Hey World!
New member
After years of experiencing numerous symptoms I have just within the past week started to look at MS. After reading quite a bit I am now curious that issues that began years ago could be related to current problems.
In 2005 was the first time I noticed numbness & tingling in my feet. It wasn't happening all the time, but often enough that it bothered me. It seemed to happen at random times, but was worse if it was cold and hurt so bad sometimes! Over the years this has continued, but I've always just attributed it to having bad circulation in my feet. Then just last weekend I started experiencing it in my hands as well and it started happening more and more, several time throughout the day. The other night it felt like my entire left arm was going numb, mostly up to my elbow. It is still bothering me as of right now, up to my elbow. It's a dull numb feeling, but it's stronger at my elbow. I also have been having a stabbing feeling in my shoulder that I do not know if is related.
In addition to my left elbow bothering me, I have also had some very dull pain in my right knee. My arms feel heavy all the time, last night I couldn't even carry my purse it was just too much weight on top of how heavy my arms felt. I sometimes get a pulsing sensation in my arms as well, sometimes my hands twitch.
Another problem is my back pain. I can't say for exactly how long it's been an issue, but for at least 6 years. Recently it's been worse; it's a dull pain, which started out just every once in a while but has become so frequent that it's bothering me more often that it's not. It's a tolerable pain, but it's getting worse. I don't know how to describe the pain, its like someone is twisting my spine. In my lower back I've been getting a burning feeling and the pain goes up to my neck & shoulders. The feeling in my neck is a strained, tired feeling, like my head is too heavy to hold up.
Other problems I've experienced are very irregular bowels, but this has also been attributed to my travels. I haven't had any normalcy in my bowels since I went to Costa Rica in 2007. Last summer (2008) I started noticing blue and red spots sometimes, especially when I watched TV, and I've noticed them a few time recently. My vision has also gotten drastically worse over the past 6 months, but this could be because I don't wear my glasses all the time like I am supposed to.
I'm just really confused with what all these problems may be. At this point the pain I have is tolerable, but I am experiencing it on a near constant basis. I'm hoping that whatever this ends up being, I can get the pain and the numbness to go away, it's starting to make life miserable.
My boyfriend has been trying to get me to go to the doc all week, but I was just going to wait til my appt on the 10th. After barely being able to cheer for my team last night and the immense pain I am in now (squeezing feeling around my ribcage, pinching pain at the base of my spine that is shooting up my spine and my arms feeling like they weigh 50 pounds) I've decided to go into urgent care today. I've been trying to keep track of all my aches and problems today, its just that they dont stop. I'm dreading going to the doctor, but my boyfriend is going to come with me and I have to do something about this pain, just sitting here I feel miserable. So hopefully by the end of the day I'll be on my way to figuring out what is causing all this pain.
After I wrote the above I went to the doctor, here is what I wrote after the dr. appt.
Thursday, spent 3.5 hours at Urgent Care to find out I don't have mono, everything else is normal (except slightly low potassium) and the results of some other test on my thyroid won't be in until sometime today. The dr. told me to go home and get some rest and talk to my pcp on Monday during my scheduled physical. He told me to take Tylenol or Advil for the pain. Well today I already feel worse. The pain I was having in my left arm yesterday is now in both arms, accompanied by a sensation I can imagine feels like if all my bones turned to goo. (I first thought of Harry Potter, when he breaks his arm & one of the professors removes the bones. It was hard to just hold my arm up to drive.) In addition my left pinky and once the ring finger have had little twitching fits this morning. I don't know what I can do but wait this out til Monday when I go see my dr., but it's such a pain!
Pain has become more frequent, but still intermittent. Most is in my elbows and back, also in thumbs, wrist. The squeezing that goes across my back and wraps around my chest is the worst.
Thank you for reading this, and if you have anything to share, please do.
In 2005 was the first time I noticed numbness & tingling in my feet. It wasn't happening all the time, but often enough that it bothered me. It seemed to happen at random times, but was worse if it was cold and hurt so bad sometimes! Over the years this has continued, but I've always just attributed it to having bad circulation in my feet. Then just last weekend I started experiencing it in my hands as well and it started happening more and more, several time throughout the day. The other night it felt like my entire left arm was going numb, mostly up to my elbow. It is still bothering me as of right now, up to my elbow. It's a dull numb feeling, but it's stronger at my elbow. I also have been having a stabbing feeling in my shoulder that I do not know if is related.
In addition to my left elbow bothering me, I have also had some very dull pain in my right knee. My arms feel heavy all the time, last night I couldn't even carry my purse it was just too much weight on top of how heavy my arms felt. I sometimes get a pulsing sensation in my arms as well, sometimes my hands twitch.
Another problem is my back pain. I can't say for exactly how long it's been an issue, but for at least 6 years. Recently it's been worse; it's a dull pain, which started out just every once in a while but has become so frequent that it's bothering me more often that it's not. It's a tolerable pain, but it's getting worse. I don't know how to describe the pain, its like someone is twisting my spine. In my lower back I've been getting a burning feeling and the pain goes up to my neck & shoulders. The feeling in my neck is a strained, tired feeling, like my head is too heavy to hold up.
Other problems I've experienced are very irregular bowels, but this has also been attributed to my travels. I haven't had any normalcy in my bowels since I went to Costa Rica in 2007. Last summer (2008) I started noticing blue and red spots sometimes, especially when I watched TV, and I've noticed them a few time recently. My vision has also gotten drastically worse over the past 6 months, but this could be because I don't wear my glasses all the time like I am supposed to.
I'm just really confused with what all these problems may be. At this point the pain I have is tolerable, but I am experiencing it on a near constant basis. I'm hoping that whatever this ends up being, I can get the pain and the numbness to go away, it's starting to make life miserable.
My boyfriend has been trying to get me to go to the doc all week, but I was just going to wait til my appt on the 10th. After barely being able to cheer for my team last night and the immense pain I am in now (squeezing feeling around my ribcage, pinching pain at the base of my spine that is shooting up my spine and my arms feeling like they weigh 50 pounds) I've decided to go into urgent care today. I've been trying to keep track of all my aches and problems today, its just that they dont stop. I'm dreading going to the doctor, but my boyfriend is going to come with me and I have to do something about this pain, just sitting here I feel miserable. So hopefully by the end of the day I'll be on my way to figuring out what is causing all this pain.
After I wrote the above I went to the doctor, here is what I wrote after the dr. appt.
Thursday, spent 3.5 hours at Urgent Care to find out I don't have mono, everything else is normal (except slightly low potassium) and the results of some other test on my thyroid won't be in until sometime today. The dr. told me to go home and get some rest and talk to my pcp on Monday during my scheduled physical. He told me to take Tylenol or Advil for the pain. Well today I already feel worse. The pain I was having in my left arm yesterday is now in both arms, accompanied by a sensation I can imagine feels like if all my bones turned to goo. (I first thought of Harry Potter, when he breaks his arm & one of the professors removes the bones. It was hard to just hold my arm up to drive.) In addition my left pinky and once the ring finger have had little twitching fits this morning. I don't know what I can do but wait this out til Monday when I go see my dr., but it's such a pain!
Pain has become more frequent, but still intermittent. Most is in my elbows and back, also in thumbs, wrist. The squeezing that goes across my back and wraps around my chest is the worst.
Thank you for reading this, and if you have anything to share, please do.