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Unexplained Sensations and muscle twitching

Brain & Nervous System | Last Active: Sep 5, 2023 | Replies (31)

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@jenniferhunter

@drigg97 Hello Drigg, from what I understand about Shingles is that it will cause blisters on the skin surface that follow the pathways of the spinal nerves from the dermatomes. The dermatome map shows where every nerve that exits the spinal cord travels when it gets to the surface of the body.

In this link, you can see a dermatome map. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/what-are-dermatomes

Could you explain more specifically what the issues are with your spine? Do you have compression of the nerves that exit between the vertebrae? Do you have spinal cord compression? Where are the bone spurs; are they pressing into anything?

A spine problem alone can cause pain, and I would think that adding shingles to that and inflaming nerves would only make that worse. If you do share information from an imaging report here, please remove any identifying information about yourself first.

I can tell you my experience with spinal cord compression in my neck caused crazy pains all over my body, and that confused a lot of spine surgeons before I got to Mayo. It was a reason that I was refused surgical help elsewhere. I also had muscle twitches in my legs and arms. I am concerned about your low oxygen. Are you monitoring that with a pulse oxymeter? Do you have asthma or allergies that could be causing some of that? Would you consider getting a different neurosurgery opinion? It concerns me to hear a surgeon say all the issues in your neck cannot be causing your weird sensations, because that is what I experienced for 2 years before I found a surgeon at Mayo who understood this.

Here is a link to medical literature that I found because I looked up a term in literature co-authored by a Mayo neurosurgeon. It told me everything that the other surgeons missed, and so I wrote to that Mayo surgeon, Dr. Jeremy Fogelson, and asked for an appointment. That was my 6th surgical opinion and it was the only one that was correct. All the others could see the problem, but didn't understand how to connect it to my symptoms.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3111492/

If you wish to seek care at Mayo Clinic, you can get started with this link. http://mayocl.in/1mtmR63

Navigating a spine problem can be very complicated, and I may be able to help you understand some of the terminology. Will you consider getting another opinion?

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Replies to "@drigg97 Hello Drigg, from what I understand about Shingles is that it will cause blisters on..."

Hello Jenifer,

Sorry for the late reply. Thank you for sharing your story, it is very interesting and possibly a helpful clue. I’m sending over a cervical neck report, please see what you think about it. I am absolutely open to getting another opinion, Dr. Fogelson sounds great!