ksage15
New member
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2016
- Messages
- 4
- Reason
- Other
- Diagnosis
- 00/0000
- Country
- US
- State
- TX
I am a 22 year old female with no prior health conditions or troubles. On December 1st 2015 I woke up during the middle of the night with the left side of my chest and left arm numb.. Also some mild pain but mostly a very numb uncomfortable feeling. After waking up and moving around the pain went away quickly.. I attributed to sleeping in a bad position. The next night, I woke up with the same problem and it did not go away. I went to the ER and my blood pressure was fine.. Had a CT scan done and found a disc bulge in my neck at C5/6. I was put on a steroid pack for a week. The evening after I went to the ER, I started then experiencing severe pain in my neck and shoulders. I was miserable for a couple days until the steroids kicked in and my symptoms left. However as soon as I finished the week long pack I was back to being in severe pain in my neck and shoulders and numbness in my chest and left arm and hand at this point. I had an appointment with an othropedic surgeon the next day. Had an MRI done of my neck and found the 1-2mm bulge and no problems otherwise. I was placed in physical therapy assuming my symptoms would quickly dissapear with the mild disc bulge. I was also at this time placed on tramadol, lyrica, and an anti inflammatory. Unfortunately my symptoms got progressively worse. My whole body began to hurt. My shoulders neck upper and lower back were in extreme pain. According to my therapist, my range of motion on my left side had been very limited. My therapist also believed I was showing signs of nerve damage with the major numbness in my left arm. Most days it became hard to get out of bed and impossible to sleep. In the mornings I'd head straight to the bath tub and soak for hours to try and work out the pain enough to be able to actually walk. The pain medications I was on helped significantly and my pain intensity varied from day to day.. But every single day I was in pain. I started experiencing severe headaches as well and what I would describe as vertigo.. My mind played tricks on me. I also was having numbness down my left leg. My physical therapist became concerned I had a condition that was beyond the problem of just my disc bulge. I was discharged from therapy until I could be re evaluated. My othropedic Doctor upon returning informed me that my disc bulge was not compressing my spine neither was it on a nerve. He stated that originally he was guessing it was the problem but with the increase in severity and spreading of pain I was told there was no way my neck could be causing all these problems. I had an MRI done on my shoulder and it was fine. My ortho and physical therapist at this point had both mentioned the possibility of fibro. I had an EKG done, checked out fine. I saw a neurologist and had an EMG done, found nothing at all. No nerve problems. I saw a rheumatologist as well and all my bloodwork came back fine other than inflammation was found on one test. My rheumatologist told me she would not be able to pin point the location. She stated I was for sure having fibro but believed it was being caused by another unknown condition with my spine, despite my othropedic surgeon insisting nothing was wrong with my spine. She believed this because she did not believe that fibromyalgia caused numbness and thus I had to have something else as well. She prescribed me more Lyrica and informed me just to continue to see my othro and come back in three months. My othro also stated fibromyalgia shouldn't cause numbness, but I questioned him on this because my own research states otherwise. He did not want to commit to yes or no, but did say he thought it was possible that I had strictly just fibro causing these problems. His bottom line was he thought either fibro, or due to prolonged stress I've been under during the last year, that my immune system was weakened and I was experiencing some sort of immune virus in which my immune system was attacking my body and would stop with time. I went home and continued to take my medications and eventually around 2/3 months later the problems stopped other than mild chest pain/numbness. I went a few weeks with zero issues and stopped all medications, then the chest problems came back after some time. I started lyrica again once daily and the problem again stopped. Now, for the last week, I've again been experiencing this chest pain/numbness and fear for my heart. My doctors seem to be no help with providing a clear diagnosis. They all seem to think my heart is fine but I am very scared and stressed with these chest pains and no answers. I do not know what could be wrong other than fibro with all my tons of bloodwork and various tests being ok, but no doctor wants to tell me I have fibro because of the numbness. As for my immune system attack theory, if this was the case I would imagine the problem would have gone away. I also had some B12 shots done for an immunity boost and take vitamins daily.