Doc[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Dr. Smith;876419]But you think you may coincidentally be exhibiting/manifesting MS the day after PT?

While rational thinking would preclude this conclusion I don't think the medical community has any answers as to what and how PN or MS is triggered.

Numbness and tingling certainly suggests some type of nerve damage/involvement there does not seem to be a lot of definitive answers - thus the catch all "ideopathic"

I can rule out diabetes and vitamin deficiencies - both have been tested recently and several times.

While I have had extensive and multiple back conditions, they have never caused the numbness & tingling I am experiencing now. Only when I got the herniated disc at the L2/L3 area 8 years ago did I get numbness and occasional tingling in the left thigh that persists to this day - which the neurosurgeon said in January that he couldn't help - the nerves are too damaged over the 8 years. Nor could he help my other back conditions.

Back to the PT - I go in for PT on the neck and back and the next day the numbness and tingling go from 0-10. Again, while no one in the medical community will ever be able to explain why - that leaves me to ponder the reasons, including MS. It's like Indiana Jones's biggest fear always being snakes. That's how I've always felt about MS - it was always my biggest medical fear. And I've faced cancer, lost my husband to cancer (we had it at the same time) and intractable back pain, among other things.

When I get the MRI of the cervical area I am hoping that it can shed some light on this.

Thank you for your reply, insights, links and information. I really appreciate it.

I always watched Lost in Space. One of my favorite shows.

That's why a spinal problem (aside from affecting both hands and feet) sounds unlikely (not impossible). When paresthesia presents from a spinal problem, it is usually unilateral - one side or the other (or predominantly so), handedness notwithstanding. To appear bilaterally and both hands & feet suggests another cause, or as previously mentioned, multiple causes.

The MRI may shed some light on the hands, but if it's just cervical, not the feet. Another possibility for the hands is Thoracic Outlet Syndrome; there's a forum here for that too.
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum24.html

All I'm suggesting is that a more likely reason than MS is PN (albeit PN can be a symptom of MS), whatever the cause.

Another factor that causes me to question PT as the direct cause is that if inflammation/swelling or impingement had occured during that session, I would think the paresthesia would have manifested much sooner, from immediately to minutes to a couple hours - not 24 hours, but a neurologist would have more knowledge/experience about that. I DO have personal experience with that; I had a session that caused a migraine, but I had the migraine before I left the office. Other therapists have warned me about possible increases in pain/soreness, and I've had that too, but again, within a very short time, if not immediately.

You might try searching the archives here - go to the main page and use the search button along the top solid bar (that will catch ALL forums), or google: physical therapy causing paresthesia

Doc

When I woke up one day in June 2003, I had this very intense and unusual pain in my buttocks, unlike anything I had before. It was difficult to walk or sit. I went to a chiropractor who did some adjustments and it got worse. It was a few days later that I noticed some numbness and tingling in my left thigh than got worse and included pain. Then the whole thing just got too painful and I went to the ER and was admitted and they did an MRI and found the herniated disc. I remained in the hospital for a week, had epidural steroid injections and was on vicodin and neurontin, but what mostly helped was time. The nerve damage is permanent as is the numbness and tingling in thigh (but I have lived with this for 8 years - it is tolerable).

So, in this case - there was elapsed time from the herniation to the numbness/tingling.

The MRI is the next step, although before it is scheduled I am going to ask why it isn't being done to my lower back to address the foot issue.

Thanks, again, for your thoughtful response and links.

Let us know what the MRI turns up. Not just the technical jargon; we can try to interpret that, but it tends to lead to a lot more speculation, which can lead to unwarranted fear, and I don't know how helpful that is. IMO, it's more helpful when accompained by the interpretation and results of your follow-up, but that's your call.

Before seeing another chiropractor, please google: chiropractic stroke

Take care,

Doc

--that any impingment of the spinal cord itself, as opposed to one of the foraminal nerve roots, may cause symptoms at multiple levels, depending on which tract is being compressed (or stretched). Symptoms can occur from the approximate level of the injury to any level lower.

So it is possible that physical therapy, especially if done brusquely, could have caused something to be moved enough to impinge something and cause symptoms at multiple levels. I imagine, though, that an MRI of the neck would likely show such an impingment if the symptoms came on that acutely--it would be similar to symptoms caused by a sudden trauma.

Something tells me it won't be that simple. That might be something that could be addressed and possibly reversed or at least reduced. All I know is that things snowballed from just neck pain when I went to the chiropractor - when I left it was neck pain and sciatica, then at PT it was neck pain, sciatica, numbness & tingling and shoulder pain, then onto the physiatrist with all these same conditions plus occipital neuralgia (which the cortisone shot took away). So, instead of improving, I am getting worse.

Thanks for your reply.

Having read the script the doctor wrote for the MRI, he does not believe that the numbness and tingling in my hands and feet are related to my back issues nor resulting from them. He wants the cervical MRI to rule out (or in) demyelination (MS), HNP, etc.. He told me the test would be to "rule out the bad stuff". But it might also rule them in.

I am so done with chiropractors. I have gone to them off and on for 20 years and they have never helped and in some cases hurt. I think their ability to help is really limited to some very specific issues.

I always get copies of every medical test I have, including operative reports, etc.. Most people should do this. They would be surprised at what the doctor isn't telling them.

I am sure that sometime this week I will get a call scheduling an MRI (if my insurance company approves it) and then a follow up appt. will be scheduled to discuss it. He is going to run some nerve tests, too.

Whatever the test results show and if he is not optimistic about treating the symptoms, then I am going to move on to a neurologist at a teaching hospital in the city. I will ask my oncologist for a reference. He is very good at that.

Thanks again for all the helpful feedback.