I don't know where else to post this, but I'm hoping someone here has some ideas for me....

My face goes numb and tingly and it makes my skin feel heavy and my left eye feels like it's wiggling. It's weird. It makes my face feel frozen, but it doesn't look frozen or different.

My ability to use my facial muscles doesn't seem any different when it happens (but it could be slight and I don't notice?)

It's been happening for a while, and it just keeps getting worse and it happens more often.

I had an MRI of the head/neck which was normal.

My medications have been ruled out as a cause.

My current diagnoses -
Anxiety, fibromyalgia, undifferentiated connective tissue disease, raynauds, sicca syndrome, and I'm sure I am forgetting something...


So any ideas as to what can cause facial numbness/tingling? It's mostly confined to my forehead and the left side of my face, but it occasionally wanders to the left side of my neck as well.

It's starting to really scare me, mostly because I don't know what is causing it, and my doctors seem stumped as well.

((((((wittesea)))))))

i really don't have a clue. i'm sorry you are going thru this on top of everything else.

have you looked at the tn forum?

Maybe a type of facial nerve palsy, TN, or... I dunno either .

Have you seen a neurologist?

Thanks curious and bobbi.

I have seen a neuro, rheumy, and my primary.

I asked about TN (I forget which doc I asked) and they said nope. I also asked about bells palsy, trigger points annoying nerves, a type of migraine, and a few other things that I had found and the answer was 'no, that's not it' to all of them.

The only other thing I want to ask about is (to me) the scariest thing.... MG. I am so afraid of that one that I'm too scared to ask if it is possible.

I think, I'd go ahead and ask, even though it is scary. The reason? Treatment. That can't begin until a dx has been made.

Hi Witt,
Is it Paresthesia?
Two and a half years ago I got this on my face around 9:00 at night while driving home from work. When it got worse instead of better I went to Urgent Care to rule out anythiing acute.
My neuro sent me for an EEG and an MRI. They were normal.
So then I started looking at my meds.

Benzos can do this. So can other meds.
I used to get this all over my body -- it would start on face and spread from ears to toes.

It came back a couple nights ago because of Calcium supplements reacting to Verapamil. The two don't mix well.


National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke: definition of paresthesia
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/p...aresthesia.htm

Wikipedia says that Fibromyalgia can cause it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paresthesia

Check your meds again. Do a google search with paresthesia and each med separately and you will see that a med might come up. Two of mine do.

Mari

Is it the whole of your forehead or just the left side?

W,
B 12 might help since b 12 protects the nerves.
Mari

Just guessing
1. Could this be a form of peripheral or other neuropathy?
2. Could it be a left-over from a stroke?
solution--- Contact Rowland on the stroke forum--he is very erudite.
4. Sensory related Bell's Palsy
Any way, I am no doctor, and you may very well have had extensive tests for all of these. How maddening.



Linnie
Atlanta

Hi Wittesea I don't have a lot of time to post but wanted to get this info to you,

Gosh your symptoms mimick many of the ones I had!

I had double vision, wiggley eyes, blurry vision, weakness, autonomic problems, B12 deficiency....and the list goes on.

After my first double vision, I continuously had a feeling in my left cheek of numbness and tingling like I had had a stroke.

First I was dx with B12 Deficiency. After about a year I was dx with MG. although I took massive B vitamins, this tingling and weakness never went away. Eventually my face looked very much like a MG or parkinsons face, very droopy with pitosis in the right eye. I refused MG meds as I found most people that went on the drugs only progressed...I never could take meds and figured it would kill me to do so.

I kept reading and finally someone pointed me to Celiac Disease. It is an autoimmune disease with strong connections to other autoimmune diseases such as MG, sjogrens, rheumatoid arthritis, etc.

I was tested for Celiac Disease (CD) against my primary doctors wishes as she felt I was looking for a disease. I tested positive much to my primary and neurologist surprise.

If you have been tested please do NOT think you are free and clear.

Testing only rules in the disease. 90% of primary, neuro's and gastro's do not know how to test or what to look for according to some of the top Celiac Doctors in the world. They are just getting the word out this year about the disease and the devastation that can occur if not diagnosed in time.

Many people who test negative go on the gluten free diet anyhow and find amazing results. If you read the original Braintalk there is a thread with many people stating how sick they were and how much better they are now.

http://brain.hastypastry.net/forums/...read.php?t=989


It took me 15 months on a gluten free diet and I am just noticing the most amazing things. I actually got worse for awhile but now my energy is returning. My brain is becoming organized again. My eyes rarely droop.

All this was actually caused by malabsorption from malnutrition. There actually was a diet on MG that almost mimicks the GF diet. I had read it but ignored it at the time, maybe because I was so weak and brainfogged but now I realize that many diseases are actually caused by what we eat.

Please don't let yourself get as bad as I was, scroll down to the Gluten Sensitive/Celiac Disease forum, they are great there. http://forums.braintalk2.org/forumdisplay.php?f=13


This is a good place to read up on Celiac Disease and Gluten Sensitive: http://jccglutenfree.googlepages.com/

Good luck, and even if you have heard this before please don't ignore as your symptoms sound too much like mine and I only got worse as the days passed!

Just what you want/need, a NEW wrinkle in life...I'd just call up the docs and do the 'dumb question'& 'what about the X'es' route. After all, phone calls are cheap..the next step isn't...because if it's the NERVES, we all KNOW how those kinds of tests go after the first diagnosis...

It may be a pipe dream, but, could it be possible for you to see ONE doc w/a conference call to the others? Getting all brains working on the overlapping issues would be ideal...tho I know most docs don't work that way - to our detriment.

I personally find it distasteful that we all have to do this very bad 'disco-dance' with even worse dance partners..

For the interim, big hugs and fuzzies that comfort? - j