Hey everyone! Just joined the forum, hope to meet all of you and help others out.
I have a history of hypochondria and OCD (diagnosed by a psychologist I saw for a few years - don't see him anymore but do hope he's doing well), so the possibility that all of this is just anxiety paired with stress is pretty big. What if it's not, though?
I've had issues with numbness on my body for a while now (about a year). Originally, my entire body has a sort of 'muffled' feeling to it when I woke up one morning; it was a bit like some loss of sensation. After going to a walk-in clinic, they told me that my muscles were simply swollen (did a lot of physical activity the day before) and needed time to return to normal. I thought this was satisfactory.
Now, fast-forward about a year, and we arrive to today - I finally decided to take action and see my GP after recognizing that the numbness was worse on the right side of my body. Whether my left side was improving or if my right side had simply gotten worse is something I'm unsure of. The loss of sensation caused no motor impairments, and my life was pretty much the same... I just didn't feel as much. I began fearing something serious (MS, ALS).
My GP didn't know and referred me to a neurologist, and I have an appointment with them tomorrow (yay!). I did get blood work done yesterday and already have my results back - all they found was a vitamin D deficiency and wrote me a prescription for some pills. I'm a college student so it's not uncommon for me to be lacking some vitamin D!
In the days leading up to the GP appointment, I feel like I panicked pretty badly. I was glad that I finally took initiative on my numbness, but I kept from getting it checked for a few different reasons. I'm strapped financially, I'm extremely stressed out 24/7 with college, and I'm well aware of my history with hypochondria. I guess I attributed it to my stress and OCD and kept moving forward.
I no longer fear ALS (the "failing, not feeling" thing finally resonated with me) but I do fear MS. Along with my loss of sensation, I am worried about my balance. I feel very unsteady. I haven't tripped or had my foot drop or anything as a result, but I do feel that my balance is off. I will try to explain in a bit more detail, but an important note is that I only started having my balance issues after I panicked... coincidence?
When I stand still, I feel like I begin tipping over in a random direction. It feels like I need to re-distribute the weight in my feet somehow to keep me standing up. When I walk, I find that I'm having to focus when trying to go in a straight line, and that my legs feel weak, heavy, and jelly-like. As far as I know, I don't have any vertigo, lightheaded-ness, or dizziness, it just feels like my legs are having a harder time.
Of course, I took the hypochondriac's route, and I performed different balance tests on myself. To my surprise, I can still balance myself on one foot (on both sides), walk on my tippy-toes, and walk on my heels. I can do that one one-legged pose where you hold one leg up behind you just to make balancing a bit more difficult. I'm happy I can do all of these things, but why is my balance and gait still wobbly?
Has anyone else experienced this? I'm particularly worried because I'm having balancing issues without the dizziness or vertigo, which is a correlation that I see all the time. I feel fine. My head feels clear. My legs don't, however. Just a week ago, I didn't really have any issues... hopefully the neuro can help with that and my numbness at the same time?
Additional note: I also felt muscle weakness in my hands, like it took me a considerable amount of effort just to hold a cup up in the air; I could still do it though, and I think that episode has passed as I don't think about my hands or anything. Maybe I'm so concerned with my legs that I'm hyper-focusing on those, and that's causing me balance loss?
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