Hi, I’ve just joined here today. I wondered if I gave you a little history about myself, symptoms etc, would you be able to tell me what you think? I’m sorry in advance for it being a very long post.
I’m 45 and have history of lower back pain for which I had a disc removed and vertebrae fused together (spinal fusion operation,) this was in 1996 but still suffer with sciatica daily in both legs and lower back pain so wouldn’t know if I have new pain or not in my legs.
I have two mortons neuromas in my left foot and a possible one in right foot, awaiting surgery for removal of them in my left foot (they are benign growths on the nerves in the toes and cause burning, electric shock pain, on and off.) My foot sometimes gives way at the ankle joint and I have been told it’s the ligaments, I think probably because of walking sometimes on my heel or side of my foot because I can’t always walk on my foot in the normal way, it’s very painful and I can’t put weight on that foot when my ankle gives way.
For about 7 years I have had pain in my right eye and sometimes more mildly in my left eye. It first came on in bright sunlight, a sharp pain but now it happens in darkness or normal light too. And spreads around the eye socket and down my face a little. I saw an eye specialist 5 years ago who found nothing wrong. This is the most worrying symptom for me obviously because is my sight at risk? It’s very painful when it happens it takes my breath away and my face on that side feels mildly different maybe a little numb.
But more recently and the reason why I went to the G.P a few weeks ago is pain in my neck and arms, which has happened about 8 times now. I wake up and have a stiff neck, like when you sleep awkward but the last couple of times, I have had pins and needles down my right arm, pain in my neck and across my shoulders. It lasts about 3 to 4 days at a time. Last week it started in my left shoulder blade, within the hour had spread up my neck and down both arms. Tingling, pins and needles and pain. I couldn’t hold the telephone to either ear without it really hurting, I couldn’t lift my arms very high up to dry my hair with the hairdryer. I can’t rest my head back on the sofa without it getting more painful or lay down in bed on either side without pain too. For a few months now if I lay on my side, (which I have to do because of back pain and can’t lay flat on my back) sometimes it’s quite painful in my arms or they start tingling, I thought becasue I had put on a lot of weight and maybe I’m just too heavy.
So since last week, I have more or less constant tingling in my right arm and hand and in my 3 smaller fingers and elbow and today my wrist. My neck hurts mildly if I move certain ways. I’m finding that typing is making the tingling worse. And for quite a while now, I have this weird feeling under my right arm in the armpit, like something is there and I lift my arm up to release it but of course there isn’t anything there. Sort of like having a top on that is too tight, and my ribs have really been painful to touch on that side too. I have put on a lot of weight recently and sort of have put it down to that, maybe there is extra fat there, who knows?
I’ve had an x-ray on my neck because the G.P and I thought that I could have a trapped nerve, the X-ray just shows some degeneration of the bones. We all know x-rays don’t show nerves, so I saw orthopedic consultant last Friday who was really nice and kept asking me if I had seen a neuroligist, I didn’t tell him about my foot giving way because at the time I didn’t think it was connected, but I told him about the eye pain thinking it may be caused by a trapped nerve in my neck. He asked questions about my gait when I walked, any different feeling in my legs, dizziness, I am dizzy often most but thought that was lack of sleep as I have a little girl who wakes a lot in the night, dropping things which I said no but thinking about it I am a little more clumsy lately and so it was only last night when it suddenly hit me that the questions he was asking were implying something other than trapped nerve in my neck so looked up MS.
So I’m now waiting on have an MRI scan and an EMG, which he said would be on my right hand and arm, (what is this EMG) exactly.
I went in thinking I have a trapped nerve in my neck and now today I’m think I could have MS. What do you think, I’m not sure if I have the typical symptoms or if they are being caused by other issues like trapped nerve and weight gain.
Thank you, Dottyx
