. I haven't noticed any actual weakness, just always feel too "tired" in my muscles to do much and it seems to very easily be agitated by doing anything.
More recently I feel a slight tinge of pain in my abdomen, but nothing I'd normally concern a doctor with. It doesn't respond to touch or pressure.
I've seen three doctors: GP, neuro, and rheum. They've done full blood works, physical exams (including neuro eval), and a set of brain MRI including with dye for blood flow. All have come out normal. Metabolic panels were normal (so no deficiencies noted).
While I would say exhaustive tests haven't really been performed, my docs have said they see no real signs of ALS, MS, etc. I would tend to agree on the ALS. MS is still in the air since it's so hard to pinpoint but I would have suspect the neuro would have seen it on the MRI.
I take magnesium, calcium, omega fatty acids (with E), multi-vitamin, C, and a natural allergy pill. Most I've taken since long before this began.
The only possibly triggers I can think of leading up to this are:
two weeks prior:picked up a wild snake, left a nasty odor on my hands; swam in an ice-cold creek
one week prior: went on pretty hard hike (for my conditioning), pushed myself into discomfort and pain but had typical soreness and recovered prior to onset of current symptoms
Had a tetanus shot shortly, maybe a week or two prior.
Anyone else experience something similar and have any success tracking it down.
The only other persistent conditions I have is dry eyes, lots of allergies (taken plenty of meds for it over the years too), and raynaud's syndrome.
Post Comment
I've kind of pressured the rheum on this and she just keeps pushing me off to a neuro. I'm moving from WA to AZ in a couple weeks anyhow, so I'll follow it all up there.
Thanks for your input.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/polymyalgia-rheumatica/DS00441
Kennedy's disease fits my symptoms very well. My mom has MS so I'm slightly more inclined to having it as compared to those without an inheritance path (although they "say" it's not inherited, they readily say it's more common in those with a parent with it).
Polymyalgia rheumatica presents its symptoms almost completely in muscles where I have no symptoms.
Today I'm twitching again A LOT. It's in both of my feet, both legs, both arms, some in my face, occasionally in my stomach muscles ... but universally worse on my left side. I always worry a lot about the twitching and spasms because I associate those with neuro problems whereas the others can more easily be associated with deficiencies or more treatable conditions.
I have to clarify that I don't really have a lot of pain, but I do get some, usually an atypical form of muscle soreness. In the beginning it was from nothing at all but more recently it's always associated with some form of exertion.
I'd say presently my most prevelant symptoms (but they teeder-todder from day to day) is muscle fatigue (in the sense that slight activities cause excessive fatigue very rapidly, even brushing my teeth), a FEELING of muscle weakness in my limbs (I've not found any true inability to do anything yet, but I FEEL weaker), and the twitching. I'm tempted to say that on the days when my muscles feel best as far as soreness and fatigue is when I have the worst twitching (as it is today).
Certainly appreciate any and all input and experiences with similar symptoms.
My left calf is doing the "worms under the skin" crawl as I type this.
Only time will tell how it all goes now. Just trying to stay as fit as possible. I've had a lot of recovery but I'm certainly not back to how I felt a little over a year ago.