Chronic paon & numbness, help!

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20F, USA. Use marijuana pretty regularly along with occasional drinking. Relatively sedentary, I’m on my feet at work and walk around campus, recently started yoga. History of anorexia (recovered ~ 1.5 years), anxiety. I know I have mild scoliosis but not much else on it. I was born 3 months premature. Mother has multiple sclerosis. Heart disease on my fathers side. I apologize in advanced fir the long post and formatting.

I’ve always had some odd aches and pains I didn’t pay much attention to, they were just kind of annoying to start with. I’ve had pain coming and going in my left hip that feels almost like a pinch and I feel my hip pop as I step. But it went away for long enough periods of time where I wasn’t worried. My legs will occasionally feel heavy/numb when I stand up ~10 months. My left ankle is extremely weak, I sprained it in middle school and it healed but I’ve sprained it multiple times since then, some of the times not going to a doctor. I’ve had ~8 sprains in the past two years alone and that ankle will occasionally buckle while I’m walking.

All of my joints feel stiff, especially on my left side my knee, hip, and ankle will pop frequently. This has been going on about a year and has gotten worse with time. Stretching doesn’t seem to help.

And here’s where I really started to get concerned about my health. In late July of 2019 i woke up with tingling in my left hand and forearm. I initially ignored it and went to shower, assuming I just slept on it weird. The tingling got worse in the shower and wouldn’t go away. I ended up going to the student health center on campus where they did an EKG that came back normal and an x-ray of my neck. They still sent me to the ER to be sure it wasn’t a heart issue and there I was told it was just anxiety despite the tingling now going on for 11 hours and never having anxiety symptoms like that before.

I saw the orthopedist on campus to review my neck x-ray and he said my neck didn’t have a normal C curve and I was probably having some spasms. He also did a quick exam of my back/spine and noticed winging of my left shoulder blade. This prompted him to send me to my go for a neurological referral. My GP did blood work, all was normal except for low vitamin D which I got prescription tablets for, and referred me to a neurologist. The neurologist did a nerve conduction test in both arms and it came back normal. The tingling in my left hand persists on and off through out the day, but nowhere near as severe as the day it onset. For about three months now I have pain in my left hand when I’m using it and sometimes that pain radiates up my forearm as well as my neck and shoulder, especially when I’m driving or have to hold my arm out for mire than a couple minutes.

I have a pretty constant stiffness and ache in the left side of my neck and my left shoulder. My neck on that side often feels “caught” and cracks very frequently through out the day.

I’ve started experiencing tingling in my right hand on about three occasions this past month. My GP said the tingling was a “freak thing” despite it still going on and referred me to another orthopedist for what she believes to be carpal tunnel syndrome in my left hand, but I feel like it’s more than just that. I feel like my pain and concerns aren’t being taken seriously due to my anxiety and I don’t know what to do next. What could this be? Could it just be anxiety? Thanks

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  • Posted

    Don't let them use anxiety as a "go too" diagnosis. I'm disabled because I was not diagnosed nor treated for far too long because they used anxiety as a useful fall guy. It's resulted in my permanent disability.

    You need to push for a neck and thoracic MRI. Sounds like a squashed nerve in your neck. Don't take no for a answer and never let them use anxiety as an excuse for not doing tests. They have a duty of care to rule our ALL possible physical problems.

    Take Care

    Melissa

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