Hello,

I am hoping you can provide a response on the symptoms I've been having. I will try to lay out everything as clearly as possible in somewhat chronological order. Any help you can offer is greatly appreciated:

1. Generally, over the past year or so I have noticed that my arms fall asleep regularly at night. This seems to be regardless of the position I'm laying in. For instance, I will be laying straight on my back, but I will still wake up with one or both arms asleep. Sometimes it seems to be much more pronounced along the pinky finger, and other times the pointer finger. Other times it is more generalized. Usually I can just shake it off and go back to sleep. I saw a neurologist for this earlier this year. He suggested carpal tunnel and gave me some wrist guards. They might help a little, but the arms still fall asleep on a nightly basis. I have noticed this is intensified when I drink alcohol the previous night. I have often also slept on my stomach with my head facing to one side or the other, so I am not sure if this could contribute. I have been trying to sleep on my back or side for the past several months.

2. About 2 weeks ago I noticed a twitch in my arm while at work. I may want to mention that I work in an office and sit at a computer for about 7 hours a day. The twitch was just above my right forearm, on the opposite side of my elbow. I noticed this on a Thursday, and the twitch continued through the following Sunday (so about 3 days). It was not painful, but more of an odd sensation, and I could see the muscle twitching.

Since then I have begun to notice other twitches. Mostly I feel them at night or when I am laying down. Today I was laying down reading, and noticed several twitches, such as on my knee and the muscles on the left side of my back. Then my bicep began to twitch when I held my arm above my head. It is clearly visible to the eye and it is totally involuntary. However, when I flex the bicep the twitching will stop. Once I un-flex the muscle, it begins twitching again. This has been going on for the past hour or so.

3. About a week and a half ago, while laying down watching TV at night, my left leg took on a numbing sensation, as though it was going to fall asleep. This was from the knee down to the foot. It was not totally asleep, but I felt the urge to move the leg to prevent it from falling asleep. I became worried about it, and when I eventually went to bed, I woke up with the leg completely asleep. I was able to shake it off, but I had trouble sleeping the rest of the night and slept only about 3 hours due to the continued numbness.

I went to the doctor the next day, complained about the numbness (which persisted into the next day) and advised that my arms were still falling asleep. After the discussion and a few simple tests (knee reflex, following the doc's finger with my eye, etc.), the doctor referred me back to the Neurologist, and we have scheduled an MRI of the Brain, to check for anything like lesions, due to MS.

The appointments are not for a couple of weeks. Because of the wait time, I have become extremely anxious. The original numb leg (left) continues to be mildly numb throughout the day, and the other leg (right) also is a bit numb throughout the day. This is not so much noticeable when I am walking or moving, but more so when I am sitting or laying down. I have noticed numbness in my right hand during the day as well. This is something that had been previously notable only at night.

I have also continued to have numbness in the legs and hands/arms at night. I have been sleeping better, but I am awakened frequently, shake them off, and then get back to sleep.

Unfortunately, one of the more upsetting symptoms I have developed is that I am feeling a strange numbness in my head. This is mostly on the sides by the temple, and also a bit further back, just above the ears. It is subtle but noticeable, and I'm not sure if my anxieties are causing this. Yesterday I was very anxious, and could not sit still. I walked around town like a madman not knowing what to do, because I didn't want to sit still and have to deal with the numbness. Today I felt better, but the numbness persists, along with the mentioned twitching of the bicep and other areas.

4. One more thing that I should mention: In May, I went to the Dominican Republic and ended up passing out after a long day in the sun. I fell on my face, got some stitches, etc. This was not a completely sudden passing out, because I gradually felt odd and then finally fell. I was walking and the sides of my head started feeling tingly, and when I tried to lay down I fell instead. I was out for a few minutes or so. There was some confusion as to if this may have been heart related. This seemed odd, because I have always been extremely active and I am in very good physical shape (I am 27 years old). I ended up getting a full heart work-up done. I had a stress test, ECHO and also went for a consultation with an Electrophysiologist. He advised that he believed further tests were not necessary, since the other tests checked out fine. There was an occasional beat skip on the stress test, but the doctor advised this was normal in some people and not a cause for concern. Eventually the event was passed off as a Vaso-vagel episode. I had one other episode shortly after the first, but did not completely pass out.

Although I have a RBBB, this was deemed as most likely not related, and I am able to confirm that the RBBB has been present since 2001.

5. I have begun to feel some slight discomfort in my back the last 2 days or so. While I was sleeping I felt some minor pain in my back last night. The pain seems to be localized a few vertebrae up from the middle of my spine. No lower back pain is present. Again, the pain is very slight, and more of a discomfort.

6. Some information about me. I am 5’11” and about 176 pounds. I have a lean body tone. I lift weights regularly. Some activities I have been engaging in more often recently (this summer) are running, tennis and swimming. Normally I will run about 2 miles on a tread mill. I have been swimming the breaststroke and also was trying to learn to swim better with my head in the water. I only swam about 5 times this summer, and usually not for longer than about 30 minutes of nearly continuous laps (small breaks in between). This is a very new activity, as is tennis. In trying to understand what is going on, I have stopped swimming for now, in case the breaststroke may have contributed to any compression of my spine, etc. However, I never felt any specific pain when running, swimming, playing tennis or lifting weights. I don’t recall any movements I made which made me think I may have injured anything.

I generally drink alcohol on the weekends. Sometimes I drink too much for one or two nights straight. Sometimes I will drink too much, to the point where I don’t remember the latter part of certain nights. I have attempted to keep this under control and have drank much more moderately recently, and have specifically not drank any alcohol for the last two weeks, since the onset of initial problem with my leg being numb. However, I have never been dependent on alcohol and always would drink only a couple of days out of the week.

I was wondering if you can try to make any sense of this to clear my head until these appointments. I am going to try to bump them up sooner tomorrow, but am not sure how successful that will be. Right now, my main concerns are the numbness, twitches and general anxiety I am feeling about these symptoms. It just doesn’t seem good at all.

Please help!

Many thanks,

Al