(I posted this in the free community forum, but I'm also posting it directly to a neurosurgeon / neurologist in the hope that I receive a fairly rapid response. I've also added a few extra symptoms I've thought of since my original post.)
I don't know where to start, but here goes. I'm a 41 yo white female, healthy, a few kilos/pounds overweight (not sure of exact weight but I'm by no means obese), no past history of problems (except recently diagnosed with bilateral disc herniation at L5/S1). Smoker (25+ a day). I work from home as an MT (medical transcriptionist). Please note I live in Australia, so obviously I can't be referred to anyone in the USA. Please also note when I say 'numbness', it's more like paresthesia as when I'm touched anywhere on my body that is 'numb', I can actually feel being touched and the sensation of being touched is the same bilaterally.
Firstly (and I don't know if this is related) I've had strange symptoms with my tongue for a few weeks - firstly like food tasted 'off' and secondly almost as if my tongue was slightly numb + tingling in fingers (very slight at 1st). Eventually my mouth started feeling dry, like I wasn't producing saliva. That was okay, seemed to be very minor & not a big problem and I didn't see anyone for this, although I did mention my mouth symptoms at the time to my GP (this was BEFORE all the other symptoms started) and he mentioned it could either be a virus (which as it turns out from my blood work it wasn't - no sign of virus there) and/or when I went back on the paroxetine, the dry mouth (in particular) symptoms I started having could be a side effect from that (I think I do remember having those symptoms years ago when I started paroxetine for panic attacks - please see next message/s for full description about this.)