tingling in both hands and one foot

[jhkbaby]

Hello,

I am a 34 female in New England

I have been experiencing tingling and numbness intermittently since August 2011 in both hands (the fingers -- all of them) and my right foot. I have had MRI's, blood tests, seen three neuros, etc and everything is clean. The neuros have said it could be just unexplained or it could be peripheral. I am actually fine with that explanation.

However, I get frustrated that I have done everything I can to alleviate the sensation, and it is still occurring. I have changed vitamins, I have seen a therapist, I have relieved stress, changed my mattress, been regularly exercising, have great kids and a great relationship with my husband.

I would like to know if you experienced tingling as one of your initial symptoms, and basically your only symptom, if you felt it in all of the extremities, or just one. And, if you were experiencing it, were you quick to a diagnosis, or did you have to wait years and experience more in order for testing to show lesions?

I would like to believe neuros and just "rule out" MS, but it is hard when everything I do doesn't stop the symptom.

Thanks so much,
jhk

[its2much]

My neuro once

suspected diabetes when I reported tingling in my hands (it's almost constant in my left foot and lower leg - occasional in my right foot, less so in my right leg).

[BigA]

You've had MS ruled out. Our takes place in the nervous system. So our experience won't count for you, unless you're secretly believing you have MS.

as its2much said, it can be caused by diabetes. That's why you see the ads in the back of parade magazine claiming cures for peripheral neuropathy.

If I were you, I'd go to a natural doctor and start there. There may a physical cause or some other issue you haven't figured out yet. It must be very frustrating not to know. Go to a naturapth, get healthy, exercise and do everything you can meanwhile.

[MarkLavelle]

I would like to know if you experienced tingling as one of your initial symptoms, and basically your only symptom, if you felt it in all of the extremities, or just one. And, if you were experiencing it, were you quick to a diagnosis, or did you have to wait years and experience more in order for testing to show lesions?

I would like to believe neuros and just "rule out" MS, but it is hard when everything I do doesn't stop the symptom.

My 1st sx was paresthesia (AKA tingling) in Nov. 2009, initially only in one foot but spreading to almost my entire skin over a few months. It is still 90% of my sx, and is present 24/7. Nothing I've tried changes it (including gabapentin & carbamazepine)...

I saw my back doctor first, because I've had disc problems for years. Some of those sx can be caused by mechanical spine problems, but the 'all over' part eventually ruled out my known back issues and he sent me to a neuro. The neuro took about 6 months of testing to tell me "it looks like MS," but it took another 6 months (and new MRIs) before my MS dx.

I give my back doc a lot of credit because he recognized what could and could not be caused by physical/mechanical problems. Since 3 neuros agree you don't have MS, I think it would be worth your time to find a physiatrist like my back doc...

http://www.aapmr.org/patients/aboutp...ysiatrist.aspx

[Redwings]

Hi jhk:
If MS forums are any indication, the "element of mystery" of some cases of MS allows a lot of people with nonspecific symptoms like numbness and tingling to convince themselves that they have MS. Apparently they decide that if MS can't be disproved, then that must be what they have.

There are dozens of conditions that can cause numbness and tingling. Your doctors have undoubtedly worked you up for the most common of them. But it may take a while before your body reveals enough clues for your doctors to use to find out what's causing your symptoms.

The diagnosis of MS isn't a mystery guess. It requires the presence of particular criteria, and apparently you don't meet them. If all of your clinical and lab tests are clean, then you are no more or less likely to have MS than you are to have any other condition for which tingling and numbness are symptoms.

And that's why it isn't relevant how many people you find in an MS forum who had numbness and tingling as a first symptom. You can't arbitrarily use that to apply to you and try to diagnose yourself or predict what's going to happen to you. At a minimum, you would also have to go into forums of every other condition that has numbness and tingling as symptoms and compare how many of those folks did or didn't develop those conditions, and certainly how many of them don't have MS. Can you appreciate how easy it is to drive yourself bonkers by chasing ethereal answers and forcing them to fit your situation?

MS isn't some kind of bogey man you can blame your symptoms on just because you, on your own, can't figure out how to make them stop. If you don't know what's causing your symptoms, then it isn't a surprise that you don't know what to change to make them stop.

I think there's a lot of agreement that it's a good idea to live as healthfully as possible. Besides just being good for you and making your life better, it sets up a good environment for trying to find out what's causing your symptoms. Plus it's something you can control.

But it may not be realistic for you to think that changing vitamins or mattresses or having a good relationship with your family is all it's going to take. It may not be realistic for you to think that there's anything you can do on your own to stop your symptoms. That kind of thinking sets you up to feel like a failure because you can't, on your own, change something that you don't even have the power to change. (It sounds like you may already be slipping into that.) After that it becomes too easy to start thinking things like, you don't like yourself so you're psychologically hurting yourself, or you're being punished because you aren't religious enough, or everything would be all right if only you could find the magic elixer, and on and on and on. That's a place you don't want to go.

You said you've seen a therapist. That's beneficial in determining whether "stress" might be causing your symptoms. But maybe it's time to look at that a different way. It may not be a bad idea to explore with your therapist why you expect to be able to make little changes and have a medical problem magically go away. And perhaps it could be beneficial to explore strategies for dealing with the fact that you can't do that, because your inability to make the symptoms stop is obviously causing you stress now.

Your neurologists have determined that you don't have evidence of MS. The next step is to systematically work with your doctors to explore other possibilities. (I have to add here that if none of your doctors checked you for diabetes early on, you have bigger issues to face than just numbness and tingling.)

You said you've done everything you can to alleviate the sensation, but the things you mentioned are only things you've tried yourself. Did you discuss with any of your neuros trying medication to alleviate the tingling? There are several medications that can help. So if you haven't tried one, it's worth considering.