Chronic cough, wet dripping sensation in head and legs, muscle spasm-Please Help me!

[Dolly0602]

Hi everyone I am new to these boards but I need help. I just want to state that before all of this started, I have had no serious health issues. I am an athletically built  28 year old female.
         Back in May I had a respiratory infection, took antibiotics and it went away. In June I developed a cough that wouldn't go away. I went to my primary physician, he put me on some type of cough medicine with codeine. The cough still didn't go away so he put me back on antibiotics for 10 days. The cough still didn't go so he sent me to a pulmonologist. Pulmonologist put me on antibiotic avelox as well as cartiosteroids. Avelox for 10 days and steroids for 3 weeks. Now it is July and cough still didn't go. He then suggest we do a bronchoscopy. Pulmonologist performed bronchoscopy on me and then told me that me lungs looked normal, but the upper part of me throat was a little inflamed.  Went back to my primary physician and he refers me to an ENT. The ent does a surface physical (feels around my throat, looks in my ear, tells me to open my mouth). ENT told me I had an ear infection and that that could have led to the coughing. He puts me on antibiotics again to kill the ear infection for 10 days. After that I went back to see him, but I was still coughing. He told me ear infection was gone, but my tonsills were enlarged (which have been happening since I was 12 years old, I am now 28). IWhen my tonsills get enlarged, I sometimes have white hard smelly small balls come out of it ( I know TMI). Anyway he suggest that I remove my tonsills, hopefully it will keep me from getting infections and stop the coughing.
            It is now October, I had my tonsils removed. The healing process was excruciating, but I thought it would be worth it once everything is healed and I stop coughing. While healing I was put on antibiotics again to prevent infections while healing. Three weeks later, I started coughing. Went back to ENT, he told me that I had another ear infection and put me back on Avelox.
After taking that dose of Avelox, I started feeling a wet sensation in my head, like something dripping. It was so real that whenever I would feel it, I would go to wipe the back of my head and nothing would be there. I would also get these pulsating sensations in one spot of my head like something was oozing out. I started to get scared  and went back to my primary physician. He referred me to an  neurologist.
              This is now early November. I told neurologist my symptoms: dizziness, vertigo, headache, pulsating in head, oozing in one spot of head, by this time I started to have muscle spasms in my arms, and wet dripping sensation running down my legs, as well as my tongue would constantly tingle, and my eye would twitch. He wrote down symptoms and sent me to do a tilt table test to find out if blood pressure could cause the dizziness since I generally have low blood pressure. He also sent me to do blood test to check thyroid and other parts. Tilt table test and blood test came back normal.
                During this time I decided to see another ENT because I was not satisfied with treatment from other ENT (I felt like instead of finding out what the issue was, he would just keep prescribing antibiotics). Now at new ENT he actually does an exam on me using a flexible probe with a camera on the tip of it. He puts it in my nose, all the way down my throat and says that my larynx is inflamed. He told me that I had laryngopharyngeal reflux, so he put me on aciphex 1 a day.
            Now back at neurologist, when blood test and tilt test came back normal, he sends me to do an mra of the head and an mri of the brain with and without contrast. Mra and MRI results came back normal except that it showed that one of the two veins that formed an artery in the back of my head was smaller than the other (apastic or hypoplastic) and that my pituitary gland is "on the large side of normal". I asked him if any of this was serious, he said no, but that I should go back and do more blood tests to test my hormone levels due to my pituitary glands size, and that I should see him again in 3 months to do another MRI just to make sure everything is ok.
Went back to new ENT to find out about the progress of the Aciphex since I have been taking it for 6 weeks now, and he used that tube thing again to see and said that he didn't see any significant difference from before. So now he told me to take the aciphex 2 a day and come back in 3 weeks.
           I am so frustrated, I don't know what else to do. It is only prayer that helps to keep me from falling apart.
I am feeling theses sensations through out my body, and I am still coughing. I don't know if the sensations is from me taking too much antibiotics for so long, or maybe could it be nerve damage from the tonsillectomy, or what? While searching the web I came across some people that felt the wet sensations and the spasms that say that have MS. I don't know what to think. I have had a catscan of the brain that showed that there was no bleeding in the head, and wouldn't the MRI show signs of MS if that was what it was? All of this started with a cough. I didn't start feeling any of these other symptoms until after my tonsillectomy. I don't know what to think. Can anyone help me?
I am sorry that this is so long.

[Eyesnlegs]

I forgot to add that it can't be caffeine since my cough got worse after I changed my coffee - which I always drank to much of = for decaffeinated tea which is apparently very drying!

When did I change around Xmas time when I had the chest infection and my cough started - coincidence or an exacerbation?

[Eyesnlegs]

well my MS Nurse insists that neither my cough or stomach problems are MS related but the speech therapist was less sure and she is the expert on swallowing etc.

Mary, Chocolate, tea and coffee can cause reflux as they contain something (can't remember what) which can relax the sphincter at the top of the stomach (can't remember the name of it).

I haven't got to the bottom of mine yet but as long as I am not coughing I don't care - it is not a trivial thing and seriously disrupts your life.

Pat x

[drsdonthelp]

ok, so a dry cough, for no reason,  everynight that will wake you up, could be an ms symptom???? I need to know more info on this.

I am still trying to piece together alot of symptoms I have had.  Some have been obvious to me, while some , like this one, is something I would've never thought of.

[twopack]

Pat, I'm soooooo glad to hear you found something, anything that helps for even some amount of time against that cough.  I always heard the near despiration in your posts about coughing and wished I could find a release trigger.  I'm delighted a therapist was so observant.

I've known for some time that chocolate is a big offender for causing cough soon after consumption.  I didn't realize tea and coffee could do it.  I wonder what it is in the chocolate?  Caffeine?  That would make deliciously horrible sense wouldn't it?

Mary

[Eyesnlegs]

I had to pop in a tell you my story so that you can see you can have lots going on with this.

I was dx with MS after 20 years of sx in December 2008.

I started with a cough last Xmas which has gone on for 9 months and that nearly lost me my job,(I am a lecturer), stopped my most important hobby after 40 years as a singer, and generally made me incontinent when it happened which was 14 - 20 times a day. I just couldn't make anyone understand how badly it was affecting my life and that of my family.

This started after a chest infection and I won't go into all the different treatments and approaches but all came back clear with just a small red patch like you on the larynx. Even an endoscopy showed nothing.

I started a regime of 2 PPI's (Lanzaprazole) a day and Gaviscon Advance (4 times a day) and after a month of treatment the coughing was better but not gone. An MS speech therapist notice I was coughing when she gave me a cup of tea and pointed out that she also thought I was talking on the end of my breathe and my voice was getting tired quite quickly when we chatted, plus i sounded very dry in the throat.

I am now waiting for her to come back to me with suggestions as she felt that I had some MS related stuff but following her visit I gave up all drinks of tea and coffee and replaced them with just warm water. My cough has disappeared - yeah!!! can't believe it. Now starts the process of finding whether the drinks were drying out the throat and causing the cough or causing reflux which caused the cough. Oh and I am still on all the Gavisocn and tablets.

So don't give up hope keep on looking for a cure, I thought I would never get there and as others say it can be more than one thing.

Be well
Pat x

[jlschil]

Have your Neuro do a Lumbar Puncture for Intracrainial Hypertension with CSF leaks.
You also might want to research it with your symtoms. I have a feeling you will be very surprised!
I am not a medical professional but I really think this is going to help you~!
Good Luck~!
Jackie

[Lulu54]

Dolly,
Its so difficult for people outside of our bodies to understand that these sensations are real.  Even doctors at times don't believe the patients when they are trying to find answers.  It is so easy to dismiss this all as being "in our heads" when it really may be in our head!

That is one of the best things about a site like this - other patients can definitely relate to the symptoms you describe as well as the reaction of your family and friends.  Please drop through here often  to share and to learn.  This is a great community of very talented and giving people - over half of whom are not yet dx'd.  

BTW - I have a new wet spot that has popped up in the past day - this one is behind my right knee.  Of course it's dry - I don't even bother to mention it to my family.  :-)

be well,
Lulu

[Charley123]

Definition
By Mayo Clinic staff
"Sed rate, or erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), is a blood test that can reveal inflammatory activity in your body. A sed rate test isn't a stand-alone diagnostic tool, but the result of a sed rate test may help your doctor diagnose or monitor an inflammatory disease."

I think the cough lasted for a few months and went away after I started taking steroids.  
It's really hard not to think about all of the things going on in our bodies.  The physical symptoms are so very present with us all.  
I do hope you can find some answers and some relief from all of it.  Hugs, Charley

[Dolly0602]

Thank u so much 4 responding. Can u please explain what is a sed rate? How long have you been coughing as well. Did your doctor say if the cough will go away?
I am going to ask my primary physician about a rheumatologist as well.
Thank u so much

[Dolly0602]

Thank u so much for your kind words. I was just so frustrated, I didn't know what else to do, but to type this out and ask for help. It really means a lot to me that u took the time to read it and respond.
I am so glad that I found this forum. I was really on the brink of tears. My family doesn't really understand and they just think that it is in my head and that maybe I am thinking about it too much. The thing is that even when I don't think about it at all, I still feel the wet sensations. I was starting to feel like I was losing it.

[Charley123]

I had a very similar cough and was sent to a rheumatologist.  I also had a high sed rate.  Have you had that checked.  It turned out that I have a couple of inflammatory diseases that often come with MS.  I was put on steroids that I am weaning off of now.  I am now down to half the original dose and the cough is back.  Just a thought to try another approach, hugs, Charley

[Lulu54]

Hi Dolly, Welcome here and you can make your posts as long as you want! :-)

We definitely aren't doctors here, so take what I have to say for what its worth, which is just my opinion.

I was reading your history and thinking ... "why is she posting this on an MS forum?" and then I got to the symptoms that appeared after your surgery.  Often it takes an infection or a trauma to the body (such as surgery) to cause diseases (like MS) to be made active.  

Please remember too that you could very well have more than one thing going on in your body - we aren't limited to one disease ast a time.  The cough would most probably not be related to MS.  


It sounds like your doctors, especially your neurologist, are doing all the right things in looking for answers.  Finding hard evidence of MS is often very difficult - especially if it is in the early stages.  

The wet sensation is one most of us are familiar with - I sometimes get it on my head too.  I do find myself touching my head over and over to make sure it really isn't wet.  It can be very unsettling.

The spasms and tingling can also be MS, but that can also happen from other diseases too.  We have a good health page (yellow icon, upper right side of this page) on MS and its mimics .... there are certainly a lot of things that can initially appear to be MS. I would recommend you take a good look at some of the other options.

Consider yourself fortunate that your neuro wants to look again in 3 months - many don't do repeat MRI's until a year or so.  Hang in there and keep looking for answers - you know your body, and if you know something is wrong don't settle for not getting answers.

Weekends are pretty quiet around here - and especially being a holiday weekend.   hopefully someone else will pass through and add to this discussion.  In the meantime, I hope we will see you around again.

be well,
Lulu