Originally Posted by slay2k (Post 1217450)

Thanks for bringing that up, mrsD, but although I suspect this could be viral (neurotoxic) in nature, I don't think it is Zika / Dengue / Chikungunya (prevalent in Puerto Rico) for the following reasons.

1. Zika is asymptomatic in 80% of infected people
2. Zika only lasts a week in the blood so getting a test now would be fruitless as my symptoms started months ago
3. Zika's primary symptoms in the 20% of cases are things like fever, nausea, skin rash, joint pain or swelling, none of which I have had.
4. There's no evidence of Zika causing fasciculations / muscle twitches / electric shocks in a person, which are my main complaints.

I wish it was as easy as identifying a virus and just waiting it out. Ciguatera is actually closer in nature to what I have -- a fish neurotoxin that affects the gut. But I haven't eaten any fish here so there'd be no way for me to get it, and I don't have the classic cold/hot reversal symptoms. However the idea of a neurotoxic virus makes sense to me since my symptoms did improve over time (with the exception of the current "flare-up" state).

Originally Posted by slay2k (Post 1217486)

Out of curiosity what's your serum magnesium level showing? I've been at a steady 2.20 on a normal range of 1.5 - 2.5.

Originally Posted by YaledMot (Post 1221360)

This has been a fascinating series of posts. I have had the fasiculations mostly in my legs for 14 years. It started about the time I started developing the strange symptoms in my feet finally diagnosed as axonal loss polyneuropathy just last week after an EMG. My neurologist essentially blew off my years of fasiculations as "inherited, certainly not ALS." I knew they were not ALS, having had them for 14 years. Come on. I find the fasiculations "go nuts" after certain sorts of exercise and other times, like right now, just sit there and flutter at a low level. I am rarely without them, but I have never had them with "electric shocks" as mentioned in the initial post. I will leave that to my largely dead feet and ankles with the random electric shocks and zaps.

Originally Posted by slay2k (Post 1221382)

Yeah, I've more-or-less accepted that nobody else in the world has my symptoms, but I'm continuing to eliminate possibilities every week and keeping detailed logs of my experience with the hopes of helping someone else one day.

The jolts only happen about once a month now. The latest things bothering me have been a) "baby kicks" in my lower abdominal area, typically lower right quadrant and b) upper back pain that gets worse w/ driving and better w/ massage and c) feeling weak (not clinical weakness) / fatigue.

I was told by a reputable doctor that these "baby kicks" must be abdominal wall muscle and not intestinal spasms, because I can easily see them. They make it hard to go to sleep sometimes.

Speaking of which, I've finally taken a mag supplement and not gotten diarrhea, so there's hope in that approach and I will continue to experiment w/ various types (e.g. Magnesium Malate, Chelated, etc) to see how my body reacts.

Now wouldn't that be a nice and easy solution?

Originally Posted by Healthgirl (Post 1221496)

Hi Slay,
I just wanted you to know you are not alone with these symptoms. I also have normal magnesium levels and I've tried every form of high quality supplement and get no improvement. I have twitches, jolts, electric shocks. I won't go on with my list of everything else, because it's too long and my diagnosis is at a dead end right now. They know for sure that I have polyneuropathy due to finding nerve damage by biopsy and doing tilt table test. I also have the fascilations in my abdomen that are so strong that it does look like a baby is kicking.

Originally Posted by DavidHC (Post 1221511)

I also get plenty of fasciculations, including baby kicks. I also have various other symptoms. Had the baby kicks last night in fact. You're not alone.

Originally Posted by slay2k (Post 1221536)

That's nuts. I'd love to hear about all your symptoms to see if we can find some more things in common (see the questions I asked Healthgirl above as well). What have you tried? What improves and worsens things, etc?