posted
For years I have endured, on a daily basis, high frequency buzzing sensations that mainly reside in the legs.
Main features:
* fine continuous vibrations that markedly intensify in the late evenings
* significant increase when body warms up under bed covers that subsequently lasts for hours, delaying sleep. Vibrations may extend into the mid-section.
* associated muscle twitching, and sensation of insects crawling on skin
* zapping sensations, i.e., small point sources of momentary high vibration
* periodic burning
These symptoms are likely related to Lyme, however, side-effects from drugs could factor in. A possible example could be the benzodiazepine class of drugs:
Thanks for any input
Posts: 59 | From Canada | Registered: Mar 2006
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savebabe
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9847
posted
I have the same sensations in my feet that creep up my legs especially at night. I have yet to figure out what is causing this. Recently I have started bart treatment which has helped a little, but that burning sensation is still there everynight. It is interesting that drugs such as xanax can cause this sensation. I always thought this type of medication would calm the nerves. As of now, my llmd has yet to figure out what is actually causing this, but it is one of my last and hardest symptoms to kick. Any other thought anyone?
Posts: 1603 | From ny | Registered: Aug 2006
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posted
I have this as well, and hate it! It doesn't sound like a horrible symptom but it's disturbing as hell!
I've noticed I do much better wearing shorts than jeans. Anything that's constantly touching the skin at and below my shins causes this sensation to feel worse.
Late night pc use has been the worst for this (no idea why), and late night warm showers have provided some relief.
Thanks for the name of the supplement. I'll mention it to my llmd next time.
Posts: 173 | From Lakeland, FL 33813 | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
I too get this from time to time. I notice that it is mostly when I look down, there is a name for it...but I can't remember.
Posts: 27 | From Las Vegas | Registered: Mar 2007
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Because complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is commonly misunderstood by both physicians and patients, patients may be misdiagnosed and may not receive appropriate treatment.
June 2006, Vol. XXIII, No. 7
Of all the common pain syndromes, perhaps none is so misunderstood by both physicians and patients as complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS).
Types I and II of CRPS are the current names for what were previously called reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD) and causalgia, respectively.
Because of limited knowledge about these disorders, patients who suffer what is frequently very severe pain often have their condition misdiagnosed and do not receive appropriate treatment.
Although many physicians are still relatively unfamiliar with these disorders, the first in-depth description was made over 140 years ago by the physician often considered the father of American neurology, S. Weir Mitchell, and his colleagues, based on their observations of soldiers wounded in the Civil War.
They noted that some soldiers who were wounded in the hand or foot developed a burning pain that was exacerbated by touching the affected body part.
This syndrome was named causalgia, Greek for ``burning pain.'' Multiple similar conditions were described over the years and received a variety of names, including post-traumatic injuries, algodystrophy, and Sudeck atrophy.
In 1953, John Bonica, one of the pioneers in the study of pain, suggested that these disorders be subsumed under ``reflex sympathetic dystrophy.'' However, the validity of this term has been questioned frequently.
One of the major problems encountered in its use is the uncertainty of the role of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) in this disorder. The fact that there is a great deal of variability in response to sympathetic blocks suggests that in many patients, the pain is not due to a disorder of the SNS.
Because of this and the general confusion over RSD and causalgia, the International Association for the Study of Pain renamed these syndromes in its classification of chronic pain(1).
RSD became CRPS type I and causalgia became CRPS type II. The diagnostic criteria for CRPS are shown in the Table (see June 2006 Psychiatric Times, page 9). The difference between types I and II is that in the latter, there is evidence of a definable nerve lesion.
Two terms used to describe the pain, allodynia and hyperalgesia, are notable in the criteria for both types of CRPS. Allodynia is pain due to a stimulus that is not usually painful and is commonly the most dramatic presenting symptom of these disorders.
Patients with this problem may wear loose-fitting clothing to limit the amount of contact between it and the skin in the affected area. In more severe cases, patients may complain that even having bedsheets touching the body part can cause severe pain.
In hyperalgesia, a normally painful stimulus causes more discomfort than expected. Both allodynia and hyperalgesia are covered by the more general term ``hyperesthesia,'' an increased sensitivity to stimulation.
The frequency of occurrence of CRPS is unclear. A recent study of patients with fractures of the distal radius reported that CRPS type I developed in 18%(2).
Another study of 162 soldiers wounded in the Iraqi war who were seen in pain clinics reported that 4.3% suffered CRPS type II and 1.9%, CRPS type I(3).
Based on reports that patients with CRPS often see a number of physicians before their condition is diagnosed correctly, it appears that many cases are never diagnosed.
Type I may especially go unrecognized because of the absence of an identifiable peripheral nerve injury and the usual relationship of the disorder to some form of trauma, ranging from an accident-induced injury to surgery or diseases that can cause pain, including myocardial infarction and post-herpetic neuralgia.
Since pain is an expected sequela of these events, the possibility of CRPS may not be considered by health care providers for lengthy periods.
Unfortunately, because many patients with CRPS appear ``normal'' and because pain such as allodynia seems so bizarre and so foreign to most laypeople and even some health care professionals, patients may be mistakenly thought to be either exaggerating their pain for secondary gain or even malingering.
One of the saddest things is that these patients may find their pain discounted by so many others and may be stigmatized as falsifying their discomfort.
The cause of CRPS remains a mystery. A variety of physiologic mechanisms have been proposed. The classic view that the pain is due to hyperactivity of the SNS has been discounted, although the SNS appears to be involved in some of the symptoms, most notably the edema, blood flow, and sudomotor changes.
Currently, CRPS is believed to be due to a combination of peripheral and central factors(4). Among the peripheral mechanisms that have been proposed are an inflammatory process, peripheral sensitization, and changes in sodium channels.
These processes may result in central changes, including an exaggerated response to the peripheral input and a reduction of descending inhibitory pathways.
Because the severity of the original trauma does not appear to be correlated with these disorders, the significance of psychological factors and the possibility that they may play an important role--if not the major role--in the development of the pain have often been the focus of attention.
Despite this speculation, there have never been consistent findings of a correlation between preexisting mental disorders and the development of CRPS.
However, it has been proposed that there may be changes in the brain, most notably in the primary sensory cortex, secondary to CRPS, and that these can lead to a distorted body image(5,6).
What role these changes may play in the pain and other symptoms of CRPS is still the subject of speculation. In my next column, I will address the diagnostic workup and treatment of CRPS.
Dr King is clinical professor of psychiatry at the New York University School of Medicine.
References
1. Merskey H, Bogduk N, eds.Classification of Chronic Pain: Descriptions of Chronic Pain Syndromes and Definitions of Pain Terms. 2nd ed. Seattle: IASP Press; 1994.
2. Puchalski P, Zyluk A. Complex regional pain syndrome type 1 after fractures of the distal radius: a prospective study of the role of psychological factors. J Hand Surg (Br). 2005;30:574-580.
3. Cohen SP, Griffith S, Larkin TM, et al. Presentation, diagnoses, mechanisms of injury, and treatment of soldiers injured in Operation Iraqi Freedom: an epidemiological study conducted At two military pain management centers. Anesth Analg. 2005; 101:1098-1103.
4. McBride A, Atkins R. Complex regional pain syndrome. Curr Orthop. 2005;19:155-165.
5. Moseley GL. Distorted body image in complex regional pain syndrome. Neurology. 2005;65:773.
6. Birklein F, Rowbotham MC. Does pain change the brain? Neurology. 2005;65:666-667.
Posts: 59 | From Canada | Registered: Mar 2006
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posted
I get the same thing! Mine is mostly my left foot, and most recently my head. It's extremely disturbing!
Posts: 64 | From PA | Registered: Mar 2007
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savebabe
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9847
posted
Oh Yes, burning of the scalp. I hate that!
Posts: 1603 | From ny | Registered: Aug 2006
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Areneli
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posted
I have a hypothesis that Bb particularly likes human dorsal ganglia that is a sensory distribution center at the level of spinal cord. In fact there was once a paper on primates that showed how much Bb likes these ganglia.
If bugs mess there you could have all sort of symptoms: pin and needles, pain or vibration.
I also have the symptom of vibs in legs; less than in the past but it is still there.
For treatment you need to kill the bugs within ganglia with antibiotics and wait for recovery of nervous system.
Posts: 1538 | From Planet Earth | Registered: Jan 2005
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posted
Imo, You have classic neuro lyme symptoms. I also have burning skin & "creepy/crawlies" & muscle twitches. Also floaters in visual field. Abx will make it better. But takes time to work.
Lot of uncertainty whether the lyme spirocheete has infected the brain, thus causing these neuro symptoms, or if the spirocheete has disturbed the peripheral nerves (not brain), thus causing these symptoms.
Either way, abx will work, but takes quite awhile to identify right abx & have them work. Good Luck.
Posts: 213 | From ohio | Registered: Jul 2006
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posted
This was my first "what the heck is this" symptom that sent me in search of answers. Five years later, I was diagnosed with LD
Treatment has helped, but every time I have to go off meds for one reason or another, it comes back with a vengeance. Like right now, when it hurts to sit and hurts to lie down. I told my hubby I was going to cut off that leg at the hip last night so I could get some sleep!
It is neuropathy.
-------------------- "Few of us can do great things, but all of us can do small things with great love". Mother Theresa
hshbmom
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9478
posted
No.Lyme, I have had a buzzing, vibrating sesation in my calf. It felt like a tube the size of a pencil was stuck in my leg and it would buzz or vibrate a few times in a row and last for a few seconds each time.
It was very stange and only happened a few times.
Posts: 1672 | From AL/WV/OH | Registered: Jun 2006
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CaliforniaLyme
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 7136
By MICHELE NEWBANKS, Tribune News Editor It's been almost a year since Carol Cline first told News-Tribune readers her story about her struggle Lyme disease - and she's still getting calls from people who want more information.
"They don't always remember my name, but they remember the article and the disease," she said. "I talk to them about their symptoms and in some cases, they've been diagnosed with other diseases. I give them names and numbers of various Lyme specialists."
Cline, who works as a receptionist at the Mineral County Board of Education, is currently taking in excess of 30 pills a day to battle symptoms of the disease, which is an infectious, immune mediated multi-symptom disease. According to Lyme disease Web sites, the bacteria which causes Lyme is transmitted to humans by the bite of a deer tick.
Cline first started seeing symptoms in May 2002. After visits to the emergency room and 14 different doctors, she finally found a neuromuscular forum online which listed a Lyme disease Web site which listed her symptoms.
After visiting a Lyme specialist in Washington, D.C., she started on antibiotics in February 2004. She has been on the protocol of more than 30 pills a day since May.
"I'm currently on 1,000 mg of Ceftin and 200 mg. of minocycline, which are antibiotics," she said. "I have a B12 shot once a week and four nystatin tablets (an anti-fungal) every day. There are also numerous vitamins and supplements."
She said treating the disease is expensive, as the Rocephin IV antibiotic is $200 a day.
"That's just for the antibiotic. That didn't include the PICC (peripherally inserted central catheter) line in my bicep and I had to have a nurse visit once a week to change the PICC line dressing."
She's also had more than 200 bicillin shots, which are approximately $50 each.
"That's $10,000 right there in bicillin," she said.
The main symptoms she's still experiencing are her eyes are still sensitive to bright light and she still has a buzzing in her legs and feet.
"I'm sensitive to bright sun, even bright overcast," she explained. "It (Lyme disease) is particularly difficult to eradicate from the eyes because it's difficult for the antibiotics to cross the blood-brain area."
She said the buzzing runs along the nerve pathways in her legs and feet, although when she keeps busy, she doesn't notice it as much.
"It's hard to believe after all the antibiotics that I'm still having active symptoms of Lyme," she said.
Other than the sensitivity to light and the buzzing in her legs, Cline feels well. She's even joined a gym in January.
There is currently no cure for Lyme disease and the disease can become resistant to medications.
"After the antibiotics stop and you think you're cured, you can relapse days, weeks, months or years afterward," Cline said. "It is much harder to treat the second time around because it (the Lyme disease) blends in and camouflages itself in the body."
She said every so often she has to switch antibiotics and Lyme can go into cyst form, which makes it virtually impenetrable.
Cline's doctor, who now has an office in Towson, Md., has a master's degree in public health and nutrition, which is why most of her pills are vitamins and supplements, she said.
"He advocates exercise also because it helps to strengthen the immune system. He said you can't just lay on the couch and let the antibiotics work," she added.
Since she was diagnosed with Lyme, Cline has become somewhat of an expert on the disease.
"Before I got stricken with it, I knew a little about it," she said. "I just thought it's a bug bite. You take antibiotics for three or four weeks and that's it. That's what I thought."
She noted there are a few very good Web sites where you can find more information on Lyme disease, including www.lymenet.org, which has a very active discussion forum, and www.ilads.org. Many Lyme Web sites list the many symptoms, including those Cline had, which are fever, fatigue, swollen glands, pulse skips, twitching of the face or other muscles, headache and loss of muscle tone.
Cline said if you have many of the symptoms and feel you might have Lyme disease, finding a specialist is essential.
"You can have a flaming, raging case of Lyme disease and still have a negative test result," she said. "If you feel you have Lyme disease, you have to find a Lyme specialist because it is ultimately a clinical diagnosis."
You can contact Cline at [email protected] to find out more information on Lyme disease or her Lyme specialist.
-------------------- There is no wealth but life. -John Ruskin
All truth goes through 3 stages: first it is ridiculed: then it is violently opposed: finally it is accepted as self evident. - Schopenhauer Posts: 5639 | From Aptos CA USA | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
I have the sensation of crawling bugs on my legs and arms at night sometime. You have to get up and walk to make it stop. It is restless leg syndome. Anemia can cause it. I take Mirapex for it.
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