For all who tingle, get numb, or burn....

[Heartshome]

In doing some research into what I was experincing I found the following information. (I can't remember the site location, but it was a reputable one.) This really helped me as a limbo-lander to understand that the symptoms I'm experiencing make sense in respect to a possible diagnosis of MS.

My doctor seems to think that this is what I have, although it's unusually slow to progress and my tests are normal. However I do have some signs such as hyperactive reflexes and ankle clonus, as well as a skin mottling suggestive of systemic autoimmune disease.

I am in a "wait and see" mode right now. It's challenging, but at least I now know that it's not all in my head.

Hope this is useful to all of you with tingling, burning, and numbness symptoms!


Paresthesia

"The skin sensation of partial numbness or "pins and needles" or a type of "burning", "tingling" or "creeping" sensation of the skin, is known as a "paresthesia". Symptoms may start as a tingling (paresthesia) and change to a numbness, or there may be a combination of decreased sensation (numbness) but with heightened sensations at certain times or with stimulation. Any type of tingling, burning, or numbness is usually a symptom related to a sensory nerve being damaged, diseased, or injured. Causes depend on the exact location of the paresthesia sensations, but typically include a physical nerve injury type condition (e.g. a nerve entrapment or some type of pressure being applied to a nerve directly or to the spinal attachment of that nerve), or a disease condition affecting the nerves (e.g. neuropathy, diabetic neuropathy, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, and others). Having these sensory symptoms in multiple locations, or the recurrence of similar symptoms in different locations is a hallmark symptom of multiple sclerosis, so your doctor will likely ask about the past history of similar symptoms to assess the likelihood of multiple sclerosis as a diagnosis (see symptoms of multiple sclerosis). Any of these tingling or numbness symptoms are more than just annoying; they can indicate a serious medical condition and require prompt medical diagnosis by a professional."

[Quixotic1]

Thanks for that quote.

Here is something I also wrote on paresthesias which answer some of the questions about how something can be numb and tingly at the same time.


A erroneous sensation from a sensory nerve causes a "paresthesia. What a lot of people don't know its that there are several different kinds of sensory nerves.

The common kinds are pain, pressure, soft touch, hot, cold, and vibration, but there are another dozen types. On top of that there are the special senses: smell, sight, taste, hearing, and such. All of them can be affected by MS.

Also nerves can be affect in two different kinds of ways. Their error messages can be positive or negative.

A POSITIVE paresthesia means that the erroroneous nerve signal will be something felt, or sensed, by the person. In the case of pain, it will be a sensation of pain from an area that is not damaged and has no reason to send a pain signal.

Hot may send a signal of a warm patch. We often perceive this as a warm, "wet" patch, but usually this wtness is filled in by our brain because it makes sense and our brains often try to make sense of things that don't add up.

A positive pressure paresthesia may show as the band sensation we often feel in the trunk or the limbs.

And, so the sense of smell by show that is, too, is wonky, by providing us with abnormal smells. Too often these are not pleasant.

Eyes may send lights, wavy lines, colors or halos.

You get the idea.

A NEGATIVE paresthesia means the nerve shows its damage by not sending the signal at all, or by sending it in reduced amplitude.

Something that is hot may just feel warm, or if the sensation is gone there is nothing to counter the cold sensors and the thing may actually feel cold.

Something may be completely without feeling or numb.

The sense of smell may be totally gone.

Taste may be gone.

So, yes, you can be missing a sensation entirely (the nerve has NO, a negative response) and/or have the sensation and be getting altered, and wrong, information (the nerve is sending a signal, a positive response) but it is altered.
Sometimes the sensation coming from the area is vastly decreased = numb, but the sensation is also altered = tingly or vibrating.

Quix

[Momzilla]

Thats an excellent bit of info there.  Thanks for sharing!

Zilla*