Need Help! Arm & Leg Numbness

[Devin M.]

Just need a little advice..I'm only 33 yrs old and lately my left leg mainly in the back of the calf and thigh has been going numb or "tingly" same thing with my left arm..all the way down from the bicep to my hand. It's just on the left side.

It started last week and i was scared to death thinking i was having a heartache or stroke..but i have no chest pains or any other symptoms besides the 2 i just posted. But it scared me so bad i was ready to call 911...thats nothing to mess with.

Anyways i went to bed and woke up and felt fine..up until yesterday when it started happening again..like i said its just my left arm and leg. I'm just worried as to what it might be..any ideas? The first time it happened i was so paranoid i was heaving a stroke or heart attack that in my mind it made the problem out to seem bigger than it was.

Could it be pinched nerves, blood circulation or back problem?

Hot showers or laying on the floor seem to ease the "tingling" sensations..my arm isn't completely numb because when i pinch or touch i feel that.

Sitting at the computer seemed to trigger it this morning again..it was like that most of last night. I felt fine when i woke up(slept on the floor to see if that would help)..i think its a back problem possibly. If it was a heart attack or stroke it wouldn't be on going or a daily thing like it has been lately..like i said it happened last week and now again for the past day or 2. (most of yesterday afternoon and night, then again just recently about an hour ago)

 

[C-is-for-cookie]

honestly? since being in the posistion of having your neck bent over at the PC along with these symptoms all L sided too would lead me to think a possible cord involved type of issue way up in your c spine(this could be MANY different possibles too)? the fact this just also is impacting that arm/hand level would HAVE to also place the problem within the more lower part of your c spine too? its only that nothing beyond on up from c 5 actually innervates our arms down to that hand level, so it would just HAVE to be from c 6 thru at least c 8 nerve level to even impact as far down as it is in that hand?

just the very basic fact that this is not only in the hand but also down in the leg too just mak3es it sound more likely that something IS impacting to your cord level way up there? while it very easily be that you are having two totally unrelated issues that one is impacting the upper torso extremitiess and the other is impacting the lower,its just sounding a bit too overly coincidental and NEEDS to be evaluated at the very least by your doc and a neuro exam and hopefully a referal for a good and make certain its a contrasted type of MRI just being done at the very LEAST on that c spine level. while he coulsd just write thwe order for a full spinal to totally see and potentially 'vclear' that T and L spine as being involed, that c spine most defintiely needs a majot in depth look see that ONLY comes from having that MRI done and NOT a mere CT? a CT will not get down fully to the cord and nerve root levels like MRI can? thats what NEEDS to really be seen right now for the best possible Dx of what may be creatig both the upper and lower symptoms you are experiencing.

do you have specific fingers that this numbness is kind of impacting moreso than other fingers? that would just kind of narrow down more specfic levels since the sensory innervation of fingers is very much specific in correlation to c spine nerve levels? are you experiencing ANY actual neck pain at all, even intermittant? even if you are not actually experiencing real pain in your neck or upper back, just trust me here when i say that there STILL can be specific "things" that just can easily impact both the spinal nerves from something simply impacting your cord? even something wierd like things we can be born with of a vascular nature that just decide to pop nto the inside or right outside the actual spinal cord too? this WAS my case actually. i did not know until i herniated my c 6-7 and had to simply have that diagnostic MRI done for the very first time ever on my c spine, that i had been born with a vascular glob right smack into the inside of my freaking spinal cord? did NOT have a clue it was even there since 'IT" was not in and of itself yet creating neuro symptoms that we were aware of anyways. once it was found tho we did manage to track back very specific strange and very strong types of symptoms i had had and was very much having then too but attributed them to what i just really felt was a herniated disc, pre MRI of course?

while i am in no way saying you even remotely have what i had(i was told what i actually had in my cord was usually found in the brain and my 'cavernous hemangioma" was VERY rare to even have in the spinal cord at all?), i only mentioned that because there just simply really CAN be very specific things that are more there from birth in certain places inside our bodies that we just do NOT yet have any clue are there at all til an actual scan shows them or they decide to just 'present' themselves with specific symptoms? and NO ONE really truely just 'knows" what in the heck is even going on within their own bodies til you start getting the much deeper looks into specific areas. and that just IS where this very needed for you MRI comes in to actually just get THAT 'look' into your spinal at least into that c spine level? this level would really be the ONLY level, if this IS indeed spinal, that even 'could' show BOTH upper and lower symptoms the way yours just are into your hands at all?

sooo, i would definitely have your primary just do that very basic neuro eval on you and get you in for that contrasted(just helps to show more?) MRI, just to actually 'see' whats up? and make certain to also obtain your very own copy of your own MRI report, for ALOT of different reasons? but once you have that you can also simply post that very telling summary that pops up at the very end on the last page here too so i and others can simply read thru it? it just helps TONS in giving anyone the best possible advice here. sooo, good luck with this and do make certain to simply obtain what would be the very best form of 'baseline" type of testing done on that area that hopefully will actually show your main issue too(MRI)? please DO keep me posted on what you find out here,K? FB