I've posted over on the MS board a few times and although dont have a diagnosis of that I can never help my paranoid mind. I'm in my mid 20s and since 2011 have had strange nerve-related symptoms.

I've had mild numbess a few times in different areas, hair loss, ear ringing, pin prick sensations all over the body, tiny muscle twitches all over, occasional muscle jerk, and the most painful of all...electric shock feeling in my inner calf!!

I know some of those aren't considered peripheral neuropathy, but has anyone ever experienced the shock sensation before? It came out of nowhere with no warning. I was asleep and it woke me at 6am one morning. It was the most painful, unreal feeling Id ever felt and literally made me recoil and jerk every time. I felt like I was being tazed or shocked from the inside. Like I said it was local, in my left inner calf. It came on every few seconds getting further and further apart and only lasted that one day, almost 1 year ago. Ever since that happens though every now as then I get these mild versions of it - more like little twinges of nerve pain, in my calves, that aren't enough to stop me in my tracks or cause an embarrassing scene (like the other would) but it's enough to give me goosebumps and make the baby hairs stand up on my body. Like electricity. Is this so bizarre or what?? I'm TERRIFIED this could happen again, and more terrified it could be while I'm at the gym, or driving, or just walking and making me cry out and almost fall. I pray every night that it won't come back, but I'm so afraid. Has anyone ever felt this before? Despite my MS fears I've never heard of this with MS, have any of you? Because I have other symptoms going on too I don't know if this is just peripheral neuropathy, nor do I know if anyone my age even gets PN without a definite cause. It's all so scary. I don't know what's going on.

Hi Sam,

There are over 100 causes of PN, and it is totally non-discriminatory -- it can strike anyone at any age.

Yes, electric shocks (and needle jab sensations) are a symptom experienced by some (self included). Yes, it can be rude. Mine have diminished (not disappeared entirely) and I consider them more of a nuisance now (like most of the other symptoms).

I don't know how to allay your fears except that I think the fear itself is probably more stressful than the symptom.

Doc

--will experience these "periodic", for lack of a better term, "zats" or "pulses" of electrical type tingling/pain.

They often start after exertion--in my case, there is some evidence they may have to do with nerves being compressed by swelling of other body tissues--and continue for a while. Over hours to days they often suddenly disappear (they don't tend to "fade out").

In my case, the leading theory is this has to do with nerve regrowth from my acute onset body-wide burning neuropathy; fibers that are are regrowing do so slowly but do have to fight past and through lots of other tissues, and often wind up in pathways dissimilar to those traversed prior to the original nerve injuries, so that they are more prone to compressive effects.

The problem, of course, is that not only may your experience not be mine, but such symptoms can be a result of an ongoing pathologic process as well as a "healing" one. And, to add further complication, symptoms of problems with portions of the central nervous system--brain and spinal cord--can be exactly mimicked by those stemming from problems with more peripheral nerves. It's why when these symptoms occur there is often a lot of involved testing--imaging of spine/brain, nerve conduction studies/EMG's, blood work-ups, etc.--to try to "pin down" just WHERE the symptoms stem from.

Have you had your B12 and Vit D tested?

We have a poster here who had calf pain, that subsided with
Vit D correction.

If you decide to get tested, don't accept "normal" from doctors.
Get your numbers and bring them back here.

If you test low in D, don't use the RX D2 doctors stupidly still prescribe as it has been shown to not work in humans.
D3 is what you will need and it is over the counter.

Another factor in random PN symptoms is low magnesium. Fix this and often you can feel much much better.

This is my magnesium thread:
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread1138.html

Although my experiences may be anecdotal at best, I have to say that only lately, since I subjectively feel I am healing, that I experience "zaps". Maybe I had them before, and the overall pain/stabbing masked them, but lately (last 2 months) I feel distinct zaps in parts where I no longer have pain - in my case, my heels. They feel like someone has put their TENS on overdrive, or like what I was feeling during my EMG. They then dissipate quickly.

I instinctively assumed that the zaps were part of the healing process. They are nothing compared to the pains I used to feel. Obviously, like you say, where you feel them might not be the place where the nerve regeneration is taking place.

Like I said, anecdotal, but I do agree it might be part of the healing process.

Great analogy! Fair warning -- I'm going to steal it.

Doc

Feel free! It always strikes me how difficult it is to describe pain & sensations. I hope one day we can make a snapshot, digitize it* and put it in a standard file format, for all to understand. Sure, there would still be a subjective part, but it might help nonetheless. "Oh wow, you score a 7.5 on the RUSUT (rolled up sock under toes) sensation".

* I wonder if there isn't already someone working on that... it's not that far fetched.

i also get the muscle jerks and electrical jolts. not all the time but once in a while. i dont even pay attention to them anymore)
i have sensory motor axonal (large fiber) pn caused by exposure to toxins.

In a way... there are lists of adjectives to help/inspire patients how to describe pain to their doctors.

describing pain

Doc

Are they not painful then? The shocks I experienced that one day were excruciating and impossible to ignore. They came on so fast and painful without warning that it crippled me if standing. Like when you get shocked by a door handle or something when you go to touch it and automatically recoil and say "ouch!" Except this was way more amplified and intense! The smaller versions of it i get occasionaly since, the twinges of nerve pain I like to call it, are easier to ignore as they don't stop me in my tracks but I can def still feel them and they're uncomfortable but I can deal with those, but I hope the severe shocks never return!