Not diagnosed...Yet!
Posted: Thu Jan 18, 2007 5:51 am
Hey all,
I am so glad to have found this site. I have been reading a bit and see that there are others in the same boat as I am and it makes me feel better that I am not alone in this.
I am a 27 year old single mother of 3. About 5 years ago after a car accident my docs did an MRI and found a cyst in my brain stem. It was no biggie, though and they decided to just monitor it with regular MRI's. About 6 months later I started getting bad migraines. My neuro said it was probably caused by too much stress. After about another 6 months, my hands and feet started falling asleep even while walking or using my hands. Then my cognition started to go. It started taking me just a little longer for my brain to process what someone was saying when they were talking to me. My hands and feet got worse and the tingling was all the way up to my knees and elbows. My neuro ordered another MRI and an AEEG. The MRI came back with another cyst and a lesion and, "several irregular foci" (whatever that means) and the AEEG came back normal and my migraines had gone away so my doc said see you in 6 months. At that point I decided that I was sick of docs and sick of MRIs and of feeling like something was wrong with me and then being told that it is just stress. So I stopped going to the doc and just started trying to exercise more and take herbal supps and vitamins. Well, that helped some but my symptoms kept coming back and new ones, too. I started getting "shocks" down my left leg and muscle spasms and weakness and OHHHHH the fatigue!! I would wake up in the morning after a full nights sleep, get my kids to school and then be so worn out I couldn't get anything else done that day. This went on for a while. THe symptoms would come and go. Sometimes I'd have them for weeks sometimes months and they would go away sometimes for weeks sometimes for months. Anyways about 9 months ago my symptoms became more severe, night tremors that felt like my hold bed was shaking, more and more spasms in my arms and legs, stabbing pains in the left side of my head, shocks down my left leg, severe pain in the left side of my head and down my spine and left leg. It got so bad sometimes I couldn't walk. My balance was off and I found myself walking into things. I'd get shocks through my shoulder blade into my chest and I'd have to keep my arm still because if I moved it I'd get shocked again. I also dropped 40 pounds in 2 months without diet or exercise. (I didn't quite mind that symptom, only I am the type of person who could exercise and diet all the time and still gain weight, so this was odd to drop that much weight). I decided I better go back to the neuro. This time he did an MRI, another AEEG, a full body EMG. The MRI was stable, the AEEG was normal and the EMG showed nerve damage in my neck and back on the left side. My bloodwork came back as very low B-12. My neuro prescribed B-12 injections, provigil, vicodin, and now Lyrica. He's also going to do an MRI of my back and another EMG. So I am kind of still waiting and still so frustrated. My symptoms still come and go but are here more often than gone and it seems I am soooo tired and weak all of the time.
I'm gonna keep following up with my docs and in the meantime I think I will hang out here with you all, if you don't mind. It helps to know that others understand what your going through. I appreciate all of you.
Peace and Love!
I am so glad to have found this site. I have been reading a bit and see that there are others in the same boat as I am and it makes me feel better that I am not alone in this.
I am a 27 year old single mother of 3. About 5 years ago after a car accident my docs did an MRI and found a cyst in my brain stem. It was no biggie, though and they decided to just monitor it with regular MRI's. About 6 months later I started getting bad migraines. My neuro said it was probably caused by too much stress. After about another 6 months, my hands and feet started falling asleep even while walking or using my hands. Then my cognition started to go. It started taking me just a little longer for my brain to process what someone was saying when they were talking to me. My hands and feet got worse and the tingling was all the way up to my knees and elbows. My neuro ordered another MRI and an AEEG. The MRI came back with another cyst and a lesion and, "several irregular foci" (whatever that means) and the AEEG came back normal and my migraines had gone away so my doc said see you in 6 months. At that point I decided that I was sick of docs and sick of MRIs and of feeling like something was wrong with me and then being told that it is just stress. So I stopped going to the doc and just started trying to exercise more and take herbal supps and vitamins. Well, that helped some but my symptoms kept coming back and new ones, too. I started getting "shocks" down my left leg and muscle spasms and weakness and OHHHHH the fatigue!! I would wake up in the morning after a full nights sleep, get my kids to school and then be so worn out I couldn't get anything else done that day. This went on for a while. THe symptoms would come and go. Sometimes I'd have them for weeks sometimes months and they would go away sometimes for weeks sometimes for months. Anyways about 9 months ago my symptoms became more severe, night tremors that felt like my hold bed was shaking, more and more spasms in my arms and legs, stabbing pains in the left side of my head, shocks down my left leg, severe pain in the left side of my head and down my spine and left leg. It got so bad sometimes I couldn't walk. My balance was off and I found myself walking into things. I'd get shocks through my shoulder blade into my chest and I'd have to keep my arm still because if I moved it I'd get shocked again. I also dropped 40 pounds in 2 months without diet or exercise. (I didn't quite mind that symptom, only I am the type of person who could exercise and diet all the time and still gain weight, so this was odd to drop that much weight). I decided I better go back to the neuro. This time he did an MRI, another AEEG, a full body EMG. The MRI was stable, the AEEG was normal and the EMG showed nerve damage in my neck and back on the left side. My bloodwork came back as very low B-12. My neuro prescribed B-12 injections, provigil, vicodin, and now Lyrica. He's also going to do an MRI of my back and another EMG. So I am kind of still waiting and still so frustrated. My symptoms still come and go but are here more often than gone and it seems I am soooo tired and weak all of the time.
I'm gonna keep following up with my docs and in the meantime I think I will hang out here with you all, if you don't mind. It helps to know that others understand what your going through. I appreciate all of you.
Peace and Love!