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Hi Everyone - kind of an update from me, plus questions about diminished reflex. I've stopped coming here and stopped googling, but I'm back in a bad spot. Taking Cymbalta 60mg a day still.

I'm 2.5 years into twitching now. Since about August last year, my twitching changed its pattern/type, from the occasional here and there, to everywhere, the ones I can definitely feel and the very fine "can't feel, but can see (barely)" twitching.

I've had positive ANAs, but low positive. I've had abnormal EMGs of my left arm and right leg/shin. My left arm also had clinical weakness (and lots of pain), but is back to normal now (1 year later - no one knows what happened). My most recent EMG, right leg/shin area, had a positive something shown on the EMG, but the technicians and doctor dismissed it as a false positive, since my leg strength was normal and no other findings, not even any of my twitches, were seen on the EMG.

Since May 2014, I've had a HE*L of a time with my right hand. At first, a pinch gripping issue and atrophy along my anatomical snuff box and a little inside the thumb/index finger webbing. I've had some pain in my thumb muscle, buzzing, twitching and they found a ganglion cyst. I decided to have it removed 1 year ago - Jan 2015. Since then, my hand has gotten worse, now my pinky and ring finger are off and I am having trouble gripping, writing, typing. I can't hold anything in my hand for long (hair dryer, vacuum cleaner, etc) without it getting really tired and painful/sore/cramping. I have to stop several times. But my pinky and ring finger also have felt freezing cold at times.

Basically, now, I have these problems in my hand, it seems like it's just getting worse. My upper arm twitches more than my hand/lower arm. I was at the orthopedic yesterday (first time in months) and he found that my brachial-something reflex has diminished. My left arm was fine, not hyperactive, just normal. My right side barely reacted. He said, "Ok, well, this is getting serious now" and wants me to go to the neuro.

The hand trouble, the twitching and this reflex change have me, once again, worried way beyond the limits again.

I am trying not to google this, but what I've read so far is that lower motor neuron "lesion" can cause diminished reflexes, and that was enough to send me bonkers.

I heard how patients with MND actually have hyperactive reflexes due to the lesions of the upper motor neurons. So can it be that my diminished reflex is a positive thing?

PS, I had 2 brain MRIs, including one recently, and they were normal. I had a MRI of my cervical spine in March 2015, which said I had 2 herniations at C5/C6 and C6/C7, and it explained how deep things were, very descriptive, but it also said there was no compression happening. I DO have neck pain, which is why I went to the orthopedic, for some shots.

lower motor lesion just means you have ANY condition related to local denervation at any level - from the nerve root at spine due to compression and down the whole axon, again mostly due to trauma or other damage.

I could not hold things like hair dryer longer than for several minutes without pain and soreness since I was a child. Even now, when I an cleaning my teeth every day I have pain after two minutes necessary to do this simple operation. As for me this is not a symptome of something sisnister.

As for you brachial reflex diminished, this could be that ongoing process you have for several years already (probably autoimmune) - but considering the length of the condition, UMN signs (increased reflexes and subsequent paralysis with tonic contracture) should be already visible, if that would be a typical ALS case.

Sometimes by the way reflex is just hard to evoke. Go to neuro, see if it would be low again.

Thanks Yulia -

What was/is the reason for you not being able to hold things for long? For me, this has been a gradual change over the past few months, but always progressing.

The orthopedic doctor repeated my reflexes a few times to show not just me, but my mother and husband who were in the room as well. The left barely moved each time. I will make a neuro appt as the ortho advised.

However, something else came about. My husband rubbed cream on my upper, right neck/back area and I found that whole area in the center of my vertebrae and off to the right (some to the left) is numb. Not totally, but major sensory loss. It feels totally different there than on any other part of my neck or back. I googled that and it said this is related to herniations/injury and somewhere else it said a sign of something serious like MS, but either way, it's a significant thing. I am taking the path of herniation (THANK YOU LOGICAL MIND, FOR ONCE, FOR TAKING OVER!), but now I really don't know what to do. How serious is this really? Serious to wait 2 months to see a neuro, or serious meaning I should go to the hospital or something.

Xina -
So sorry for your troubles. In the US, serious enough to go to the hospital means immediately life threatening or upon the advise of a doctor. So, I don't think your symptoms are serious enough for that. Call and make an appointment with the neuro and get put on his waiting list in case something opens up sooner.

Hi Xina,

you know my symptoms already, and maybe it is not exactly the same as with you but I too have very reduced senivity at my upper back, around the spine...I did not tell my neuro yet. I always forget about it because there are so many other symptoms...Don't know what it means either

I do not know why but I was always muscularly less tolerable than my classmates etc. I hate running for example or I can not do cardio just becasue I am getting really deadly exhaused after it (an no or very little endorphines)... Probably because EDS, I think. Nothing else could affect my muscles and ligamnents, so I address that to EDS (hypermobility). Anyway I managed to practice gymnastics for two years, aikido for four years, and anyway still mobile and typing for 10-12 hours per day for many years...

it is just fast fatigue or overproduction of lactic acid (which causes this pain in the muscles and soreness), I think.

I have that as well Yulia but I didn't 2.5 years ago :/

Still no weakness to report here. I think I'm going to be a medical journal.

right Leroy, this isn't anything I've had since I was little either.

I have a neuro appt on 23-Feb. I have these....how can I describe them....pinches/pokes of pain right on my spine, in the middle. The whole area is sore and that part of my back/skin is different, but there are these different kind of pains right in the middle of my cervical neck. I could barely sleep because no matter what position I was in, it was aggravated.

Could cervical spine problems contribute to full body twitching?

I know it could be causing what is going on in my arms and in my right hand (which is losing dexterity more and more), but what about entire body twitching?

and my hand is getting worse. We are in the middle of packing/moving, and I keep dropping everything.

I found this:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3411405/

which says this:

Case presentation
A 35-year-old Caucasian man was evaluated at our facility for neck pain radiating to his left arm and left leg. He had numbness in his left leg and foot, which was accompanied by weakness in the left leg. His pain was intermittent and was worse when he was supine or sitting. The pain was alleviated with walking. Our patient had tried physical therapy and chiropractic care to no avail. He denied loss of bladder or bowel control. He denied any significant past medical and surgical history except for hypertension. His family history was unremarkable except for heart failure and myocardial infarction. He denied the use of alcohol, cigarettes, or recreational drugs. A general review was negative except for occasional headaches, difficulty sleeping, and tiredness. On physical examination our patient exhibited hyperreflexia and intermittent twitching in the lower extremities. He had no footdrop or saddle anesthesia. Motor strength and sensation of his upper and lower extremities were all normal.

In the Discussion part:

"The bilateral hyperreflexia and intermittent twitching of the lower limbs were non-specific signs of upper motor neuron lesions that could have been a consequence of general cord compression at the cervical level."



So did I answer my own question? Neck problems could cause twitching in lower body?