Short time watcher first time poster

[Casdone]

I have been using this forum to try and alleviate my heath anxiety for a few weeks so I thought I would post my story.

I guess this story probably starts about 2 1/2 years ago. Up until then I was living a fairly normal life. Married, 2 kids, homeowner, a dog - you get the drift. Then one day out of the blue my wife was diagnosed with cancer. We were fairly quick to get onto it, she had surgery, radiation etc and we hoped it was all behind us. We then got the dreaded news that it had not only come back, but it had spread and it was terminal. After a fight she passed away about a year ago. As you can imagine my world was turned upside down. I could barely look after myself for the first 6 months let along 2 young kids that were grieving for their mum.

I slowly eased back into this new normal that had been thrust upon us, but then about 2 months ago I got this tingling sensation in my face. I had been under a heap of stress so initially I put it down to that, but 4 days later it was still there so I went to the Dr. He said it was most likely due to stress and anxiety and asked me if I wanted to go onto ADs. I didn't think I needed them at that stage. Then a week or so later I started to get tingling etc in my hands and legs. At that point I got quite worried so made an appointment with Dr Google (not sure where that guy got his medical degree from). Of course he diagnosed me straight away with MS, ALS you name it. In a panic I went back to my real Dr who gave me the basic neuro test that I passed and said he was fairly confident it was just anxiety etc but he would refer me to a neurologist if I really wanted him to. At that point I took the offer of the referral and the ADs as I needed something to calm me down.

The tingling etc in my face and arms etc comes and goes so I can accept they are most probably anxiety related. But my legs have had the strange sensations now for the last 2 months now including a burning feeling down the front of my thighs. I feel the right one is weaker than the left leg. I saw a physiotherapist and she initially said it was probably a trapped nerve but as there was no improvement I was sent for an x-ray. The x-ray showed grade 1 - 2 Spondylolisthesis at L5 and S1. Basically the disc is ground down to nothing also.

I should point out that other than some dull lumbar pain I haven't really had any other symptoms other than the neurological ones. The physio has now referred me for an MRI but made the comment that she wouldn't expect the tingling / burning sensations to be present unless the Spondo was grade 3+. Now after a further consultation with Dr Google I am back on the MS track again. I had never really worried about my health up until now but I think with the loss of my wife and now being a single dad I am well and truly down the in the mire. Sorry if this rant went on for too long..

[tomtom83]

So sorry to hear about your loss, not sure what to write other than stay strong & it's not surprising HA has come up with what you've been through.

My HA triggered with a health scare with my unborn 2nd child & excessive googling. Not long after she was born I started getting tingling in my feet, Dr Google gave me a similar diagnosis & I fell down that black hole for months.
Googling made things so much worse, yet it became like an addiction! It made me ignore my instinct & the more logical reasons (like carrying a baby who wouldn't sleep in a babybjorn 4-5 hours a day in crappy shoes) which just became a bad cycle!

Google will never ever give you a good answer & even if it did you'll probably doubt it after awhile (that's my pattern anyway ), it's best to just fire Dr Google (ie. don't google symptoms full stop!!) & follow your physio & doctor instead.
There's a sticky post on HA around MS if you want to take a look, helped me when it was my main HA worry https://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showth...Sclerosis-(MS)

[Scass]

Hi,
I’m so sorry for your tragic loss.
All I can say is that health anxiety after the death of a loved one is very common. You are grieving and under immense stress, so it’s really not a surprise that your mental health takes a bashing.
Could you see your GP and tell them everything from your post?
I hope you have a good support network. I’m really glad you posted here, and hope that writing it all down helped a bit.


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[Casdone]

Thanks for the advice tomtom. You are right about Google it is a blackhole. I think in the beginning I was trying to figure out what might be wrong, but that changed to spending hours searching through pages and pages trying to find evidence that I don't have some sort of terrible disease. That's how I found this forum!

[Casdone]

Thanks Scass, really appreciate you taking the time to respond

[Lana]

Casdone,

Needless to say, I am very sorry for your terrible loss. I hope you find good strength and spirit to go on in your life, and be well for yourself and your children.

I just want to tell you that I have had tingling and burning for years now; it started with my hands and part of arms, but later it started going around: my legs, feeling cold and goosebumps on one side of the body only....Eventually I lost hearing in one ear, and that is what prompted brain MRI, but they did not find anything that was bad and would explain my symptoms. Eventually, my hearing came back, believe it or not.
They also did Electromyogram, which confirmed pretty severe carpal tunnel in both arms, but nobody ever could explain other symptoms.
What I am trying to say is that it is known to happen without having bad cause. Horrible event, like the one you went through, definitely can cause it, though. And if there is a problem with the spine, that can obviously cause it.

Wish you all the best, and praying for you.

Lana

[Casdone]

Thank you for sharing your experience with me Lana, I really appreciate it. I am hoping there is a straight forward explanation for all of this.

[NoraB]

At that point I got quite worried so made an appointment with Dr Google (not sure where that guy got his medical degree from). Of course he diagnosed me straight away with MS, ALS you name it. In a panic

I'm so sorry about your wife. As stress goes, it's right there at the very top of the Holmes and Rahe stress scale. Number one: death of a spouse.

My latest (and worst) bout of HA was triggered by my mother's death so I'm not at all surprised that your wife's death has triggered a severe HA response..

Re Dr Google..

Don't type your symptoms into Google unless you fancy spending the next hours, days, weeks, and months - thinking you'll be dead by Christmas. It's that simple.

Google will always come up with the worst case (and least likely) cause of a symptom. It's like Google is run by people who write for the Daily Mail or something? Or Chat magazine? I can imagine little DM minions' eyes lighting up with glee as soon as someone types in; bleeding and lump up the bum. Number uno cause? Piles. But that won't scare the shit out of us, right? But the rarer (and least likely cause) 'cancer' will and HA ONLY deals in the worst (and unlikely) scenarios - no matter what you type in..

If this helps, I've had (have) all the symptoms you are talking about (and a lot more) and me and the docs went down the MS route. Turns out that it's due to a combo of fibromyalgia and cervical spondylosis. I have wear and tear in two areas on my cervical spine (and some slight nerve impingement) and this accounts for the numbness and tingling.

I also have a sensation where it feels like cold water is running down my legs? Or I've walked into a cobweb and my cheek feels weird? It's the Spondy that's causing your issues but also anxiety can cause a lot of neuro type 'tingly' symptoms because we tend to breathe shallowly, and it's also to do with the way blood is pumped to specific parts of the body in order for the fight or flight response to be most effective...

Spondy can cause headaches and all sorts..

It's not the physio you need to be listening to. It's the doctors..

You also need some help with the HA and to come to terms with being the sole parent. Parenting is hard enough when there's two of you, right? Do you have a support system? No amount of help can ever replace a wife and mother but family and friends can help to take some pressure off?

[pulisa]

I'm so sorry for the loss of your wife in such awful circumstances. It is very hard being solely responsible for a young family who are grieving and looking to you for comfort and support.

I'd agree with all the advice you've been given so far. Let the doctor analyse your MRI and don't do the "research" yourself? Pain isn't always an indication of severity of degeneration and MRIs are very sensitive and will pick up anomalies which are incidental findings but insignificant.

You are being investigated so can do nothing more until you get your results. Do stay off Dr Google..He'll suck you in and have you believe all sorts. Trust in your own doctor.

[Casdone]

That's good advice Nora. I have had the running water feeling down the back of my leg also. I do have a small support group around me.