DeannaW

Interesting! I hadn't come across that in all my googling, but I guess it's a little comforting. It's weird, because it started in the left eyelid, then it kind of moved over to the right, so I'm not sure what happened. I've had tension type headaches too and have woken up with them for weeks too. Mine pretty much last all day though. There was one morning that I woke up without one, and it was a few days after I started taking Topamax and had just gotten a massage, and my therapist worked on the left side of my back for like 45 minutes solid, and she even said it was really, really tight. I feel like a lot of my headaches must be because of that, but you know. Why would it be that when it could be a brain tumor? lol I hope your MRI went well and you get the all clear soon. Please let me know how it turns out. That's very true, especially with the way they track your activity. I'll google something and I feel like it almost always lists things with MS or brain tumors in the results on the first page, even if what I'm searching is fairly innocent like feeling a tightness in my knee. That could be due to a hundred problems, but somehow, the MS results always make it into the top 5 links, even though MS is considered a rare disease.

I was always told either anxiety or acid reflux. Do you have stomach pain or indigestion too?

Well, I'm back to worrying if if I have a brain tumor or MS again! I really hate it when I google something (I know, I know) and there's a paragraph tacked on at the bottom that says something like, "Rarely, this symptom can be a sign of a central nervous system disorder, such as Parkinson's disease, MS, or a brain tumor," and you're sitting there like, "But I just wanted to know if my eyelids twitching could be caused by migraines..." What's the point of even putting that in the article? Is it a CYA thing? If it's rare for something to be a symptom of a disorder like that, why even mention it? So people like me freak out and keep googling? Ugh. And of COURSE the same disorders are almost always mentioned. It's always either MS or ALS or brain tumors. It's like they know me... Anyhoo, my left eyelid has been non-stop twitching for weeks, and now the right one has started joining in on the fun. I've gotten new glasses which I've tried to be diligent about wearing, and I've started using this heating thing on my eyes at night because I was told they're dry, and I've been using drops, but it's not helping much. I also went to a neuro-otoloist to get evaluated for possible vestibular disorders, because I started having these weird episodes where it felt like my brain was having issues processing information when I was in places that had a lot going on, like movie theaters, shopping malls, large stores, crowded places, etc. It wasn't necessarily a panic attack because I didn't feel like my heart rate was elevated or anything, but I would typically leave the room and find a place to sit until I left better. My doctor thought I was possibly having vestibular migraines, so he put me on a low dose of Topamax, and it hasn't really happened since I started taking it, except when I went to the movies on Christmas Eve. I do notice that my scalp is tender in a spot on the left side of my head, and when I get headaches, it tends to be on that side and radiates from that area. So my expert diagnosis is that I either have a tumor pressing on nerves and it's causing the twitching/cognitive issues/headaches or MS that's causing nerve problems. Saw a Rheumatologist, and the only thing that came back low was my Vitamin D. My regular GP said the same thing. I've also had a bad taste in my mouth for months which people tell me is because I have a chronic sinus infection that I'm eventually going to have to have surgery on, and also a polyp in my nose. But of course my mind files this under "reasons I have a brain tumor." It just sucks when you have several things going on that could be explained by 4 different things or one really horrible thing. :-/ I just feel like, taken as a whole, my list of symptoms doesn't really look good on paper... Happy New Year, eh?

So I know that tingling/numb/burning skin is one of the symptoms of anxiety. I've been going through an extremely stressful time at work for the past 2 months and have been feeling pretty crappy as a result. For the last week especially, I've been having a return of symptoms I once had, and I'm starting to worry it's something like Fibromyalgia or small fiber neuropathy or other autoimmune illnesses. Last week, I woke up and felt like every inch of my skin was bruised. This went on for like two days. It also happened coincide with what was a very long, stressful day at work. It went away after a couple of days, but ever since then, my skin feels like it's sunburned, especially on my legs above the knee and around my collarbone. I'm pretty sure I didn't have a fever, and I felt ok otherwise, besides feeling really weak in the legs, which I still have. But for people who've had burning skin as a result of anxiety, how long did it take for it to go away? And did it persist all day like mine, or did it come and go? Mine seems to stick around in the same place, although it doesn't seem to be on my arms anymore. Yesterday it seemed like my forearms had burning patches.

Thank you, Silas! Lots of good info here! What kind of pulsating one do you have? I use the NeilMed squirt bottle right now with just the saline solution. The weird thing is that all of the discharge that comes out right now IS clear. Apparently the problem is that there's something that's basically solid in one of the passageways in my nose and it's blocking the actual infection from draining. I keep waiting for more stuff to start coming out, but just clear stuff so far. :-P I'd actually love to see a little brownish green, because maybe that would mean it's working. Lol Is the solution you use painful at all? I feel like peroxide would sting a bit, but I guess it's pretty diluted.

Thanks, Alexandra_eu! I haven't had the face pressure in a while, but I think my body just decided I wasn't going to do anything about it, so it eventually stopped hurting, even though the infection was still there. Still waiting for this thing to go away. Ugh.

I get headaches quite a bit due to either sinus problems or neck problems. Believe me, I've been down the brain tumor road and had an MRI which came back clean. Eventually they kind of go away for a while. Have you considered massage therapy? You could have all kinds of tension in your neck and back that could be causing them. I know I did.

So due to a very bad taste in my mouth for the last 2 months almost, I had a CT scan of my sinuses done, and I was told that basically my face is full of mucus. :-| Apparently one of my sinuses is unaffected, but the ones in my cheeks (especially my right one) is infected and full of crap, and there are these little tunnels on the left and right of my nose which are supposed to filter mucus out of your nose, and the left one is partially blocked, and the right one is completely blocked. I've been put on heavy duty antibiotics for the next three weeks plus a steroid to try to bring down the inflammation enough so that the sinus rinses that I'm doing might actually loosen the blockages and my sinuses can finally drain. Apparently I've had this infection for a very long time, though I'm not sure how long that actually is. I remember having issues last year too, so maybe that long? Does anyone else have sinus problems like this? I'm worried this treatment isn't going to work, then I'm going to have to have surgery, which I'm hoping to avoid. I also seem to have a whole slew of other symptoms like body and joint aches, almost like I had the flu but didn't have a fever. It actually happened right before I saw my first doctor who attributed the bad taste in my mouth to acid reflux a few weeks before I saw my allergist, who correctly diagnosed me. But it's like something new hurts every day. Plus my mouth feels dry and my tongue looked white there for a bit. It's better now, but I still feel like the dryness is persisting. The glands on the sides of my neck feel tender, even if they don't look swollen. Everything from lymphoma to every autoimmune disease imaginable has been running though my head, particularly RA or Sjogrens Syndrome, which I've been tested for and came back negative. Dr google (I know, I know lol) tells me that even if you're negative on blood work though, you could still have those. Obviously things like my antihistamines can cause dryness, but I'm still worried it's something worse, especially when I read that people with Sjogrens very often have chronic sinusitis, and Sjogrens very often accompanies things like RA. I got a massage earlier this week, and she used what I would consider to be a medium pressure, which she normally does, and the next two days, I felt like everything was hurting, which I've never experienced before. It just seems like a lot of stuff is going on, and I'd love to believe it's the sinus infection, but my mind tends to run away with me.

Man I was about to make a new post about this very thing. It's like every day I wake up with something new hurting. I'll get over one thing and the immediately replace it with another. It's like something new hurts or bothers me every day. Over the past 2 months or so alone, I've thought I had, not necessarily in this order: MS, ALS, kidney disease/failure, sjogren's syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, scleroderma, congestive heart failure or some other heart problem, brain tumor, diabetes, fibromyalgia, bulging discs, lymphoma, sinus infection (which I actually DO have, CT scan proven) and other unspecified cancer due to feeling like total crap but not being able to figure out why. I ALSO had an arm/muscle weakness thing, which getting a massage definitely helped, but today it's back and brought its friends Hip Pain and Ankle Pain along with it. I've been diagnosed as having low vitamin D, so the body aches could very well be because of that, but my mind immediately goes to something awful. It's a real pain. lol

Totally had this before. Went away pretty quickly but it was probably from weird neck positioning or something!

Pantoprazole is what my doctor gave me too! I don't think it's worked though. I wish a Tums would improve the bad taste in my mouth though. It's really starting to do a number on my peace of mind. :-\ Just one more thing that's apparently made itself at home and is going to stick around indefinitely. lol Do you know if you can have sinusitis and not have much come out of the nasal rinse? Maybe I'm just not doing it right, but I feel like more should be coming out, if that's what the problem was? IDK. I was very stuffy this morning, and my first deep breath in the morning usually feels like it's filled with congestion, then it goes away, so maybe that is what it is. My CT scan is Friday, so we'll see!

OH man, do I ever do this. For me, it seems like the universe is playing tricks on me or testing me sometimes. Currently my brain tumor fears are back, and it's almost like just when I think I've got it mostly under control and have convinced myself my issues are because of something else, I'll get a People alert on my phone that someone in the media was just diagnosed with a brain tumor at the same time as her mother is battling brain cancer, so of course it sort of triggers me to start thinking about it again. :-P I hear you about the ALS thing too, because I've had bouts with that before, and back when everyone was doing the Ice Bucket Challenge, which I thought was really great of people to do, I had to be really careful about going on Facebook or seeing it in the media, because it really started to trigger me. I tend to think I inherit people's illnesses sometimes. If someone talks about something they have, I start worrying whether or not I have it too. I have to be really careful about what I take in and remind myself not to google that weird thing someone was talking about that I've never heard of before. lol

I definitely do think I have sinus issues, but what worries me is that I feel like I'm breathing OK now and I'm not really having to blow my nose except when I do the rinse, so do I really still have sinusitis? I feel asymptomatic, but I know mucus can hide in all kinds of places in the head, so maybe I still have it. The first few times I did the rinse, not a lot seemed to come out, but last night when I did it, there was definitely quite a bit of (sorry for this) yellow/green-hued stuff, so maybe I do still have one. But why didn't the antibiotic clear it up, if that was the case? My allergist did mention I could possibly have a septum that's deviated more to one side than the other though. Yeah, I'm starting to wonder if this is GERD at all, really. I wasn't really having any reflux pain or heartburn when I saw the first doctor, but I guess it could be silent reflux. I've definitely had it in the past though. Never had the bad taste along with it though! At least not for this long. :-/ She gave me a prescription PPI, but I ran out of that so switched over to Prilosec. My diet is pretty awful for GERD though, so if it is that, I'm probably gonna have to cut out a lot of things I like. lol

So I've had a very bad taste in my mouth persistently for over a month now, and my mouth feels dry and my tongue looks white. One doctor gave me a PPI thinking it was GERD, so I took it for three weeks and it didn't help. My allergist thought it was sinusitis since I'd been having trouble smelling and tasting things, and I sounded really congested when I saw her and she said I had a lot of post nasal drip, so her treatment was to give me penicillin, Flonase, and a nasal rinse kit. Antibiotic is gone, and it's still there. Been using the Flonase since I saw her, but it hasn't helped. Got up the courage to do the nasal rinse and have done it maybe 5 or 6 times, but it hasn't helped the taste, although I do feel like it's helping my breathing and ability to taste food, so there's that at least. But now, I'm getting more symptoms like nausea, dizziness, stomach cramps, and a little diarrhea. I started taking Prilosec a few days ago, thinking maybe I had GERD, and it was causing my sinus issues, so I thought maybe doing both things together would help. It really hasn't helped much though. Anyone ever experience this? I really don't think this is anxiety related, and I'm starting to worry I have Sjogren's syndrome or a brain tumor, and I really don't feel like going down that road again. :-/ Supposed to get a CT scan of my sinuses next week, but I'm getting worried this is never going to go away. :-(

No new drinks that I know of! My diet hasn't really changed either, but there have definitely been times where I knew I was having indigestion, so acid reflux makes sense. I just wonder why the PPI hasn't really helped much. I also seem to have pretty persistent nasal issues which I've read can cause it too, so maybe it's that and not the reflux? I definitely have the bad taste whether I'm thinking about it or not, though I may be making it worse by the constant swallowing I'm doing trying to get rid of it. Blech. I really do think this might be related to my nose. But I really don't feel like making yet ANOTHER doctor appointment about it. Could I have just one month this year where I don't go to the doctor? lol

So over the past several weeks, my HA really ramped up with me thinking I had ALS or MS again, because I felt very weak and there was something funky going on with my left arm, which made it feel weaker than my right. So I think I've determined that it's a muscle thing in the arm, because it started feeling better and I went and got a massage, and my massage therapist was poking at my arm and my neck, and she said, "Uhhhhh, does this hurt you?" And I said it wasn't really hurting but it was probably tense, and she said I had a huge knot in the muscle in my back/shoulder and basically my whole left side was messed up, and she said, "Have you been having issues with your arm?" and I said YES, it actually HAD been feeling really weak lately, and long story short, I think she basically fixed my arm, which was great. And I got suckered into a monthly plan at Massage Envy, but truth be told, I probably could use the stress relief. lol But of course, it always feels like one thing after the other with me. I've had a really bad, sometimes metallic, sometimes sour taste in my mouth for the last month basically. Specifically on the back of my tongue. My doctor thinks it's acid reflux, so I've been taking a PPI for the last several weeks, and it hasn't really done much good. I would be worrying about my kidneys right about now, but I had an ultrasound on my kidneys last week, and it was fine, so it doesn't appear to be that. I would also be worrying about Sjogrens or something like that, but I just had all the autoimmune tests, and those were normal. Anyone else have this? It's really foul! I do have stomach acid issues and have had acid reflux in the past, but shouldn't the PPI be helping more than this if it were acid reflux?

I'm having this same problem right now, and it majorly triggered my ALS/MS fear. My whole body was feeling kinda weak and floppy anyway, but I woke up with my left arm flung over my head one morning and the whole shoulder was asleep. Since then, my shoulder feels weird and my left arm feels weak. I'm pretty sure my grip is OK and I can lift weights fine, but I was playing a video game a few minutes ago and had to stop, because my wrist felt very cold and like it was falling asleep, and my ring finger and pinky were tingling. Not sure what's going on, as I don't really have any pain, so it's freaking me out. :-/ Can you have a pinched nerve without pain? The thing you said about testing is very true. I've been testing constantly over the last week or so, and I'm sure it's not helping.

Could be a vestibular disorder like BPPV, which involves the crystals in your ears shifting into the wrong place, which is what MARC mentioned! It's harmless, but it can make you feel like you're on a boat that's moving! I have it, and it's annoying sometimes, but I barely notice it most of the time. My ears ring too. It's been going on for so long that I don't remember ever not having it, to the point where I didn't realize it wasn't normal until about 7 or 8 years ago. My hearing is fine though, and last time I had an MRI, no brain tumor. The ringing can happen for benign reasons like anxiety or TMJ.

Thanks, philb, I appreciate it! Went to see my therapist last night, and filled her in on what was going on, and she did her best to convince me I didn't have anything horrible wrong with me. Her motto is that if you have something serious like that, it makes itself known pretty loudly, which I agree with for the most part, but there's always part of me that has doubts. She suggested doing more aerobic exercises to burn off the stress, although she was really happy I started going to the gym again. Which is where I just came from, and I started worrying again, because my left shoulder/arm still feels kinda shaky? The rest of me is feeling a little better, but that one shoulder is still weird. I could get through all the training tonight, but it almost feels like something is out of place or something, and it's making my shoulder muscle shake. Trying not to freak out about it, but I don't feel any pain or twitching or anything, and I know we always emphasize around here that twitching with ALS comes after muscle loss, so I almost wish I had some twitching instead of just weakness. :-/ I did find myself sleeping on my back with my arm thrown over my head a few days ago, and when I woke up, my entire shoulder was asleep and I had to pump it up and down a few times before it woke back up, but it's been feeling weird ever since. Not painful, not to the point where I can't do my normal things with it or even lift weighs, but it does kind of worry me.

Headspace is the one I use too! I really like that one. Also scheduled an appointment to see my therapist tomorrow. Today my left hand feels stiff and clumsy to type with so I should probably get this under control sooner rather than later.

Yeah, I think I'm going to have to start doing meditation again. I used to do it for ten minutes at least once a day, but I got out of doing it when I started to feel better, so it might be time to get back into it. It's interesting, because I went to the gym yesterday, and while I was definitely tired in terms of muscles, I was able to get through the workout fine and felt like I was doing better yesterday. Fast forward to today, particularly this evening, when I had to leave a movie in the movie theater after about half an hour, because I started quietly panicking that I couldn't move my legs anymore. I could move them, of course, but I just started irrationally panicking that I wouldn't be able to, then I started testing if I could, then I had to get up and leave, because I was driving myself nuts. It's not the first time it's happened when I've been in a movie theater either. It's weird, because I love going to the movies, but I wonder if it's like sensory overload or something, and it's too overwhelming, so it sets off the anxiety? It's weird, and I definitely feel more jello-like tonight than I did yesterday. One step forward, two steps back, right? :-/

I discovered this on the backs of my arms a few weeks ago! I think it's called keratosis pilaris. Basically built up keratin that blocks your hair follicles. Mine are small and white, and I mistook them for whiteheads initially, but it's not acne. I think you can use coconut oil to help get rid of them?

Yeah, from what my neurologist told me way back when, your eyes and ears are really connected when it comes to balance, so it wouldn't surprise me if I had a bit of that going on as well. Even when my BPPV isn't acting up, I still feel like the ground is swaying just a little bit, but it's been going on since I was in like high school, so I'm just used to it now. Brains are funny things.

I have a vestibular disorder too! Mine is BPPV, which is harmless but annoying when it flares up. I have to be really careful about the way I lie down because if I'm not, the whole room spins. Last time I had it, it lasted for like 3 or 4 weeks. :-P

Jello is right. Even when I shower and dry my hair, my arms feel heavy. When I find myself getting tired doing things I did easily a week ago, I start worrying that it's not going to go away and this is the beginning of some awful illness. I read other people's experiences with MS, and they say theirs started out with the same things I'm feeling. It's so hard to believe it's just anxiety sometimes, and I fear I'm going to be one of those cases where doctors kept telling me it was all in my head, and it turns out there really was something wrong the whole time.