strange sensations in my face.....
 

hi all, hope everyone is as well as can be...

i have started to notice a bit of a tingling/numb sensation in the side of my face (next to my mouth on my tos side). It comes in waves when im having a bad pain day but this has just been developing slowly over the last couple of months, with me thinking that im imagining it!

anyone else have this - nto siure if facial symtoms are related to tos...

(((((((((Tracey)))))))
does your hearing get muffled on the same side when this happens?


mine does. don't know what it is... maybe spasm'd muscles clamping down on a nerve?

Tracy there could be two possibilities I am thinking of...On is the upper cervical nerves, go into the face. They could be acting up..this could be something positional. Did you start a new position to read, sit, sleep, are you hunching over a lap top, looking upward at a monitor?

The other thing is a virus as Bells Palsey. My husband had it from stress right before we got married. Like the tingling before a cold sore would come out.

But, I really think, it is something compressing the upper cervical roots. How is your range of motion in the neck, more side, to side then up and down? Is it tighter on the side you have tingling.

Also how old are you, do you have wisdom teeth.
If you press the area behind the jaw toward the ear is it tender? Then keep following back toward the skull and to the spine...is this nerve path sore?

I would try, check with doc first, per my doc, uses 4 Advil 4X's a day for three days. Mainly I use Advil or Toradol to calm down the knife in my upper wing, just thought that the same could work for the upper nerves inflamation too.
have you have a MRI to look for new damage?
Just some thoughts,
Dianne

PS Martha, I have the diminished hearing on my worse affected side. I also have background noise like wind or whoosh more noticable when it is quiet or trying to sleep.

I have have had similar weird featherlite sensations in the epidermis of the neck, also my neurologist noticed a quivering of the lips" very mild" so I would have to assume the nerves controlling facial and neck responses that emanate from the cervical spine would seem to be involved.

hi, yes i have noticed some very mild hearing interferences but not always on my symptomatic side which is the right - again this only seems to happen recently when im having a bad time of it. its not constant and kind of waves on and off for a while and then goes - sometimes the numb/tingling moves across the back of my head too.

dont understand why my symptoms seem to be slowly changing and evolving....what am i doing wrong!!

I havent really changed anything positional - i did start a new job about 5-6 months ago which involved me sitting on little chairs and looking down a bit more (i started working with 7 year olds!, have left that now and will be starting with high school kids in september so back to normal size chairs!). That caused me to notice some pain in my armpit and my into my chest, so perhaps its an effect of that?!

the range of motion in my neck is not fantastic and my neck creaks and cracks constantly throghout the day, as it has done for the last couple of years.....im 27 yrs old and my wisdom teeth were all impacted and taken out when i was 25....i felt behind my ear and it is a little tender, i will check when the symptom comes back and see what it feels like then.

the last 2 mri's i had have been confusing - the 1st one showed a thickened neurovascular bundle and asymmetry of my infraclavicular fossa (under the collarbone) the 2nd one didnt show this - im going to take them to my new dr who is apparently the best in the UK for tos and see what he makes off all this!!

thanks dianne

I have this on bad days too.

Hey Tracey,

Yes I have tingiling in my lips and pins and needles on the end of my nose! I get a LOT of facial pain..........everyday. I have TOS and C5/6/7 issues, so who knows what's causing it. Good luck with it all.

Ozzy

I just saw on Mystery Diagnosis something sounding a lot like Tracey's symptoms. "Schwannoma Tumor" It's a brain tumor that is non-cancer but binds around the nerves and causes those varied symptoms.

Check it out.

And any time we get an MRI, we should also rule out Chiari 1 Malformations.

I get this when my TOS flares up on the same side as my worst tos symptoms. Same location as you mention. It always goes away when the flare resolves. I think I did see this symptom mentioned in a TOS paper but I am not quite such of that.

Inflamatory compounds from the TOS area can migrate to other areas that are not neurologically connected and affect nerves there according to one of my doctors. I remember this was his explanation as to why GI symptoms and back pain can occur with TOS flare. The facial symptoms could be similar but I don't remmber.

Thanks lisa, seems like there are quite a few of us with this similar facial symptom....i dont have it unless im having a bad flare - makes sense what your doc says about tos radiating to other areas.

Yes, I have a cervical and brachial plexopathy and I sometimes have weird, numbness around mouth, twitches in face, and trouble with speech sometimes because my mouth feels numb.
If I didn't know any different I would have thought I was having a TIA or something..UGGH!!:eek:

Hi Tracey
 

I too get the Numbness and tingling in my face, ear and eye. My eye spasms and goes funny so things get blurry like a migraine aura. I get hearing loss like a few of us get ....thinking of Astern. I get a ringing and then tingling and then sometimes loss of hearing all together. My emg's are normal and my MRI"s are normal.....so in my head I guess LOL..... not funny at all but as you said is it in my head well yeah it is. The cervical nerves as mentioned by Di are the main cause of our distress. Increased inflammation on a bad day can cause more compression and more pain and more irritation of the nerves that innervate your face and ears and eyes. These nerves are so close to the brachial plexus that is one reason why we have these issues. Check out this link.....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Gray1210.png#file

This one really shows where if your neck is inflammed it will compress your ear and facial nerves. Move your neck one way or use it too much increse your inflammation irritate the nerves, get the symptoms....

try this site out
http://www.innerbody.com/image_nervov/nerv20.html

this site explains cranial nerves for you....
http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=h...&ct=image&cd=1

lots of reading great pics will give you a full review of your nerves and where they go through your skull and how they end up in your neck etc.... lots to take in though.....feel free to email or PM me Tracey.

http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=h...&ct=image&cd=1


ok found a great one to show you where on your face you may feel the numbness or tingling and it can explain why....

http://www.med.mun.ca/anatomyts/head/cn.htm

good site for kids, but damn good review for me. university/hospital website
http://www.sickkids.ca/childphysiolo.../brain/CNV.htm

ok lots of research....perhaps start with the last two and then go from there. the last two are great in terms of explanation....especailly the last one!!!!

take care my friend and hang in there!!
love and hugs from across the ocean,
Victoria:hug::hug:

I find the neck and facial symptoms to be a reflection of the state I"M in overall. When the neck around the front of the throat down to the collarbone are very sensitive then the shoulder and down thru the elbow etc, are fully involved

its funny u should say that richard - the front of my neck (to the right of my windpipe) is always very sensitive and this aching pain moves down into my collarbone (which has become very bony and feels like it has very little padding around it at all compared to the other side....it does worry me, esp when last dr says it can happen with age - IM 27!!!) When a pain cons pushed on the front of my neck, i almost jumped out of my skin - it was SO painful and triggered my shoulder blade pain!

Thanks for all that info vic - im gonna have to take a bit of time to digest it - im having a few bad days (or possibly weeks now!) with my arm going cold if im on the laptop for more than 15 mins so it may take me a while but i will get there!