Muscle twitching, cramping, numbness in forearms. Fear of ALS.

[zny444]

Hello, I am a 29 y/old male.

Thank you for taking the time to read this...

3 months ago I was diagnosed with lower back problems (slight stenosis, and right facet joint arthritis). Referred to pain managment specialist and was given two spinal cortizone injections (lumbar/right facet joint). Upon resting at home, I noticed muscle twitching in my right calf muscle. I thought it was nothing at first but recently they have gotten worse. To make a long story short... I have had a nervous breakdown two weeks ago followed by deep depression. I think I have this horrible disease. I have seen 3 Neurologists (two of which at Universty of Penn) and my primary doctor and all have told me that I suffer from anxiety and to see a psycologist. The twitching has not stopped and I am noticing I wake at night to numbness in my forearms that eventually goes away. I also have noticed slight shaking/tremor in my right arm, a slight tremoring in my lower jaw, a slight indent in my right calf (which is more seen when flexed), cold sweats at night (waking drenched), sever eye floaters, sever left scitatic pain (not shooting/kills me when cough/sneeze), more blurry vision and a feeling of something in the back of my throat. I am walking fine, drinking and eating fine (although my stomach has been very upset these last weeks). I have also been crying to wife about all this every other day. I am at a loss here as I feel my life has been taken from me. I have had a cspine MRI to rule out fibro, bloodwork for vitamin deficancy all negative. The univeristy DRs did not recommend an EMG. PLS help!

[cjgjm]

Well I'm no doctor but your nerves are killing you.  Way too much anxiety.  You can resolve this.  You need to learn how to meditate.  I believe we are all created and we try and live our life wiothout our creator.  But he hass an esential part of us and we just don't function properly unless we are connected to him daily.  He has a missing computer part and we don't function properly without him.  You are filled with anxiety.  Stop eating or drinking anything with caffeine.  Get off your computer. Learn how to mediatate.  Sit quietly and repeat a short phrase over and over like "Jesus I trust in you". Repeat it slowly and think abpout what trust means. Do this over and over. At leeast three times a day for 30 minutes.  At first this is impossible but stick with it and it will cure you.  The more time we spend with opurt creator the more grace we receive and the more peace.  Stop watching trashy TV.  Listen to relaxing music.
God Bless
Chris (been there done that)

[Morris]

Hi,
I am new here and have become a little nervos after seeing the special on Michael J. Fox the night. My right thumb has been twitching a lot more than usual lately. I don't take any prescriptions or other drugs other than aspirin. I work out almost everyday. I just don't understand why it does this. It's becoming very annoying...

[ladybiker]

I have been so scared.  In reading a note from BU on the webpage, every single thing you are going through sounds just like what I am going through.  I found this website, and was so grateful to see some things that sound exactly like me.  I have read everything I can on the muscle twitching/dumbness, etc.  
Mine seemed to start out with just the left knee feeling like it was twitching/trembling after walking. Now it is all over to include neck, back, etc.  It seems at its worse when I stop.  If I'm busy I either don't notice or it's not as bad.  As some of you have said, I feel like I watch my arms, legs, stomach, etc., just to see if I can actually see the muscles twitching.  It feels almost like that bubble wrap that pops, only it's under my skin and in the muscles.

You know how you feel after you exercise, or keep exerting yourself -- then your muscles feel trembly and skaky?  That's the way I feel all over.  I've tried magnesium.  I've tried a lot of things posted on this board.

Yesterday I left work and went to my Primary Physician.  I've been so stressed out about this twitching in all the muscles, that I worked myself up also thinking I was having a heart attack.  I've never had high blood pressure.  But yesterday it was high, like 150+ over 90+.  Doctor started me on a blood pressure medication that is supposed to have a relaxer type thing in it.  I was on Paxil about a year or two ago, but I came off of it.  

Does anyone use Ambien to help sleep?  I've been using it for years every night, and wondering if that could have something to do with this.  My doctor doesn't think so.  I'm also on Lipitor and Zetia.  

Another thing I'm wondering is the use of sugar-substitute products.  Today I thought I felt fine, not as trembly or shaky, but at lunch I had unsweet tea with one of the sugar-substitutes, and I've noticed the trembling and shaking a lot since lunch.

To make a long story short, I am seeing a neurologist on Friday.  I wondered if anyone that has written on this board, has had any diagnosis from all of this?  

[Breathe Deeply]

I came upon this site accidently while searching for info on "twitchy thumbs."  After reading the posts starting with zny444 on 4/24/06 to the last post I see on 8/27/06, I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders.  As with nat14 who posted on 7/31/06, I feel like I have a book to share with you all.  Let me try to begin at the beginning......I am a 48 yo female.  About 5 years ago I went through a divorce, which while it was not the most acrimonious divorce in history, it wasn't a pleasant experience.  Although I was stressed during this process, I didn't feel like I was any more stressed than I had been at other times in my life.  In fact, I had started dating a very nice man, had a very good job and had made a lot of friends.  On the outside, life seemed good.  But, that's when my mind/body started rebeling.  I started having every single symptom that everyone has posted on this forum.  It started with my arms going numb at night for no apparent reason.  I'm not talking about a numb hand because I slept on it, but both of my arms had gone numb.  Then I started feeling tingly in my hands  and a little twitchy in various parts of my body.  I would wake up at night and it felt like my body was vibrating.  Very weird.  I went to my GP who referred me to a neurologist.  I saw him and after an exam, he said he thought my symptoms were stress/anxiety related, said I should relax, etc.  I INSISTED that stress couldn't be the cause because I was no longer stressed - my divorce was final 6 months earlier and I had moved on and life was good.  I talked him into giving me more tests (MRI, CAT Scan, EMG - you name it, I had it)and every single test came back negative.  I was still convinced that I had some disease like MS, ALS, Parkinsons, or something so I called and e-mailed my neuro constantly and "begged" for a spinal tap, which was supposed to show pretty conclusively if you have any of the diseases I was sure that I had.  Because he could see that I would not be able to relax until I had the Spinal tap, he reluctently agreed to do it.  And of course it showed NOTHING!  

So, did I believe him and all of the tests?  Heck no, I found another neuro and went through the same drill with him, minus the Spinal Tap.  This neuro finally convinced me to go on an SSRI and we settled on Paxil.  He also gave me Xanax to help me sleep and he gave me Vioxx (while it was still on the market) for pain.  Even with these drugs, I was still having these weird body sensations, numbness (face, arms, hands, feet), tingling (hands, feet, face), twitching (everywhere, but especially the face and legs, hands and butt were involved too).  This neuro sent me to a pain management DR. who was very nice and understanding, but once again diagnosed stress/anxiety.  I was ready to scream!  Didn't they see that I was now in a nice place in my life and that the stress in my life had been months before???  But, this DR. gave me an epilepsy drug called Neurontin.  It is an "anti-twitch" medication but it also has anti-anxiety properties.  So, I was now taking 4 major drugs in addition to Allegra for allergies and Prevacid for GERD.  After several months, things did start to get a LITTLE bit better.  I thought there was less pain, and less twitching, and less tingling, and less anxiety.  I was probably so drugged up that I didn't know any better.  

Anyway, one day I had the bright idea to quit all of these drugs cold turkey.  In a lucid (?) moment, I knew that I was taking way too many drugs and that I needed to get off them.  (Strange that none of my docs said that to me!)  Somehow I had come to realize that maybe, possibly, stress was the cause of my symptoms.  I had started reading everything I could find on stress and I learned that stress and anxiety symptoms can show up a long time after a stressful event has passed.  Needless to say, going cold turkey off the drugs was a big mistake as you cannot quit any of these drugs cold turkey without major side effects.  I got sick (nauseous) and very dizzy (but oddly, not very anxious).  I went back to my GP who told me I should go back on the drugs and then taper off gradually.  I had been off the drugs for 3 days by now and told her that I was not going to take those drugs again.  So, she game me Antivan which I took sparingly just to relieve the major withdrawl symptoms.  This withdrawl took place about 3 years ago.  After a few days I didn't take anything again (except my allergy and GERD meds).

Fast forward to today, 8/30/06.  Although I still don't take any drugs (again except for allergy and GERG), I still have some symptoms, albeit minor ones.  I still can't quiet my mind, and I still stress out about almost everything from drivers on my commute to work, to "perceived" slights from co-workers, etc.  I mean, everything gets on my nerves.  I always feel some level of anxiety, even when things in my life are so good that I can't imagine them getting any better.  (Have I permanently branded a stress tatoo on my brain???)  I TRY to breathe deeply and tell myself to relax and that I can only control myself and not anyone or anything else.  Sometimes this helps a bit, but sometimes not.  

Now, for the reason that brought me to this forum in the first place.  While I was in the middle of my "stressing phase", amid all of the twitches I had, I got a really weird one that was in the webbing on my right hand between my thumb and forefinger.  It was really more of a spasm and it went on for about a day.  Needless to say, it really freaked me out as it was a VERY NOTICEABLE twitch and as I am right-handed, it was difficult to put on makeup, etc.  Anyway, it went away after about a day.  Then a year later, the same really weird twitch came back in the same place.  Again it went away after about a day.  I talked with my neuro about it and he said that everyone has some twitches going on and that it is normal, etc.  It came back a few months later for a few hours then left.  Well, this past weekend it came back with a vengence, again in the same place, the webbing between my right thumb and forefinger.  But this time my right ring finger also twitched.  I immediatly got the scarey rush of adrenaline feeling and my stomach flipped flopped.  I told my husband about it (I married the nice man I dated after my divorce!) and he was sympathetic but said I should just try to take my mind off it.  I tried but it's very difficult when your hand is twitching so much you can't even hold a book steady.  So, it twitched all day and I finally fell asleep that night with my hand sort of under my body to stop the jumping motion.  The next day it was pretty much okay, no real twitching, but I was SO anxious that I spent most of the day staring at it, waiting for it to twitch.  This morning I woke up at my usual 5:30 a.m. to exercise before going to work and it started twitching again.  So here we go again, adrenaline rush (and NOT the good kind), panic, etc., etc.  I execised, showered, and am now at work and it is not twitching but I feel half on the verge of panic that it will start again and never stop.  After re-reading this, it almost sounds too simplistic, but I think I would need much more room than this forum allows to be able to articulate everything that I have felt in the past few years and everything I feel now.  As I said, I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders because there are other people who have the EXACT SAME SYMPTOM that I am so worried about and we have ALL been told that it is likely anxiety/stress that is causing it.  Although I don't feel like I am under any particular stress right now, perhaps my body disagrees and it's showing me that I am.  I also want to let so many of you know that your symptoms are EXACTLY the symptoms I had for so long and that I, too, didn't believe any doctor who told me that they were stress related, but I now believe the docs were right.  Please believe me that things WILL get better.  Your twitches and tingling will subside.  I know exactly how you feel, I really do.  I was there and I still travel back now and then.  You want your life back.  You want to wake up from this nightmare.  It is so odd to me (but also comforting in a way) that there are other people out there like me.  I always felt (and sometimes still do) that I was the one patient that my doctor had not diagnosed correctly and that I was going to die of some horrible disease.  Who knows, I still may (and yes, that worries me also!), but I have to try and make a concerted effort each and every day to live in the day and not worry about what could happen.  This is SO much easier said than done.  And, it is much easier to try to relax when my thumb isn't twitching madly!  There is so much more I could say, so much more I could expound on but I've got to close this.  If anyone out there would like to chat more, please feel free to e-mail me at ***@****.  Take care everyone and please know that if your doc says you are ok, then you probably are.  Breathe deeply.....

[vot]

I am having the same stuff happening to me.

I am diagnosed CDC+ for chronic lyme disease.

normal lab testing is not suffecient..

Make sure you use Igenex or MDL labs.

muscle twitching, slight vibration tremor, everything....

anxiety... ect...

benzo's will not help this and only cause an addiction..

Try to ween off them very slowly if you can...

You need to check your hormones (endocronology), MRI's (neuro-which you did), Cardiac (tilt-table test), and get the proper testing for Lyme Disease...

The best way to taper off of Benzo's is to use valium and slowly taper if you have any kind of addiction to them.
see: http://www.benzoisland.org for more information.
Benzo's are poison and the drug companies don't tell you much.

Try to get on a good neurotransmitter natural support system.
L-Glutamine for Gaba, L-Trypophan for seratonin, L-Tyrosene for energy and MSM sulfer for any pains.

[Neuron]

As far as I know there is no data on Accutane and Minocycline having a synergistic negative effect. However, anything is possible and especially with accutane we are in effect guinea pigs.

If I knew then what I know now I would of not taken Accutane, which turned out to be overrated and did not work well for me and in fact made my neck acne worse but cleared up my back and chest for a time. I did not have any anxiety problems or twitching while on accutane and I have been off it for a long time so I do not know if there is a connection. I talked to other people over the years who regretted taken accutane but not because of anxiety, twitching, muscle weakness or weightloss.

The best drug I found for acne was minocycline which I only took once a day, 100mg dose for several years. During that time I felt fine but when the anxiety like symptoms started; before the twitching/spasms, I felt it was necessary to stop using it and even off the drug my skin is fine. Turning 43 this year my acne is finally settling down and I still get the odd one but the less care I give my skin the better my skin looks! The more touching/washing the more irritation and this exacerbates the problem. Minocycline has a good track record for safety but not everyone reacts favourably to medications and rare side effects do occur.

How much minocyline are you taking and can you stop taking it and live with the acne? And have you seen a doctor about your acute anxiety? At your age I do not think ALS would be the problem but get checked to give you a sense of relief that it is nothing but anxiety.

Good Luck