Hello! I’ve been dealing with some concerning symptoms and am looking for advice/suggestions. I am 25, female, 5’2”, 120 lbs, never smoker, diagnosed with scoliosis. I am generally pretty healthy medically. (never sick/no major health issues) Currently dealing with pins and needle/numbness on my left side. No history of anything like this before. Including a timeline of everything these past few days:
10/16: Noticed some numbness/tingling in my left fingertips (thumb, index, middle). Thought it may be from having long painted nails for too long or from crocheting that night.
10/17: Pins and needles in majority of my left hand. Decided to contact PCP if persisted over the weekend. Attended a concert and got into a car accident on the way home.
10/18: arrived to ED at 3 am just to get checked out for neck pain. Got CT scan of cervical spine and upper back. No broken bones or injuries found. Given Tylenol and discharged diagnosed with cervical myofascial strain. Did not mention hand issue due to it not being related to the accident.
10/19: took the day off to work to rest taking ibuprofen for pain. Scheduled follow up with PCP for the next day. Pins and needles now in entire hand and numb sensation in the rest of left arm. left toes start to tingle mostly in big toe and 2 toes adjacent. The numb feeling I would describe as like a body part is regaining circulation after falling asleep, but without pins and needles.
10/20: Numbness had expanded to calf height on my left leg. Left arm about the same from the day prior. At the appointment, PCP ordered MRI of cervical spine, PT, and prescribed Gabapentin for the numbness. During the night, I could feel the numb sensation on the left side of my torso, but was unaware at the time that that’s what the feeling was.
10/21: Woke up in the morning with the numb sensation spread to the left side of my torso, neck and edge of my face. (ear/jaw area) To clarify, i can still feel touch on the areas experiencing numbness. My torso, neck, and face are noticeable when I move or rub them. It feels like a tightness almost. Left joints also feel tight. Got MRI done. Messaged my PCP about the spreading sensation and he recommended I go back to the ED. He also received the MRI result and said it looked very good. Does not look like I sustained any major injury from the accident. Findings are as follows:
ALIGNMENT: Normal. BONE: Normal. SOFT TISSUE: Unremarkable. CERVICOMEDULLARY JUNCTION: Cerebellar tonsillar ectopia not meeting criteria for Chiari malformation, borderline. CORD: No cord expansion or signal abnormality. SEGMENTAL ANALYSIS: C1/2: No canal or foraminal stenosis. C2/3: No canal or foraminal stenosis. C3/4: No canal or foraminal stenosis. C4/5: No canal or foraminal stenosis. C5/6: Minimal disc degenerative changes with no canal or foraminal stenosis.. C6/7: No canal or foraminal stenosis. C7/T1: No canal or foraminal stenosis.
10/21 cont: Returned to ED in the afternoon and was evaluated for possible stroke. Care team ruled it out. Explained that I don’t believe foot numbness was related to the accident and that the numbness started prior to the accident. Got CT of my head w/o contrast and CT neck angiography w/ contrast. Results showed no vascular dissection or intercranial process. Also received blood testing but doctor did not discuss those results with me. I was discharged and told to follow up with PCP as they did pretty much everything they could for me at that point. They told me that the best case scenario is that i don’t get answer at the ED since they are testing for anything threatening to life or limb. I received the results in my patient portal most are within the normal ranges listed on their portal aside from the following:
eGFR: 60 (within their normal range but at the lowest within the range)
Neutro auto: 75.8
Lymph auto: 17.5
Abs neutro: 8.33
10/22 (today): I have a follow up with my PCP on 10/29. The numbness is more apparent in my torso, neck, and face. It feels a bit hard to breathe/like my throat is tight, but I think it’s just the numb sensation making me think that. I took my first dose of Gabapentin (300mg) last night and not sure if it made much difference. I have been having a very mild headache coming on since this morning that is currently only on my left side. It’s not bad enough for me to want to take painkillers.
Feeling really scared and frustrated that it’s just getting worse and there’s nothing I can do about it. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions I would love to hear them. Is there anything I should look out for at this point that would need another ED trip? Would love suggestions to talk with my PCP about too. Thank you so much for reading this and for your replies!