Doctors have no answers
 

This is about my daughter. Maybe someone here may have an answer. I'm listing her summary she gave to me. Can anyone here give some direction on where to go?

Mom & Dad,

Below is the timeline and description of my symptoms just to get things started. Love you guys.

7/12-7/14 – In Chicago Visiting Friends (Returned to Seattle Monday)
7/15 – In Seattle, had a steak dinner and then got food poisoning (Monday night)
7/17 – In San Francisco for work (Day 1 of first symptom)

Symptom Timeline:
- 7/17 – Skin crawling feeling began in legs while sitting in bed at the hotel working on email and watching TV
- 7/18 – Skin crawling feeling persisted in legs and began to feel crawling all over body
- 8/2 – Muscle spasms begin in parallel with skin crawling (formication) feelings. Started in legs then persisted into all parts of body (torso, arms, face, feet, hands)
- Week of 8/20 – Sharp pins and needles feeling periodically around body (toes, fingers, feet, legs, arms, etc) followed by very mild feeling of numbness in right arm

Symptom Descriptions (By order of most prominent)
1. Skin Crawling
a. Persistent since the beginning. No increase/decrease in regularity in any situation (time of day, climate, location, diet).
b. No itchiness or rashes
c. Frequency is roughly every 10-30 seconds on different parts of the body (i.e. sensation felt on the cheek and then 20 seconds later on my scalp, 15 seconds later on my stomach
2. Muscle Spasms
a. Most noticeable symptom and happens as frequently as the skin crawling feeling
b. Muscle spasms are felt all over the body but most frequently in my legs, arms, feet
c. Spasms are seemingly deeper but sometimes can be seen in my thigh or in hands/toes
d. Spasms last 1-2 seconds each and are within the same 10-30 second intervals similar to skin crawling (not necessarily at the same time/same place)
3. Pins & Needles/Feeling of being bitten or pin prick sensations
a. Sensation happens roughly 1 time an hour throughout the day and is noticed all over body (1 hour in my toe, next hour feel it on my calf).
4. Mild feeling of numbness in right arm only
a. Since the week of 8/22 this sensation has been felt about 3 separate times.
b. Sensation feels as though my right arm might fall asleep, almost like there is small layer of icy hot on my arm but there is no loss of feeling, movement, coordination or anything else during this feeling. Simply just the feeling of coolness/slight numbness as though the arm is about to start falling asleep.
Do not have:
- Fatigue
- Heat sensitivity
- Headaches
- Involuntary limb movements
- Soreness
- Itchiness
- Vision impairment/problems
- Speech problems
- Cognitive capabilities
- Changes in thought patterns
- Problems with coordination
- Desensitized skin feeling
- Changes in reflexes (ankle, elbow, knee)
- Problems with balance
- Problems hearing
- Back pain
- Abdominal pain

What doctors? tests?
 

You'll probably get lots of replies from people more knowledgeable and experienced than I am, but the symptoms do resemble the ones that I started having in the spring. The idea of a food poisoning "trigger" doesn't relate to my situation, and I hope someone else will comment on that. (My own "trigger" remains mysterious, but it may be the fractures in knee and shoulder that I got from a fall about 6 weeks earlier.) But what doctors has your daughter consulted? Has anyone suggested an EMG (electromyogram) and nerve conduction study? That's what led to my diagnosis of peripheral neuropathy. (The cause of THAT is still unknown. But there ARE treatments!)

Viral infections also cause GI symptoms. The Norwalk virus is an example. So food poisoning, should be confirmed.

There are organisms in tainted food that can be tested for.
Campylobacter bacteria are a common food infection. So is salmonella and E.coli.

Campylobacter has been associated with PN symptoms.

Mostly neurologists just tell people to wait and see what happens.
The time elapsed so far is short still.

Did your daughter have a vaccine recently? Or RX antibiotics?
These can be PN triggers too.

my daughter
 

There has been no other diagnostic test other than routine blood and urine samples which have panned out within normal limits. She has seen a GP and a neurologist. Both are stumped and offer no other suggestions. We find that unacceptable.

My wife is a CCU nurse at another major hospital here. She has taken action and is in the process of lining up a consultation with another neurologist. That should happen fairly soon.

Thanks for responding to my posting.

my daughter
 

Mrs. D, I can't answer these questions. I am going to run them by my daughter. Thanks for replying back. We will continue to rule out any and all possibilities at this point and I am keeping a list of suggested possibilities that she can discuss with the next doctor which she will be speaking to shortly.

Integrative MD's are great at knowing more about testing, supplements, diet and the newest information about health.

here is a site where you can see what kind of testing should be done depending on what type of pn. www.lizajane.org