Hi. I'm just taking a stab in the dark here, but I'm really confused about my health and don't know where to start looking for answers. Let me try to be as succinct as possible in the history, but it stretches back for years, so I'm not sure how I'll do.
At age 25 I began having numbness in one hand (dominant hand). I ignored it at first. Then I went to a chiropractor. I had pain in the neck and shoulders, but I'm a high stress person and have "always" had that. Doc diagnosed (with no x-rays) nerve entrapment and did adjustments. Not sure it really helped. Things seemed to get better on their own. At the time, I also had that thing where when you bend your neck forward you get tingles down your arms and back. I told the chiro. He said it was just nerve irritation. If I had had the internet back then, I would have known this could be a more serious sign and would have pursued it. It probably wouldn't have helped to start searching then, though, because the next bout of severe symptoms started when I was 32. I had lots of hand numbness off and on, but I ignored it. Sometimes the foot on the same side would be involved. At 32, the numbness turned to horrible nerve pain. It would come and go, but it was very sharp and awful in the outer two fingers of my hand. At this point I was also getting terrible headaches and my eyesight would kind of "vibrate" a little in the mornings when the headaches were coming. I saw a neurologist, who did MRI of neck and brain and an EMG and various blood tests. She found nothing (other than an incidental venous angioma), and diagnosed probable fibromyalgia and sent me to physical therapy. The EMG hurt like HELL by the way. She seemed to think that my muscle tension was just so extreme that it was interfering with that test and causing the pain. She diagnosed the headaches as tension headaches with a "migraine component." She also speculated the hand pain could have to do with postural habits and working at the computer, although it was not carpal tunnel. About the same time, I went to an eye doctor because my right eye (same side as all the problems thus far) was getting weak (tired at end of day, blurry). I got reading glasses. Physical therapy helped (mostly the bi-weekly massages!) and, eventually, the hand pain got to a manageable level. Well, I've always had lots of aches and pains, and now, at 39 after a pregnancy, I find myself having new symptoms again. I told the ObGyn that my legs were tingling now. He said the pregnancy could have damaged nerves. I've also had my lower back go "out" once since the birth. That has happened a couple of times in my life. I went to the chiropractor I had seen through the pregnancy. He says I'm a "mess," but that's not exactly a diagnosis. The part that is really concerning me now, though is the new tingling and now sometimes cramping in legs. My knee on one side is buckling with pain sometimes. My headaches are back. I have started an SSRI, and that seemed to make me tense my muscles (clinching the hand) more. I think it's a med side effect, but I can't be 100% sure. Also since starting the med, I had muscle twitches in my face and eyelid. We upped the dose of med and the eye spasms have stopped, but the muscle clenching continues, and now my hand is cramping and hurting. I can't grab things sometimes without pain under my thumb. I think it's like the muscles are cramping from all the clenching. Also random muscle spasms in my thighs. Tingling in legs is getting more pervasive. The tingling legs and return of the "migrainey" headaches predates the new med, by the way. But I guess I should stop the meds and see if it helps. The counselor I see doesn't want me off the meds. I started for postpartum issues that have improved. I was on a different SSRI to begin with, with same or worse side effects, so I think all will have this new effect. I had been on them before over the years, but never with any muscle effects other than teeth grinding, which I have done now for 20 years.
Sigh. So that's it. I've always suspected MS. I have cognitive difficulties, too, but it's hard to say that those aren't caused by anxiety, postpartum fatigue, a lifetime of poor sleep, etc.
I'm not in a good area for medical treatment anymore. If I'm going to search for answers, I need to know what to ask for.
Thanks for reading all this. I just don't know what to do. I tell myself that I may feel this rotten because of caring for an infant (lifting, bending, not sleeping, etc.), but the muscle spasms are scary. I fear the worst stuff (ALS, Parkinsons, Alzheimers, etc.), so that at this point a diagnosis of MS would almost be a relief. Perhaps it is fibromyalgia after all, but I just don't know if I believe that. It never did seem like a real diagnosis -- more like something the neuro said to satisfy me.