Slight persistant numbness/weakness in left pinky and half of ring finger, sporadic numbness/weakness in feet and right hand during sleep

[jv1974]

Over the last 3-4 weeks I have developed slight persistant numbness/weakness in my left pinky and half of my left ring finger nearest the pinky, this is constant and also
sporadic numbness/weakness in my feet (usually the top of the foot) and right hand during sleep. This tends to wake up, I can then 'shake out' this numbness/weakness and go back to sleep but not after lying there for a while wondering what is going on. I have been on a round the world trip for the last 9 months. This started just at the end of my Borneo trip. Next stop was Singapore. One morning I was woken up my slight numbness/weakness at the tip of my right big toe and also the tip of my right middle finger. This freaked me out so I went to the hospital to get checked out.

They ran blood tests and these came back fine apart from a slight Vit B 12 deficiency. They gave me a Vit B12 supplement for this. I also had an XRay of my neck and this came back fine as well.

Since then I have been to Australia, the symptoms are continuing. There is no pattern to the night numbness/weakness sometimes I get it sometimes I don't.

I am now in New Zealand, I decided to go to see another Doctor and even though he did mention it may be a good idea to see a Neurologist the fact that i'm heading off to South America in a few days would hamper my chances of getting an appointment. I'm going to try and book an appointment and possibly extend my stay in NZ but by the end of the consultation he told me he didn't think it was anything serious and had ruled out MS, Motor Neurone disease and a Brain Tumour, I took comfort from this but obviously the only way you can know for sure is by having a brain scan. The reason he ruled it out was because of the sporadic nature of my numbness / weakness and the fact that apart from this I feel 100% fit. I sometimes get migranes but haven't had one for a few months now, I've been getting a load of exercise and i'm eating really well and hardly drinking alcohol.

I had Bells Palsy about 2 years ago and was lucky enough to catch it quickly. It only lasted 3 weeks. I had a brain scan ( i lbelieve only my right side of my brain was scanned though) and this came out fine as well.

I have worked with computers for years and have had numbness/weakness and pain around my right wrist before but this has always disappeared after a few days. I've been spending a far amount of time of my laptop as i'm developing a range of websites as I travel.

I have no headaches, balance issues, full limb numbness, mood swings, vision problems etc that could be associated with anything nasty so does anyone have any ideas what this could be? My Doctor in NZ said not to worry about it and if it continues I should see someone when I get back to the UK but this is not scheduled to happen until March 2012. I'm going to try and see a Neurologist (even though my NZ Doc said he thinks it would be a waste of money). Am I over reacting? I know that once you rule out potential spinal and compression issues you have to look higher up i.e. the brain but could these problems be more to do with lifestyle than my brain starting to melt? :-)

I'd be interested to know what you guys think and whether anyone has had/having any similar experiences? Apologies for my rather long-winded first post.

Thanks

[Londres70]

Hey, keep me posted.

All the best.  

[jv1974]

Thanks for the response. I can't get to see a Neurologist in NZ so i'm going to go to a private clinic in Santiago to see what they think. As i mentioned the strange sensation is constant in my left pinky and part of my ring finger and the slight numbness anywhere else only appears during sleep, which wakes me up. I had a cervical spine Xray in Singapore. I'm gonna try and get an MRI with contrast done just to be sure. Regards, Jon

[Londres70]

Hmmmm......don't know how a regular physician can rule out something neuro especially without an imaging, i.e. MRI of the brain/head.  

I would recommend you extend your stay in NZ and consult a Neurologist to get his opinion.  Obtain an MRI of the brain/head WITH contrast.  

Was the imaging done in Singapore a regular xray or an MRI of the cervical spine?  A regular xray would not be ideal in this case; an MRI of the cervical spine would be.