Weird Dizziness, tingling fingertips, burning left cheek & feet

Dear all

Newly joined. Hope you are all doing well. I am 45 years male, who is so frustrated, annoyed with the issues, going through for almost last 2 years. I live in Ireland.

I KINDLY BEG YOU PLEASE READ THIS LONG POST AND NEED YOUR ADVISE AND SUPPORT. MY SINCERE APOLOGIES FOR THIS LONG POST BUT I want to give each and every detail so that you can conclude whether it is TMS or a real structural issue.

My main symptoms:

1. Dizziness - Feeling like, I am wobbly in my brain but for others, I walk and look normal. This is so frustrating. This dizziness has started since last month all of sudden. More or Less PPDS symptoms.
2. Left Cheek constant burning
3. Tingling and Burning sensation in my left hand
4. Left pinky and ring fingers' tingling sensation
5. Burning sensation in Left feet. Great Toe feels so hot from time to time.
6. Sharp shooting pains at random places in the body but this is not constantly happening. Very few times a week.


So, It all started in the month of April 2022.

I went to my GP to rule out my persistent abdominal pain and as part of the diagnosis, I have got my blood work done. After blood was drawn from my left hand, I have got a little bruise and it looked like bit of blood leak under the skin. My GP advised to put some ice compress but eventually the area got infected in couple of days and the funny bone area got so red. So, I was prescribed an antibiotic for 7 days. During this course, I started having pin and needles pain in my forearm and hand. I stopped the antibiotic immediately and went back to GP. By this time, Infection seemed gone and skin became normal. I was given some diclofenac ointment to apply for couple of days. Though, I used it, it didn't help anything. My pins and needles persisted and in a week, I had spread to right arm and both feet. In another week, my left cheek started burning pain, it is just constant burning sensation. All these symptoms had overridden my tummy pain. I totally stopped caring about it.

I was given Lyrica 50mg but that was giving me so drowsy feeling. Though, I used it for 10 days but symptoms stayed as they were. From this time, many trips to my GP, he was clueless.

He did go into my past few months to find if it is stress related. There was a tragedy happened in the month of February (2 months before all my issues started). One of my closest friends died of cardiac arrest and I was bit stressed out during this time for about 3 to 4 weeks. He said it might have triggered stress and advised me to use Calm app and hit the gym. I did but nothing helped. It was almost 3 months since it started. I was referred to couple of neurologists and had couple of MRIs but nothing sinister found except some mild disc bulging at C3-C4 and L4-L5. But neurologists ruled this out as my symptoms dont fit in. Had NCS (Nerve Conduction Studies) but it came negative. It has been almost 6 months but nothing was diagnosed. I started to cope with the pain and trying other alternatives like PT, Acupuncture but they didnt help, more over, messing things out.

I lost hopes and tried to move on the with the pain but it is taking a toll on my mental health. 24/7 constant burning in left cheek, and tingling and burning sensation in my hands and feet from time to time. At this stage, I decided to go to my home country (India), hoping to get some answers there since getting neurologist's appointments in Ireland is very hard and waiting time is in months. So, I went to India and met a neurologist and got CISS MRI. This MRI showed that an artery in my left side of brain was slightly touching the Trigeminal Nerve and neurologist concluded that it was the reason for my left cheek burning. But he was not sure why I was getting tingling and burning in my hands and feet having my normal NCS and other blood work. I was given Tegretol and some other anti-depressants. I came back to Ireland and I started using the meds for 6 months. That helped little bit for my left cheek burning for 3 months and came to square. I continued to finish the course, as it was at least helping to sleep well. After finishing my meds, tinnitus came out with severe ringing and dizziness. Here, I was like a mess. I got back to my neurologist in India over zoom and he gave me another 3 months course. Tinnitus gone once I resumed meds. So, it was Tegretol giving me withdrawal symptoms. So, I decided to reduce it slowly and managed to discontinue without any Tinnitus symptoms. But remaining symptoms persist. So, moved until last month and I couldnt tolerate the pain and mental stress due to frustrating pain. Again tried acupuncture and massage, meditation..nothing worked. Many sleepless nights..uff..From Last month, I started feeling dizziness, couple of times, I almost fell. I freaked out thinking what the hell is going on with me. I was so depressed with all the things. not able to concentrate on work, scared to go for a walk.

I am completely broke when my 8 year old daughter noticed things and asked me, "Pappa, are you going to die?" That's when, I could not control my tears. I told you my closest friend died, right...his daughter and my daughter are close friends in school, when her father died, we just said to both girls that her dad just fainted due to dizziness, nothing serious and he was in hospital, and he would get better. Eventually, they got to know that he died. That was the reason, she thought that I was going to die, coz I was getting dizziness. That was so hard part for me to convince her.

So I decided to fly to India. I booked my ticket that night and my dizziness was so bad that I had to book wheelchair during flight. That feeling of disability had hit me so hard that night, I hugged my wife and cried like a baby.

I have finally landed in India again and got hell lot of tests to figure out. EKG, NCS, full blood work, ultrasound, Somatic sensory tests, fabry disease test. All tests normal again except ultrasound test for ulnar nerve in my left hand. There is ulnar nerve entrapment in my left hand. Not sure whether this is due to my first blood work where I got infection. Since all other tests are normal, my neurologist said that it might be small fibre neuropathy for the symptoms in my feet. That didn't make any sense to me. He was not that interested to do skin biopsy to rule out small fibre neuropathy (SFN) since he believes that a negative skin biopsy cannot be used to rule SFN out.

So, Dr. Google gave me a link for an interview with Dr. Howard Schubinar in my search. The things, he spoke about chronic pains were like EUREKA moment for me. I started watching many videos, success stories, interviews about TMS and Dr. Sarno. I also ordered his two books and waiting for them to be delivered. I cant wait to read them. I found this forum two days ago and started reading many posts. My symptoms sounded like TMS. I got my hopes again. My life since childhood is bit touch since my mom died when I was 7 and many stressful events in life but I never thought that they are repressed in my unconscious. I still doubt it. I am not sure how this brain works.

This is my story of suffering. I am SO SO SO SORRY for this long post but I have no choice. I would be very grateful for your time and support, if you could respond.


Looking forward to hearing from you.

 

Welcome @krk_mindbody
Your symptoms surely sound like tms - you are in the right place.
You can be very aware of many stressors in your life, but there is a combination of how your mind and body currently react to things similar to things you experienced in your past, personality traits and how you subconsciously repress the emotions involved in all this eg. Rage and anger, frustration, resentment, regret, shame, grief. You will learn more about all that as you read your books- just keep your mind open, and recognize that subconscious means we actually don’t fully know what’s “down there” in that area of the mind and never fully will, and that’s ok!
Go slow with all this. You will learn with your mind if you plow through all the information but taking it all to heart is how you will become well.
Best wishes!

 

@Cactusflower, Thank you so much for your reply. I am trying to believe it is TMS, but part of my conscious brain telling me something structurally wrong and trying to pull me back to hole since this pain is so so real. I will try and keep trying.

Thank you and god bless you.

 

Thank you for your kind words. Sure, I will follow your advice.