Another "Do I have MS" Question

[DandyMandy]

I'm a female in my early 20s. For about 6 years, I've experienced muscle twitches in muscles all over my body. It's like the twitches you get in your eyelid, except it's all over my body. This usually happens perhaps once a day and happens more often when I'm stressed out.

I also get this generalized dull achy pain in my arms and legs. It feels like my muscle needs to be stretched but when I stretch it, it doesn't help. I don't know if it's a cramp, nerves, or what. This happens a few times a month.

It also seems like a have a few more floaters in my right eye. However, I went to the optometrist a few months ago and he said that my optic nerves were okay.

I have a reflex hammer and tested my reflexes. They were all normal. I also tried the Babinski response and I'm not able to elicit any movement from my toes. I know how to do it on other people but I'm not having much luck with my own feet. The bottoms of my feet are beginning to hurt.

To make things worse, last night, a patch of skin on my thigh became supersensitive.  This has happened before for the past few years.  It's still really sensitive today and I'm panicking by thinking that it's neuralgia associated with MS.

I'm not sure what to do. I went to the GP 5 years ago for my muscle twitches and she said that it was probably just stress. I don't have any muscle weakness, numbness, or loss of coordination. I'm a hypochondriac and quite honestly, I'm sick of crying "wolf" and I bet the staff at the clinic are too. But I am worried.

Any ideas? Could this all be stress-related? I am a very stressed out individual and easily prone to anxiety.  I've been really stressed out this past week with school and all of these weird symptoms aren't making me feel any better. :(

Thanks guys!!

[k2626]

I have simliar issues and have been in tears daily. I woke up basically on June 13 and had pain in my ankle like it was sprained, well from that point forward ( the days that followed ) I had pains all over my body--fleeting pulsating pains like toothaches. They hit my ankle, then would move to my finger later in the day, then to my foot and toes, then to my spine. It all just hit me at once, all over. Sometimes stabbing pains that last a second, other times hours. A few days after this all hit I started to get a vibrating feeling in my foot, it would hit one foot at a time. Well now 4 months later I still have it and odd nerve pains along my body. For the past month I have had non stop twitches/fascilations all over my body-non stop. I also have a headache that has been persistant for 2 wks on and off. Before all of this I was feeling fatigued and had a odd eye pressure since Feb....

I had an EMG, TONS of blood work an MRI of head and entire spine-all clear. I had an MRI 1.5 yrs ago of my head as well for ice pick headaches.

I am worried this is MS but it has not shown on the MRI yet....this thought consumes my mind 24/7

I was under a ton of stress when this hit as my dad had been dx with term pc at the end of May, he has now passed away and I watched him slowly die. That was very hard on me, but I find it very hard to believe the things going on with me is due to stress.

[essdipity]

Hi there!  And welcome to the MS forum.

I'll come right to the point---I don't think your symptoms sound like MS at all. I'm no doctor, of course, so don't take what I say as gospel, but I do have a bit of experience as to what MS is like.

MS doesn't produce symptoms "all over the body." It's just not possible, given that brain and spinal cord lesions cause problems in specific areas. Also, MS doesn't show itself as fleeting symptoms occuring sparingly. From another point of view, if you've had twitches at least 5 years and you have MS, then your symptoms would likely be a lot worse by now. One thing these twitches could possibly be is benign fasciculation syndrome, which is troublesome but not serious. You might want to check this out with your doctor.

Why not have your eye floaters (very common annoyances but not part of MS) evaluated by an ophthalmologist, not an optometrist, who is not a medical doctor?

We don't know you here so we can't say with any certainty whether stress is causing your symptoms. However, symptoms like yours have definitely been stress-related in many other people.

You do say that your life is full of stress and that you are prone to anxiety. That shows that you are aware of how your feelings affect your well-being, and I think is a big clue as to what is happening to you. Why not build on this by working on these emotions in a professional setting? That could pay dividends that will last many years.

One final piece of advice that I hope you will accept from someone who's been on this planet many more years that you---Throw away your reflex hammer! It takes training to know how to use it properly anyway, training that you don't have. But more important, it causes you to focus a great deal on your health and your perceived problems. A young gal in her twenties has a whole world ahead of her. That's loads of good stuff for your focus!

Please take care of yourself and be well.

Hugs,
ess

[buriedinfur]

I personally am leaning more on the 'stressed out' side of things for you hun. I'm not diagnosed yet - but I have neuropathy, and trust me it isn't a subtle thing at all. I'm taking 1800 mgs of gabapentin a day just to keep it as a light tingly etc feeling. Sometimes even that doesn't work and I get bad burning and needle like pains. Keep an eye on things for you - but don't let it get you more stressed out or worried.

I think that what you may want to do is look into some good therapy for management (and no, I'm not saying you are nuts so please don't take it that way). I personally think therapy is an excellent tool in dealing with pain management and obviously it's good to deal with anxiety. I've credited therapy, particularily cognitive therapy, to helping me deal 100% better with the symptoms that I'm having and not get too upset when I'm in a bucket load of pain or whatnot.

If you ask me, dealing with chronic illness/pain is largely a mind game - and if so, I'm gonna stack the cards as much in my favor as I can. I'll never say no to therapy. It's my friend! :) I think that everyone in the fricken world could use a little bit of it - all of us have our own issues and therapy is just a way to learn tools to deal with them.

Good luck!