post viral illness

[tania again, add to question]

hello.  i had an upper respiratory infection in mid April. about four weeks later, i had some tingling sensations in my legs and my head.  since then, i have had lots of joint pain (mainly in my neck, big toe, and knee), still some tingling, and twitching everywhere (even in my eyes).  I have even had two styes in my eyes in a five week period, which i haven't had a sty since i was a small child, and i am now in my thirties.  i have had blood work tests (came back normal), nerve conduction test on my right leg (came back normal), and spine mri and brain mri (also came back normal). i am wondering if post viral can cause this even though i had the repiratory virus in April and the neuro symptoms didn't surface until May?  please tell me what post viral is and how long it occurs after an infection. also, please tell me how long it lasts and how it is diagnosed.  any help would be appreciated.thanks.

[Reenie]

I've never been formally diagnosed with post-viral, but have had the same types of problems for about 5 years.  I'm better, but far from cured.  Despite numerous doctors (neurologists, neuromuscular for neuromuscular sx and migraines, oral pathologists etc for mouth sores and trigeminal neuralgia, opthamalogists and neuro-opthamologists for visual problems, internists for fatigue, etc. I could go on and on unfortunately...) I have been unable to get any sort of concrete answers re. this syndrome.  There are many of us out here and my personal goal is to get us some real help beyond the typical attitude of "it isn't killing you; live with it."  While I do understand that there are many many diseases out there which are fatal and involve even more suffering, I believe that these types of problems do disrupt people's lives in a profound way.  They certainly do destroy the quality. We need a cooperation between neurologists, infectious disease specialists/virologists, and immunologists to come up with some good research and trials.

[Me Two]

Hi Jill:

I had the same thing. It happened about a year and a half ago. Terrible nerve pain and tingling from head to toe, twitches, odd pains, you name it. Had every test in the book - MRIs (head and neck), Nerve Conduction (arms and legs), repeated blood tests for everything from the benign to the implausible. All that ever showed was acute viral thyroiditis, a self resolving condition which proved I had suffered some sort of viral attack. One neuro (of the several I saw) said it may have even been mild Guillain-Barre (though I never had a spinal tap to confirm). Mild or not, I was a complete mess. Saw an Infectious Disease specialist too. He said post-viral. Now, over a year later, I still have tingling in my legs and feet, but the "acute" symptoms are gone. I'm actually feeling relatively healthy again and do my best to ignore the residual tingling. You will feel better too, eventually.

By the way, I was a healthy 35 year old female when it happened. I turn 37 in a few days.

Hang in there...

[CCF Neuro[P] MD, RPS]

Dear Jill:

There is not too much to tell you, unfortunately.  We do not fully understand how viruses can cause disease after the intial infection.  There are some well known diseases that we think have a viral etiologies such as Guillian Barre, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, plus many more, and many think chronic fatigue syndrome.  As you can tell, the wide range of diseases, the different symptoms, and the duration of each varies and from patient to patient it can vary.  Your symptoms may or may not be viral related (difficult to tell over the internet but they do sound post-viral) and may last a few weeks more or many months.  There are really no diagnostic test that will tell a physician that their patient has a post-viral disorder.  This is especially true if the intial virus that caused the infection is unknown.  

I am sorry that I am not much help.  I do hope that your illness is short lived.

Sincerely,

CCF Neuro MD