Originally Posted by binx

hello

i'm 41 and experienced relatively excellent health for most of my life. nearly nine months ago, i felt a sharp pain at the base of my skull on the left side of my head and then felt a bit light-headed afterward for an hour or so with some residual headache pain.
for about 10 days after, i experienced a fairly persistent headache in the same spot at the base of my skull on the left side with tingling and numbness which rotated around different parts of my head and face, sometimes leaving sore spots on my scalp which would fade away pretty quickly.

i also became more and more light-headed and experienced muscle weakness in my arms and legs and intense fatigue as the days passed. my vision was also intermittently affected--things seemed blurred and i was having a lot of trouble concentrating; and when i would look at lights, they would sort of dim and brighten. at times, my upper right eyelid would twitch for hours, then my headache would return periodically, and i experience numbness and and some muscle twitching in my left arm and leg.

my vision is still not right with periodic flashes in my peripheral vision and a sort of waviness when i stare at something with a busy pattern. i went to the ER one particularly scary evening and had a cat scan which came back normal, and my blood work only revealed a pronounced vitamin D deficiency which was treated with a 50,000iu megadose that i took weekly over the course of 3 months. (now i take 1000iu daily.) my reflexes are pretty exaggerated and examination of my eyes revealed no abnormalities in spite of my visual changes.

after struggling with my PCP for weeks, i finally got into a neurologist. i had brain and c-spine MRIs w/ and w/o contrast. the brain results were normal--the neuro said better than normal if that's possible, with no sign of lesions or white matter.
the c-spine was also negative for MS, but revealed cervical spondylosis, degenerative disc disease and bulges at c3-4, c4-5, and a herniation at c5-6.
the neuro felt this was the cause of all my symptoms, referred me to PT and sent me on my way. i self-referred to a couple of neurosurgeons who acknowledge that i need to have a discectomy based on my MRI, but did not feel my other symptoms were related to my c-spine issues. this conflicting information has been very confusing for me.

6 months later, i am still struggling with many of the same symptoms, including the fatigue. i am also getting more pronounced weakness in my ankles. i have good and bad days, but mostly bad at this point. i went back to the neurologist yesterday who is running B12, MMA and thyroid tests (i expect results tomorrow), and he also wants to send me to a sleep clinic.

i am scared, exhausted and overwhelmed. i have a 4-year-old daughter who needs her mama and i have been unable to work for this entire year which is decimating us financially. i was turned down for social security, but am appealing. my husband is overworked and exhausted from having to be both mama and papa to our daughter and to me. i have been put on buspar by my therapist to help me cope with the anxiety i am experiencing on a daily basis.

has anyone else experienced any of these symptoms and found solutions? i am desperate to figure out what's wrong and start to treat it rather than just laying around my house waiting for the other shoe to drop.