En route to diagnosis

New diagnosis and before diagnosis
1

Hi All,

I made a post about a month ago, so this is kind of round two.

I’m a 25 year old male from New Zealand and I have been experiencing some weird Neurological symptoms since 17th December 2019.

It could be unrelated, but I had a weird back twitch from August, that would on and off give a slight tingling sensation in my mid back, adjacent to my spine. Had an xray done in August and this came back clear.

On the 17th of December, I began experiencing skin sensitivity on my left side. This moved from my buttock, down to my upper thigh and across my saddle slightly. This prompted an ED visit, where a lumbar xray, MRI and complete blood count came back all fine. I was referred as urgent to Neurology.

Over the following days, the skin sensitivity was noticeable in my left arm, and potentially my face. This then dulled down by 30th December. On that day I had a Neurology appointment, and due to minor symptoms, no MRI/Lumbar Puncture was done.

Since that point I have been experiencing the following:

Head: Potentially brain fog, not sure if I’m overthinking this - It could be general anxiety with all this going on.

Arms/fingers: Light electric shock feeling (both sides), A weakness of arms on one day for a few hours as if they felt heavy. That day I believe I had an anxiety attack so it may be related to that.

Legs: Light electric shock feeling (both sides), Hip pain (left), Muscular pain (left) a few days, Pins and needles while going for a run one day (left foot), twitching calf muscles (both sides) on and off for a week or so. Pins and needles on and off, but mainly due to sitting so would probably rule that out.

General: Intense fatigue on one day, for 4 hours until afternoon. VIsion does not seem to have been affected.

I went back to the GP who ran a full blood test and found that I was potentially deficient in B12. 200 pmol/L. I am currently having B12 shots for the following 3 weeks. He ran tests for Pernicious Anaemia, of which came back negative.

These symptoms have all been on and off since Dec 17th. I don’t think there has been a point where they have all disappeared completely. They just seem to build up and slowly taper. For example, the electric shock feelings occured 8th Jan, tapered off after a few days, and have just reappeared again now around the 8th Feb. Very weird.

At a bit of a loss here, so assuming re-referring through to Neurology is the right course of action? Its all been extremely distressing and upsetting for me, and has really shaken my focus at work. I’m hoping that something will come of the B12, however, I know this is unlikely.

Cheers

2

After stating above that I didn’t have any vision issues, I was running late for the bus this morning and ran to it for 30 seconds. Getting across the road, my vision was blurred, I closed my eyes and had a lot of purple dots spread across my vision. I have been noticing floaters over the course of the day, though again, I’m not sure if now I’m just aware of them or if I’ve had them for a while and my brain has been ignoring them somehow. I’m often late for the bus, and I’ve never experienced this before so it was pretty frightening.

Cheers

3

Hi Mate

You never know the B12 shots might do the trick. I believe I call recall reading that the deficiency in B12 or the ability to absorb can cause these types of symptoms. I was secretly hoping that this type of deficiency would be uncovered during my bloodwork. Fingers crossed! Please keep us updated

Kind regards

Jonathan

4

Definitely hopeful that the B12 shots will do the trick. Unfortunately, I do feel as if my symptoms are so varied that it’s likely something neurological. I’ve started getting daily headaches for the last 4 or so days. Hoping to avoid a brain tumor if possible! I’ve left a letter with my GP requesting a referral to a neurologist in the meantime again.

5

I’ve started developing daily headaches which hasn’t been ideal. They tend to be on one side of the head, and occur at any point in the day. I’ve had B12 injection 2 of 3. They seem not to have made much of a difference thus far - will be visiting the GP again after 3 of 3 in the coming week to see how I’m getting on.