Muscle tremors/shakes, "electric shocks" before sleep, constant ear ringing, memory loss

[seekmedhelp]

Physical info: 27 year old white male, 6'1, 160 pounds, non-smoking, non-drinking, with no previous serious health issues.

For about three months I've been having the following symptoms:

1. Tremoring/shaking muscles upon exertion. When resting they occasionally twitch, without being strong enough to actually my limbs. Walking down stairs has become uncomfortable as my thighs tremor when my muscles fully engage.

2. violent head shocks/zaps that have left me awake for 36 hours at a time. They occur the moment I am about to "cross over" into sleep. Sometimes sharp noises trigger them (wood, plastic cracking), but it only happens when I'm sleepy, accompanied by my vision going from black to bright gold.

3. Constant ringing in my right ear for about a month and a half. The tremors started occurring about one month before the ringing. About two days after the ringing started the head zaps began. They occur on average of 2-3 days a week. During the worst episodes I cannot sleep for 36 hours, and one time for 48. I only pass out from sheer exhaustion.

4. My short term memory and concentration have been slowly fading.

I have no insurance and no money. I am exhausted from sleeping only 2-3 hours a day for over two months. Is there any way I can get help from the government? I live in NJ, USA. A person can only endure so much.
Brian

[seekmedhelp]

My blood test had a thyroid check and they said the results were normal:

T4 Total: 9.9
T3 Uptake: 36
Free T4 Index: 10.2


What part of your thyroid blood test was off? I've read there are many different types of thyroid tests. The doctors at my clinic probably gave me the most basic one.

[flyin2006]

What was your TSH? It's a big part of the thyroid test.

[taherkody]

Hi. I was going through those same symptoms and more a couple months ago and  I was also getting arrythmias and high blood pressure with numbness and pins and needles in my right leg along with those muscles twiches and weakness and tremors ear ringing and memory loss. I went from doctor to doctor and they wouldnt know the reason got so many scans ,mri's xrays  and tests ..... In the end it turned out to be thyroid problem I was going through a thyroxic state ...Myabe you should get your thyroid checked?

[seekmedhelp]

Another update:

I finally got in to see a neurologist. Actually three at the same time. The elder neuro totally ignored me and instead spoke through his two residents. He didn't even want to look me in the eye.

After showing them my tremors, and explaining how exhausted I am from the electrical shocks disrupting my sleep, the elder neuro performed a brief physical, and said to his resident "It looks like a benign essential tremor. Neurologically he is fine and I believe there will be no acoustic neuroma or brain de-mylenation of any kind on his upcoming MRI."

It was all rather strange because after asking him questions he answered them to the resident who then repeated them to me. The guy was a complete jerk. He then suggested to the intern I might have taken LSD or some other psychotropic drugs. When I insisted thats not true, that I don't even drink alcohol or caffeine, he didn't even look at me, instead just kept on talking to the resident.

Then the resident repeats exactly what the elder neuro said, which I thought was absurd as we were all 3 feet from each other.

That kind of puzzles me. How can nothing be wrong with me neurologically, if I have tremors worse than some 70 year olds. (i'm 27). Electric shocks keep me from sleeping sometimes for days. Sharp noises also trigger the effect. My right ear rings constantly which began months ago with the rest of the symptoms - yet i'm fine neurologically. After waiting 4 months for this appointment, I was extremely dissapointed by the expertise of a supposed "teaching" neurologist.

On the plus side, he told the resident "a sleep study would be acceptable in this case".

So a few days from now I'll be fortunate enough to have a sleep study despite having no insurance. According to the secretary at the hospital's sleep center, I will stay there overnight while they monitor me with electrodes attached to a computer. A test that labor intensive probably costs at least 2-3 thousand dollars, and without the catholic hospital's charity care I'd never be able to afford it.

I'll post another update once the MRI and sleep study results are in.

[seekmedhelp]

Here is an update on my condition:

Today I went to see an ENT at a Catholic hospital's free clinic. He was the second ENT I saw there, as they rotate every two weeks.

The previous ENT ordered an audiogram and referred me to a neurologist (more on that later). Today's ENT said the audiogram showed some hearing loss and he thinks it may be due to a nerve polip though at my age it is unlikely, but nonetheless should be ruled out. He also ordered a Lyme disease titer, some additional blood tests, and an MRI.

Here is a scan of the MRI prescription.

http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/3351/entmriscriptdx8.jpg

If anyone is familiar with the language could you please explain to me what it means? I didn't want to waste the ENT's time by asking. He was extremely nice and seemed to genuinely care about my condition. There were a lot of other patients in the waiting area, his day looked swamped.

The free clinics at this hospital tend to be packed, though I always come in very early to secure the 1st spot. You probably get a better diagnosis when the doctor hasn't been fatigued by seeing two dozen charity cases, which include musclebound tatooed convicts in chains from Rahway state prison and also insane asylum patients. One of the guys kept banging his head on the wall and others talked to themselves, pacing back and forth. It looked like that scene from the movie 12 monkies. At that point I almost felt like my problems were small in comparison, despite the constant ringing in my ear and barely sleeping from constant electrical shocks.

Hopefully this upcoming MRI will give me a diagnosis. I feel lucky to receive it, considering many middle class working people are denied MRIs by their company insurance.
  

  

[johnflox]

Among all fluoroquinolones, floxin is the one that has the most delayed toxicity profile. It is not possible to tell  whether some injuries caused by floxin are surfacing now, but you might getting a more precise idea consulting the subtle symptoms that herald a delayed (up to 18 months) toxicity caused by floxin, having a look at:
www.fluoroquinolones.org
www.fqresearch.org

I know almost twenty persons that took floxin, had mild or moderate symptoms shortly after the treatment, then reached a plateau of some months, or got nearly recovered, and by month 15 on average got plagued with several symptoms identical to yours, and extremely debilitating. It is not the norm, and indeed a rare situation but it is also a posibility, not so remote.

The classical presentation of a fluoroquinolone toxicity (like floxin) for an athlete is to have small abnormal issues starting some weeks after exposure, then have 18 months or so of increased and new symptoms, and then several years of recovery, depending on many factors. Floxin has the most delayed onset toxicity of all fluoroquinolones.