Tingly limbs

[Bobbin]

Hello! I'm new here so please excuse the ramble....now where to start?
Let me take you back about a year ago - I was suffering from a hip problem (caused by my dog pulling me) so my GP sent me for a spinal MRI (I know...) I had been diagnosed with sciatica well before this incident (where I cried if I sneezed, you know that kind of thing) but I'd noticed with the hip I was getting similar types of tingling down the back of my right leg. The weird thing was it didn't go away - I had left my job a few months before to become a full time student nurse (job of dreams!) so although massively exciting it wasn't without its stress - I think I was waiting for something to go wrong (I'd lost my mum the year before). Anyhow, I noticed when I first saw the neurologist I felt both my legs were tingly but thought nothing of it. Well actually no, that's a complete lie...give me a few days and I was 110% convinced I had MS and I wouldn't be able to be a nurse anymore. Anyway, by the time I went for my results I was practically tingling everywhere - both arms, both legs. As soon as the neurologist told me that the MRI was clear it stopped as if by magic! So I engaged my brain and thought it must have been anxiety related. I've been ok since then...until last week.
Last week, another dog related incident left me with neck ache, and I felt sick and dizzy sometimes when I moved my head. After a few days, my right arm was going tingly so off to the GP I went and was given naproxen and told it's a sprain, it'll go away. But then a few days later my right leg starts tingling again. It's my sciatica I thought, probably because I've an assignment due in and I spend most of my day sat at the computer typing like my life depends on it. Then the next day my left arm starts, more so in my thumb and first 2 fingers. Easily explained I thought, I use my mobile too much (it's all this googling of symptoms giving me carpal tunnel no doubt) but then that night I find both legs are tingly....odd. So off I go googling again (I know ), my arm pains get worse, my legs still tingle so off I go to bed where I don't have to worry that I've got MS because my dreams are kinder than that.
Here I am a couple of days later, still doing my assignment, but very slowly because I'm too busy opening new tabs to see if I've got sciatica/MS/guillan barre/hypothyroidism/you name it I'm likely to have it instead of reading my research papers. My legs tingle still, mostly from the knees down to my big toe, but this morning I could swear my thighs are achy - like I've been to the gym and done no such thing. My arms ache, particularly down the inside to my thumb/index/middle finger. And what really worries me is that it seems to be all the time and the only peace I get is when I'm asleep - no symptoms are preventing me from falling or staying asleep. I wake up and think 'ooh I feel ok my legs don't tingle' but then they start tingling - is this because I reminded them to or because there's really something the matter?! I really really hope these symptoms are anxiety related, but I'm not sure how I can test this theory as I can't seem to turn it off! I'm assuming I'm not alone in my thought processes, but my 'actual' people I can talk to think I'm going a bit crackers and I'm just paranoid so I just don't tell them anymore. Anyway, thanks for reading...

[BeckyL]

Hi Bobbin,

Your tingling in the back of your right leg which initially started could have been genuine and related to the hip injury - I had the exact same thing! I had a fall and ended up with an "inflamed nerve" in my hip which radiated pain and tingling all down my leg to the level where my foot was actually numb. I went to the doctors who diagnosed the nerve issue, it took 3 months to go back to complete normal but was very scary.

So from personal experience maybe your tingling which first started was a genuine issue, caused by your hip injury? And since then you've become very aware of it, making it worse and making other tingles and pains throughout your body?

I know tingling limbs is a big symptom in anxiety for a lot of us, certainly for me anyway, and one of my counsellors explained that when you focus on a symptom you do feel it more, she gave the example of if you look at your hand for 30 seconds, it will start to feel strange because you're concentrating so much, I think it works similar for other bodily pains/tingles/aches we get.

Hope this helped a bit but I know it is horrible to have to deal with such pains and aches all the time :( I also have the thing where when I wake up I'm fine - and then throughout the day it gets worse so it does make me think, is it because I've started to think about it (it probably is!)

[Bobbin]

It's jist not nice is it. The thing I seem to not be able to wrap my head around is - how do I know what aches & pains are real and which are all in my head? How do I know!? I have to say I felt a whole lot better just writing the post for about 10 minutes, then it slowly crept back up on me. Then I went to the rugby that night and felt almost normal. Then I got home and it starts again. I went on a girly shopping trip with my friends yesterday and felt ok but then as soon as we stopped for lunch and had a margarita (one - that is all) that was it I felt awful I was dizzy, it felt like I had to concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other for the whole afternoon, I felt so weak I couldn't keep up walking with them - then the headache started right at the top of my neck/base of my skull - I didnt know whether this was to do with my neck or generally that i was giving myself a headache but it wouldn't go away, not with paracetamol or ibuprofen,but when I eventually went off to bed I was fine, dropped straight off,slept right through. It's really like the only peace I feel I get.
Now the logical side of me thinks that surely if something was really wrong with me it wouldn't switch itself off when I go to sleep, but then I think well surely if I was well I wouldn't have symptoms at all?! Then my logical side says 'yes you sprained your neck - you have some symptoms that are normal the rest are all your imaginations doing,it will right itself', but then I think 'but really why am I getting symptoms why are my legs weak & tingly? why have I got headache all the time? I'm sure there's something not right - knowing my luck I'll not be able to go on holiday in just under 3 weeks or I'll take ill over there'
There's no wonder I'm getting headache when I've got this constant arm wrestle going on in my brain! How do I make it stop?!

[Bobbin]

Well I went on holiday and I have to say I didn't notice any tingling the whole week....until we hit turbulence on the way home and it's been there ever since - now almost 3 weeks later. When I'm out and about I either don't notice it (as much) or it just doesn't exist - but how the heck do I know which is which ? I've been to see my GP who told me to take a look at the headspace app and ran a full set of bloods (which were all normal) - now what do i do? It's driving me potty