grahammatt
13-05-11, 12:40
Hi,
A long description followed by a short question:
At the beginning of March I began to feel a slight numbness in my left hand and occasional pins and needles (paresthesias) in my left arm. A similar thing had happened 18 months ago after I had surgery to remove a plate that had been put in for a broken collar bone (clavicle) two years before that; at that time I was really worried it was a result of the surgery but the doctors assured me that it was more likely coming from the elbow because I was wearing a sling, and in any case this went away after a few weeks.
So this time, after about a week of the numbness and tingling I went to see my GP. She sent me off for a blood test, which came back normal. In the mean time I also developed numbness and tingling in my left leg (it basically felt as I’d been lying on it the whole time), so when I returned to my GP a couple of weeks later she referred me to a neurologist.
At this point, like so many on here, I began to seriously fear that I had MS – and in fact it turns out that my GP was worried about MS as well because she mentioned it in the letter to the neurologist. While waiting for my appointment with the neurologist I developed symptoms which I’m certain were due to anxiety, like a twitching right eye and occasional numbness on the left side of my face, as well as pain at the back of the neck.
When I saw the neurologist he examined me, and the examination came back entirely normal. He reassured me that there’s no chance I have MS (and I believe him) or any neck damage (which my GP also mentioned) and said that the most likely explanation is either anxiety or a residual migraine aura (I do get headaches). In either case, he said, the symptoms should go away by themselves. So I have a follow-up scheduled for the end of August.
The thing is, on the bus back to work from the hospital the thought hit me: ‘I forgot to ask about the collar bone!’. I’ve had on-and-off aches and pains along the collar bone and the muscles surrounding it ever since I broke it, and those aches and pains have been worse than usual ever since all this started in March (while in the three months or so beforehand they had been much better than usual). I’d meant to ask whether there might be some nerve entrapment in that area causing the numbness in my arm (like thoracic outlet syndrome), but had forgotten because it wouldn’t explain the leg symptoms and because I was so preoccupied with MS.
Things were OK for about a week, but since then, while the symptoms in my leg have improved (without entirely going away yet), the numbness and paresthesias in my left arm have gotten much worse. I’ve also started getting occasional intense pain along the inside of my left forearm and coldness in my left hand. It seems that all the muscles of my left chest, shoulder and armpit are either swollen or permanently tight (neither heat nor massage has done anything for this so far). The area around the collar bone is sensitive to touch, as if it were bruised (although there’s no obvious sign of bruising), particularly the area close to the centre of the chest. Nearly every morning when I wake up my left arm is tingling like crazy, in fact sometimes this wakes me up during the night (I sleep flat on my back with my arms by my sides).
It’s mighty suspicious that this should happen only after I’ve been to see the neurologist, stopped worrying about MS and been told to wait another four months for the next check-up, before remembering to worry about TOS. On the other hand, I’m pretty sure that the numbness and tingling in my arm gets worse when I lean on it or raise it above my head, and the symptoms match those for TOS (I can’t resist Dr. Google, sadly). On the other hand again, surely the neurologist, being a neurologist, wouldn’t need anyone to remind him of the possibility of TOS and so he would have considered it before coming up with his diagnosis, right?
The last time I had a left-arm-numbness scare, after the clavicle plate removal, it started a series of health panics that meant I went to the doctor at least once a week for about six weeks, culminating in my going to A&E thinking I was having breathing difficulties (it was a panic attack). Since then I’ve been a lot, lot better and would hate to get back into another self-reinforcing cycle.
So my question is, should I:
(a) Go back to my GP to discuss my concerns
(b) Try to get in contact with the neurologist somehow
(c) Resolve to tough it out until the follow-up in August
(d) Something else
Thanks,
Graham
A long description followed by a short question:
At the beginning of March I began to feel a slight numbness in my left hand and occasional pins and needles (paresthesias) in my left arm. A similar thing had happened 18 months ago after I had surgery to remove a plate that had been put in for a broken collar bone (clavicle) two years before that; at that time I was really worried it was a result of the surgery but the doctors assured me that it was more likely coming from the elbow because I was wearing a sling, and in any case this went away after a few weeks.
So this time, after about a week of the numbness and tingling I went to see my GP. She sent me off for a blood test, which came back normal. In the mean time I also developed numbness and tingling in my left leg (it basically felt as I’d been lying on it the whole time), so when I returned to my GP a couple of weeks later she referred me to a neurologist.
At this point, like so many on here, I began to seriously fear that I had MS – and in fact it turns out that my GP was worried about MS as well because she mentioned it in the letter to the neurologist. While waiting for my appointment with the neurologist I developed symptoms which I’m certain were due to anxiety, like a twitching right eye and occasional numbness on the left side of my face, as well as pain at the back of the neck.
When I saw the neurologist he examined me, and the examination came back entirely normal. He reassured me that there’s no chance I have MS (and I believe him) or any neck damage (which my GP also mentioned) and said that the most likely explanation is either anxiety or a residual migraine aura (I do get headaches). In either case, he said, the symptoms should go away by themselves. So I have a follow-up scheduled for the end of August.
The thing is, on the bus back to work from the hospital the thought hit me: ‘I forgot to ask about the collar bone!’. I’ve had on-and-off aches and pains along the collar bone and the muscles surrounding it ever since I broke it, and those aches and pains have been worse than usual ever since all this started in March (while in the three months or so beforehand they had been much better than usual). I’d meant to ask whether there might be some nerve entrapment in that area causing the numbness in my arm (like thoracic outlet syndrome), but had forgotten because it wouldn’t explain the leg symptoms and because I was so preoccupied with MS.
Things were OK for about a week, but since then, while the symptoms in my leg have improved (without entirely going away yet), the numbness and paresthesias in my left arm have gotten much worse. I’ve also started getting occasional intense pain along the inside of my left forearm and coldness in my left hand. It seems that all the muscles of my left chest, shoulder and armpit are either swollen or permanently tight (neither heat nor massage has done anything for this so far). The area around the collar bone is sensitive to touch, as if it were bruised (although there’s no obvious sign of bruising), particularly the area close to the centre of the chest. Nearly every morning when I wake up my left arm is tingling like crazy, in fact sometimes this wakes me up during the night (I sleep flat on my back with my arms by my sides).
It’s mighty suspicious that this should happen only after I’ve been to see the neurologist, stopped worrying about MS and been told to wait another four months for the next check-up, before remembering to worry about TOS. On the other hand, I’m pretty sure that the numbness and tingling in my arm gets worse when I lean on it or raise it above my head, and the symptoms match those for TOS (I can’t resist Dr. Google, sadly). On the other hand again, surely the neurologist, being a neurologist, wouldn’t need anyone to remind him of the possibility of TOS and so he would have considered it before coming up with his diagnosis, right?
The last time I had a left-arm-numbness scare, after the clavicle plate removal, it started a series of health panics that meant I went to the doctor at least once a week for about six weeks, culminating in my going to A&E thinking I was having breathing difficulties (it was a panic attack). Since then I’ve been a lot, lot better and would hate to get back into another self-reinforcing cycle.
So my question is, should I:
(a) Go back to my GP to discuss my concerns
(b) Try to get in contact with the neurologist somehow
(c) Resolve to tough it out until the follow-up in August
(d) Something else
Thanks,
Graham