The past week or so I've had maybe 3-4 instances where I'll be laying down to go to sleep and I feel an electric shock sensation in my brain. Always on the left side (but I'm laying on my left side) and it just lasts a second or two. It doesn't really hurt but it feels like someone's jolted me and it does cause my upper body to kind of jerk. I also hear a kind of zapping bam! in my head at the same instant.

Just wanted to get an idea of someone has felt this and if it's attributed to MS, as I thought the L'ermittes thing was only from the neck down.

I know that it can be caused by certain psych meds but I am not on any that have that side effect, nor have I been for a long time.

My other question is about drop foot. My neuro said I have an abnormal gait and it has gotten worse from what I can tell. But, from what I've seen/read it's not quite a drop foot situation. I can lift my toes, flex my foot if I am told to or try to. But when I'm just walking along normally I often drag my right foot, the toe of my shoe will scrape the sidewalk. It's annoying because it causes me to stumble a lot and I get mad at myself because if I pay attention to how I'm walking I can lift my foot how it should be.

I'd like to know if this is truly not drop foot and maybe I'm just shuffling along too much and need to concentrate more on how I'm walking? I hate walking in front of my neuro because it's never natural, I'm always concentrating on how I'm walking in front of him because I know he's concentrating on it also. LOL. I wish he'd just spy on me walking to my kid's bus stop or something so he'd get a better idea of how my natural walking pattern are. Kidding. It's silly, the pressure of walking in front of a doctor! Ahhh!



Ruth

No dx, symptoms for 2 years.

I dont know about brain shocks. I will let others comment.

as far as drop foot, I drop my big toe. when i flex my foot, it takes longer to come up or curl with the rest of the piggies. I too drag my foot over carpets, and thresholds. I find when I lay down at night its the worst! I feel like I want to tape my ankle or foot to keep it from bugging me.

I hope you feel better, and welcome!

i get what i call frazzles through the front of my head, forehead and temples. almost like electricity, but more pressure than a zap. I mostly get it when I'm stressed and i look at as a warning that my head is getting full, or I'm anxious or stressed.
Hurts my eyes and gives me a numb/cold/weird sensation afterwards.
On the upside, I can walk...

i don't know about the zapping in your head. i'd ask your dr about that.
ever since my first sx, which was a gait problem, i've had a zapping sensation in my left leg. it's like a whoosh. my drs have never understood it.

you might ask your neuro to prescribe some PT for your foot. they are good at evaluating things. there might even be some kind of brace you could wear to help your walking. just the risk of falling might get your dr to Rx PT.

I've heard those referred to as "brain quakes", which I thought was a very fitting description. I get them too, in my head and in my feet (or "foot", haven't noticed if it is just one). They happen to me when I lay down too.

Any abnormal sensation like buzzing, zapping, etc. is called Neuralgia or Pareasthesia, however for me, I suspect that this is more specifically L'hermittes due to spinal cord lesions:

http://www.mult-sclerosis.org/LHermittessign.html

http://www.mult-sclerosis.org/mssymptoms.html

Your footdrop symptoms sound like "footdrop" to me. Footdrop is really just that you drag your foot when walking (often tripping over your toes, as you indicated), and doesn't mean that you absolutely are unable to flex your ankle or that you will necessarily have permanent gait issues. My footdrop fluctuates too, like many of our symptoms, especially with triggers like heat, fatigue, stress, etc.

Cherie

Thank you for your responses everyone. We'll see how things go at my next appointment in a few weeks.
I'm really just so frustrated at still being in limboland. Especially since my neuro has stated that he wants to stay away from medications until we are 100% sure what we're dealing with.
I haven't had a neck/spine MRI in two years. I'm hoping to be able to convince him it's high time I had something besides my head scanned. Anyone know the chances of having lesions on the spine and not the brain?

I had a fairly severe Transverse Myelitis (spinal lesion) attack 12 yrs before I allowed them to do a MRI, although I was warned that the TM attack "could be from MS". I preferred denial.

When I finally had the MRI, I only had 2 - 3 small brain lesions, and 2 large spinal one's. I was confirmed for MS even before the MRI though .... when I experienced my second clear-cut attack.

So, we can go along with only spinal lesions for a long time, just like we can have only brain lesions. Spinal lesions are probably more telltale for MS, actually, so having them makes the dx process easier.

From the symptoms you are describing, it is entirely possible that you have spinal cord damage of some sort. The symptoms "look" the same even if they are from trauma, ADEM, TM, MS, herniated discs, etc. ... the trick is to figure out:

1. Is there damage showing?
2. What might be the cause.

My sister was suspected as having MS (given her symptoms and my history), but in the end she was dx with syringmyelia, which is another spinal cord disease.

Yes, I would suggest that if he has confirmed the foot drop, and you are experiencing symptoms that might be due to a condition affecting your spinal cord, you should have your C and T spine MRI'd.

Cherie

Thank you Cherie, great response.

I'm frustrated because I've requested spine MRIs several times in the last 6 months and the answer I get is that "two years is too short a time for anything to have changed since your last MRI of the spine." I personally think that's completely wrong but hey, I'm not a doctor so I don't have much to fight that with.

Its kind of a "exploding head" syndrome and I have had it. Usually if I have been under stress or have lack of sleep (as in last Jan when my mom died). I described it as "an electric shock between my ears with a loud WHOOSH that actually knocks me off balance". I was under the understanding its a brain stem issue. I told my MS doc and she said she was familiar with it in her patients, but I suspect other types of disorders can cause this too. I saw an episode of "House" where they suspected a young boy of MS who exibited symptoms of "exploding head". I really hated this feeling and I never knew when it was going to hit me. It was very fast and I even think I lost vision for a split second.
I posted here one time asking if anyone else has had it.

I sometimes get a 'zap' behind my ear - like there's a spark between my ear and neck.
Not often, but it's there.

I've had head shooting pains for a long time (way before other sx's started) but I guess that's different to zaps.

It's interesting that your neuro told you the MRI would be unlikely to show changes any sooner than 2 years.
My neuro on the otherhand says if I had MS it would've shown up by now in the 2 MRI's I've had (first one (head) was 5 and a half months ago). I had a spine MRI in August.
Like you said Ruth, I know we're not Dr's, but it sounds too assumptive (is that the right word?!)