generalized fasiculations, twitching, jerking, insomnia... I'm so confused, please respond.

[kilabe2300]

On and off for the last three years my fingernails have been turning completly white, only to retain its pinkish color and return white again.  During these times when my fingernails turn white I feel like I'm going to get the flu, but never quite do and lasts for a couple of weeks accompanied by fatigue.  For the last 6 months I have had loose stools just about everyday.  Doctors ran blood test and didn't find anything.  I then had a upper back injury(x-rays negative) where I over twisted from left to right, went to a chiropractor, and then had electric muscle therapy done.  During this therapy I began having fasiculations(small spasms that I can feel and see from under the skin)  on my back and stomach, and persisted untill one night when I was studying for a test and began having fasiculations anywhere from head to toe.  Doctor at the ER said it was anxiety, and three days later I had to go back to the ER because i kept getting a odd feeling in my head as if everything would freeze and kept me from falling asleep for 72 hours.  When I went back to the ER doctor prescribed me xanex and from the next two weeks on I began having panic attacks untill the doctor took me off of it.  I went 72 hours without sleep again with 3-4 hours of sleep each day during non-sleepless nights.  ER doctor took a cat-scan of my brain which came out normal and gave me xanex and ativan.  Both had not helped with the sleep or fasiculations.  I still managed to only get 3-4 hours of sleep a night for the next month after.  My neurologist did all types of metabolic testing, a EEG, TSH test, and a brain MRI, but has not done a EMG.  He believes this is all do to anxiety.  I have never had a problem like this before and have been able to deal with much for stress than what I had been dealing with when this problem started.  My neurologist then wanted me to get off of ativan since i was using it for more than a month and after two weeks of not taking any I began getting generalized body jerks and twitches when awake, but relaxed trying to sleep.  I don't know if these have occured from a manifestation of my fasiculations, from sleep deprivation, or from the ativan withrdrawl...The only thing my doctor has found is I have a slight abnormality in my metanephrine levels.  I can't find a pattern whether I'm happy/sad/exercise/don't exercise.  It has been about 4 months now and I have not been able to sleep more than 6 hours yet.  I don't know what to do since the medications don't do anything.  Does this seem like anxiety to you?  Should I see a endocrinologist?  Can my back injury/muscle therapy or white fingernails and loose stools and fatigue  have lead to this?  Anything you might be able to answer is greatly appreciated and thank you so much for taking the time to read all of this.

[kilabe2300]

yea, the neuro believes the spasms are being caused by anxiety.  I don't believe I have anxiety in the first place though...  I'm going to my family doctor tomorrow and I'll speak to her about testing for anemia.  Thanks for helping!  

[ggreg]

The only things I feel comfortable about commenting on are your white fingernails and the diarrhea.  It is possible when you took the ativan, one of the side effects is diarrhea, so if that coincided with the drug, that's how come you had that.  The white fingernails, as you probably already know, is a sign of some sort of anemia.  This will also cause that flu-like feeling you had, and of course will make you tired.  You should have blood drawn to check out your blood cell counts, and the doc should diagnose which kind of anemia you have, and then give you advice and treatment for anemia if it shows up as that.  

Now, could be if that gets straightened out, your muscle spasms may stop.  I do know that there are drugs to prevent that sort of thing, altho it doesn't tell you how come you have that, but barbituates are the old standard for seizure type activity.  But check out the anemia stuff first.  Also, I do not like the neurologist saying you are just anxious when it's SO obvious you are having spasms, so if clearing up the anemia doesn't help you with that, go to a different group of neuros for evaluation and of course the skipped EMG test should be done.