Neuropathy journey the last nine months
 

Hi there. New to the forum. Hoping this doesn't end up contentious in any way, just looking for folks with similar journeys who can perhaps give me some insights.

43/M, 6', 190lbs - healthy by and large (don't drink, walk 50-60 miles a month) - could stand to lose 10lbs. Am lifelong vegetarian but have good B12 levels.

Early mid-year last year I began experiencing tingling / numbness in my right hand, feet and left side of my face. After a few months the tingling subsided and was replaced with a sensation of 'latency' in my hands/wrists, spontaneous muscle twitching mostly in my legs but a bit in my arms and now, itching -- again, mostly in my legs.

Initially my thought was I'd missed some diabetes signs. Had been a bit on the heavy side a few years back but had gotten that under control. Pandemic times had shifted my patterns so was worried about that. Another possible factor was I'd just finished the two boot Moderna vaccine series.

Went to my primary care physician early on in the tingling phase. He did a blood test. Everything came back normal. He felt I looked good, seemed healthy but referred me to a neurologist just in case. By the time of my appt with the neurologist, tingling had mostly disappeared and been replaced by the subsequent symptoms described above. He did some basic tests and felt there was nothing of concern as the symptoms I described didn't appear to be progressing but ordered another, more targeted, blood test. Results for that also came back normal (B12, B6, A1c). B6 was slightly high, but not enough to concern the doctor though I've since stopped eating fortified cereal as regularly just in case. He said despite itching sensations and the latency feeling, I hadn't lost strength, wasn't displaying balance issues or other progressing symptoms and to not be concerned unless things got worse.

So, this is where I'm at today. It's all tolerable, but my hand latency is annoying, making things like playing the piano slightly more difficult, though my hands do seem to 'get going' after a while.

I don't really know what I'm after here. Assurance? The most likely explanation seems to be some side effect of my vaccination that did cause a bit of nerve damage (immune system attacking - I think can happen w/ real COVID too) and perhaps now that's healing slowly? Or it's something that's just progressing very slowly and will get worse over time.

I'm mostly just doing everything normally as I always was but did start taking some Alpha Lipoic Acid once a day - though haven't been super consistent with it yet.

Anyone have any similar experiences and/or advice? Mostly just want this all to make sense. What the doctors have said has reassured me, but will it ever go back to normal?

Variant, you sound pretty darn healthy. And my money goes on side effects of the jabs. There are so so many and I read of them daily. I deal with neuropathy from a hip replacement gone wrong and a lot of nerve damage so I know that one.

Welcome, variant!

I'm not sure what you mean when you say you have a sensation lf "'latency'" but it sounds as if you're finding that initiating a movement is slow.

I'm like that, and I'm assuming it's my arthritis. I have to work up some momentum before I can do anything at a regular pace. But you're young for arthritis--though it's not unheard of.

Sometimes there's some nerve impingement going on, and that's often just a wear-and-tear thing that comes on as we get older. Sometimes it's severe enough to require medical intervention or at least diagnosis but it sounds as if you've been that route by seeing a neurologist.

I don't think the COVID vaccine could have caused your symptoms. The vaccines are remarkably safe and side effects have been minimal for most people. Too many respected medical authorities have stated this repeatedly, citing lots of evidence.

Congratulations on your healthy lifestyle! I hope you can find some solutions to the problems you've been having.

Welcome Variant. :Wave-Hello:

i have never heard the term latency used for a symptom before either. can you explain?

Sorry for the odd term. I'm in IT so it was the best way I could come up with to describe it.

It's like everything works, but just feels a little "slower" than normal. If that makes sense.

I obviously haven't ruled out arthritis (as another poster suggested) but has felt unlikely it would manifest itself in both hands and both feet at the same time and in the same way. I have arthritis in my knee (from multiple ACL reconstructions) and it's quite a bit different - including actual pain rather than just sluggishness.

Anyway, more or less trying to find others out there with the same sort of journey. Keeping an eye on things in the interim and hoping for improvement.

i think you are right, i don't think that it would manifest at the same time in the same way with both hands and feet.

My advice is not to get any more jabs!! REALLY. Just have a look at the various govt health websites for averse effects. Vaers, Yellow Car, Eurdra . Thousands hit with nerve conditions, blood clots etc. My neuropathy is bad and one bit of that experimental MRNA would take me out, for sure.

Hi everyone! Wanted to share an update on this.

Since about mid to early May, I've mostly gotten back to 'normal.' It's clear I had some sort of neurological injury (I suspect related to immuno-response from the vax or from COVID) and the healing process from that has just been lengthy. What I ultimately felt helped speed things along was getting into a gym routine that specifically worked my hands and wrists, especially the right one.

As recently as a few months ago, the coordination or sense of latency in my right hand was such I had trouble manipulating my phone without using my left hand to help. But after steady wrist and hand work, including 'nerve flossing' exercises and using a gripper my right hand is basically as good as my left again.

I still have a slight tremor on occasion in my right foot but am attempting to find the right exercise/PT approach to addressing it.

Hope this helps or encourages someone!

This thread is a bit old but I'm starting to think I'm in the same boat. I thought it was alcohol related but from what I've read I wasn't near enough to cause nerve damage. I started getting tingling and numbness on my left side a few months after my booster shot. While that is a long time after to get symptoms from what I've seen it's not impossible and I'm not the only one in that boat. The symptoms since then have been random numbness, tingling in my left leg, arm, and sometimes face, some weird heart rate spikes (possibly anxiety related honestly). I did get covid a month after which seemed to make symptoms worse. These days with cooler weather my main symptom is really cold/burning feet and occasionally hands. The tingling has died down and is much less intense and the numbness isn't as often. Bloodwork, MRI of brain, emg/ncs all clear. Haven't done a skin biopsy yet and with the symptoms not worsening and actually slightly improving I'm not in a hurry. Should things worsen I will but for now even though it's up and down day by day the overall trend is improving. I'm only 5 months in and I've seen stories of people having similar issues and their neurologists saying it's probably not nerve damage and just irritation or inflammation causing this that will resolve in a year or two which make sense.

Forgive the rambling but hoping a year in symptoms will resolve here as well. Thankfully I'm able to exercise and that usually helps reduce the symptoms quite a bit. If the dizziness is too much I can always stop but it really does make me feel better. I've had quite a few bad days during this and thankfully the days where my body feels like it's buzzing and I feel dizzy/nauseous are becoming less and less. Just sucks that any alcohol really brings out the burning feet for some time although that could be coincidental since it's off and on anyway. But if it's nerve irritation it would make sense that booze would irritate it further. Anyway I'm hopeful that a year or two in and it will heal. I've had a lot of the bad stuff ruled out so the health anxiety is for sure lessoning and not just compounding my problems.