Hi All,
I’m a 42 yo male whose only significant history for any kind of neuro issues (I think) was a drawn out case of Lyme disease in my early 30s during which I experienced almost every imaginable symptom at one point or another (including widespread body twitches, bone pain, joint pain, muscle pain, numbness, burning sensations, disequilibrium, etc.)–but that ended 8 years ago after multiple rounds of antibiotics.
In the last four months, I’ve had a weird sequence of symptoms that I haven’t seen anyone else describe:
Early-Mid December: *Swollen lymph nodes in neck (or enlarged thyroid?) without any other symptoms that caused painful swallowing but went away after a couple of weeks (not sure if this is relevant).
Late December-Present: *Hypersensitivity to vibrations (what I gather doctors would call an elevated vibration perception) that makes me feel vibrations in my fingers or anything else that’s in contact with the ground (feet/butt/etc.) in a very heightened way that I never have before.
January - Present: *Full body tremors that are mild but present everywhere (arms, legs, trunk, mouth, tongue etc.) and constantly.
January - Present: *Muscle twitches throughout body on a daily basis, but more frequent in legs especially and arms.
Last two weeks: *Muscle weakness/fatigue in left hand/arm and possibly both legs (a “jelly legs” sensation, only sometimes, in quads and hamstrings when running). The hand/forearm fatigue/weakness seems to be getting slightly worse most days. It seems to coincide with more effort, like when I’m writing a lot of notes or typing, and for some reason seems worse in the morning. Last night I thought it felt normal again for the first time in a couple of weeks, and then this morning it seemed worse than ever! I.e., it took a lot of effort to keep writing with my pen after jotting down just a few lines. I also have a weird sensation on the top of my left hand that comes and goes but feels somewhere between having menthol or duct tape on the top part of my hand.
Last few weeks: *Health related anxiety that in combination with my symptoms has me worrying a lot about the very worst possibilities. Have been on the mental roller coaster of being absolutely convinced that I’ve got MND one part of one day–and then later that day or the next one thinking that I’ll be alright. But have spent the majority of my time feeling terrified.
Diagnosis/Treatment Plan: Thinking some of these things (especially the twitches, which were pretty familiar from my Lyme experience) might be related to my old case, I met with my infectious disease doc and after equivocal Lyme test, went back on antibiotics, which seemed like the simplest potential fix but hasn’t made a noticeable difference yet. Got some blood work done for metabolic panel and thyroid and still waiting to get results. Plan to try to book an appointment with a neurologist soon if nothing gets better.
After a ton of Google searches and forum reading, I’ve barely seen anyone who has described what seemed like overnight onset of mild but full body tremors AND twitching, and the weirdest part is that I originally thought it all started with the vibrations in my apartment. But what has me most worried by far now is the combination of muscle twitching and this easy fatigue of hand/forearm muscles that seemed to also come out of nowhere. One of the weirdest things among many is that, for example, my hand/forearm will go from it taking serious effort to scratch my head or finishing writing a sentence to a few hours later being able to play basketball with no problem. And haven’t ever lost my ability to type quickly, use fork, etc.–yet.
I would be extremely grateful to hear from anyone who is willing/able to share similar experiences and your outcome, advice, good vibes, etc. Thanks so much for reading if you made it this far.