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[alastrina]

I've talked about this some on the "What did you learn today thread," but here is the rest of the story.

Monday morning I woke up feeling crappy and restless then my right leg started spasming (spell check really doesn't like that word). I'm not talking about a muscle jerking under the skin.  It was a full leg, constant jerk for an hour. I felt like I had run a marathon afterwords.  It doesn't hurt as it is happening, just feels annoying and strange. It stopped in time for me to take a quick shower and get to work only a few minutes late.

I thought it would be over but my right arm start up with it on the drive into work.  It lasted on and off for 4 hours. At that point, CurrentSupervisor was freaking out.  She thought I should call 911. I had already made a doctor's appointment for Monday afternoon while she was in a meeting though. It sounded like she thought it was a seizure but I was fully conscious and coherent (well, as much as I normally am anyway) while it was happening.

So I went to my appointment and spend about 40 minutes with my general practitioner. She went over everything possible and decided that it was either an electrolyte deficiency or neurological. I was given a massive amount of tests to have blood drawn for and told to start back taking my calcium supplement twice a day.  I made an appointment with Quest to have blood drawn Wednesday (today). I love how I can schedule blood work online with them.

Well, Tuesday morning, I woke up after only a few hours feeling like I had before the spasms had started the morning before.  There was just some mild twitching but it lasted all day long.  I never did get back to sleep.  I got to catch up on Saturday's episode of Doctor Who, the pilot of Memphis Beat and The Glades, and an episode of The Penguins of Madagascar. With this still happening, I went ahead as a walk in at Quest to get blood drawn instead of waiting for today.

I should find out in the next couple of days if it's an electrolyte deficiency which I'm hoping for. If not, then I get to make an appointment with a neurologist.

I am feeling much better this morning.  I slept fairly well and have had only a few spasms so far.

I have been trying to avoid googling anything because I don't want to freak myself out after doing it for a moment on Monday.  I hadn't known that hypocalcemia was so bad.  I know that if it isn't an electrolyte deficiency then Parkinson's is a possibility.  My father was diagnosed with it in 2006 and I imagine it has a genetic component. His is well controlled with medication thankfully.

So right now I am worried, waiting for a phone call from the doctor, and trying not to imagine all the possibilities.

[lizzy]

I hope it's the electrolytes, Alastrina. Try to find something to occupy yourself with and stay away from Google--don't borrow trouble, as my sainted grandmother used to say.

Sending good health vibes your way!

[alastrina]

Thanks, Lizzy.  When it comes to health information, I've decided that Google is evil.

[collegekidsmom]

Don't make any determinations; just wait for the doctor and assume you're fine until that. There are too many things that can cause symptoms like that. You should have some answers soon enough. Best wishes and hope the wait if not too long.
I am a librarian, and before Google people used to ask me to show them books about their potential health conditions, and there were all of those equally bad symptoms books with pictures and all. Always hated to get people started in those books. Hours later, they sometimes would be sitting looking glassy eyed at some picture of the awful outcome that was never going to happen to them.

[hegemony]

I have been through something like this.  Here is the lowdown, which it took me two years to learn.

There are a lot of neurological conditions that cause something like this -- as well as a host of other possible causes.  The overwhelming majority of these things are benign.  But they will want to test for the ominous causes.  They'll want to rule them in or out, which is obviously prudent.  Many of the doctors have only heard of the ominous causes, because of the ways medicine is taught -- make sure it's nothing serious, treat everything that needs treatment.  So many of the more benign causes they will not mention and indeed may well not have heard of.

It turned out that my symptoms, which were not the same as yours but equally "severe" and alarming, had an innocuous cause that most of my doctors had never heard of.  The symptoms declined in frequency and went away after around two years, without any medical treatment.

Of course you shouldn't wait two years to see if yours go away.  But just be aware that the doctors will suspect many awful things, and test for all of them, and some of the doctors will jump to unpleasant conclusions, and they won't have heard of some possible benign causes. 

It's a while since I checked, but Massachusetts General Hospital used to have a wonderful group of web bulletin boards/forums for neurological conditions.  That's how I learned much of what I know about similar conditions, and how I found others with my same condition and first diagnosed myself (since confirmed by my physicians).  I'm coming up with this link:

http://neurosurgery.mgh.harvard.edu/WebForum.htm

[prytania3]

Thinking of you, Alastrina.

[buglet]

Chime to hegemony.  I had problems with spasms in my legs and feet during my early 20s, and the cause was neurological, though benign, and it went away after about three years.   I know it is worrisome and easy to jump to the worst conclusions, but most likely it is something relatively innocuous.  You really do have the odds on your side that it is nothing serious.

[alastrina]

Thanks, hegemony, prytania, and buglet. 

I've only had a few spasms today and been so busy I haven't had time to worry much <interthreaduality>. It helps that my doctor's office will call as soon as test results are reviewed instead of making me wait until an appointment.

[alastrina]

I mentioned getting my test results back on the venting thread.  My metabolic panel, glucose, calcium, and iron were all normal. I'm taking this to mean my cholesterol levers were back to normal too.  I tested positive for thyroid antibodies. My doctor says this means that I probably have Hashimoto's disease like my sister but she doesn't plan to put me on thyroid meds yet.  My B12 and folate levels were low and she wants to take care of that first.

She's called in prescriptions for folate at 1 microgram (I looked it up and it can't have been 1mg) and B12.  I have an appointment for next week to learn how to give myself injections. Since needles freak  me out, this should prove to be an interesting experience.

I'm assuming 4 days is enough of a break for a double post.

[msparticularity]

This all sounds promising, Alastrina--and somewhere (on another thread?) there was some discussion of a B-12 nasal spray, so maybe there's an alternative to the needle!

And on the double-post: I have found that this little part of the Fora is consistently a much kinder and gentler place than most. It was intended as such by those of us who were around to get it started, and that effect seems to have lingered. There's no telling what might happen if you quit using capital letters and punctuation, of course, but I think a double-post to update us on what you've learned (and on your own thread, yet!) is unlikely to attract anyone's ire.

[buglet]

This all sounds promising, Alastrina--and somewhere (on another thread?) there was some discussion of a B-12 nasal spray, so maybe there's an alternative to the needle!

And on the double-post: I have found that this little part of the Fora is consistently a much kinder and gentler place than most. It was intended as such by those of us who were around to get it started, and that effect seems to have lingered. There's no telling what might happen if you quit using capital letters and punctuation, of course, but I think a double-post to update us on what you've learned (and on your own thread, yet!) is unlikely to attract anyone's ire.

+1   Alastrina, I'm really glad the physicians are figuring out what is wrong, and I hope you feel better soon.

[gennimom]

Well, that isn't as bad as could be feared, and treatable too! I looked it up and it isn't unusual for someone with a B12 deficiency to develop Hashimoto's. I imagine that is why your doc is working on correcting that. Seems it would make it easier to treat the Hash.

[alastrina]

Well, that isn't as bad as could be feared, and treatable too! I looked it up and it isn't unusual for someone with a B12 deficiency to develop Hashimoto's. I imagine that is why your doc is working on correcting that. Seems it would make it easier to treat the Hash.

That's how I'm looking at it all.  Maybe the B12 will even make me feel more energetic.  I'm never going to lose this weight if I can't work up the energy to exercise.  I was tired enough last night that Warehouse 13 wasn't keeping me all that awake.

[biomancer]

Alastrina, yay for having a diagnosis and some treatments at hand.  I hope you're feeling better soon!

FWIW, I spent most of last week having fairly constant muscle spasms as a side effect of the narcotic painkillers post-surgery.  I don't envy anyone who has to deal with that on a lifelong or long-term basis.

[alastrina]

I went for my lesson in giving myself injections yesterday at the doctor's office.  It went well while I was there. I did ask the nurse if I would stop getting nauseated about the needle at some point and she assured me I would. If I posted 10 mL before I was wrong, it's 1 mL that I'm having to give myself.  They gave me a prescription for the smallest needles which helps somewhat. It will be 1 shot a day for 3 days and then 1 shot every 2 weeks.  I'll have the test re-done the day before the second 2 week shot.  If my levels are good, it's 1 shot a month for the foreseeable future.

I did the second shot this morning after my shower and things didn't go as smoothly as they did with the nurse watching.  I had the reaction to the needle I had been fearing before the lesson.  It's annoying because I wasn't expecting it but I got lightheaded, nauseated, and broke out in a cold sweat.  I managed to finish the injection before I had to put my head between my knees.  Once I caught my breath, I laid down for a little bit.

Tomorrow  morning, I'm planning on getting up earlier, and doing the shot while sitting on the bed so I can lie back down right afterwards.

I don't have the copy of the test results in front of me right now but my B12 level was 173 and the range listed for normal was 200-835.  Folate was right at the edge of the limit but I can't remember what it was exactly.