Hi everyone,
Need some real help here. 28yr old male, who is a bit overweight, but muscular too. I'm 185 lbs at 5'7. Basically for the past week I've had a light tingling sensation in the mainly posterior side of my body including: posterior aspect of deltoids, hamstrings, scapular/thoracic region. Sometimes it also shoots to the areas around (but never in) my elbows, inner brachial area of my biceps (close to armpits), outer or lateral areas of triceps, lateral aspect of my quadriceps, wrists, tibialis anterior, and tops of the feet. However it's never all of these at once. It just kind of comes and goes to various areas throughout the day. Sometimes(though not often) I feel nothing and everything is "normal". When id does tingle it lasts for a bit then go away. sometimes its a few seconds, other times it last many minutes (15m? 20m? more? haven't really paid attention, sorry).
No pain, no weakness, no muscle spasms, no loss of balance, no numbness, just the tingling sensation, so far. I have my balance and strength and vision, though I do have glasses with an astigmatism in my right eye. It may be my imagination but I feel it less when I'm standing/moving around. But I did feel it when lifting weights this evening, but no more than "usual".
I have taught myself to play the drums this past year. I practice for hours -anywhere from 2 to 6 hrs- at a time. Then I go to friends houses and play drums on the video game Rock Band as well. Now because of the weight in my front (my gut) I slouch all throughout my back when sitting on the drum throne. After just a little while I'm rounded from lumbar to cervical spine/head which I know is bad but I keep playing anyway. I've done this on/off for about a year and up until now the only bad thing I have felt is a tightness and soreness in my back that would go away after a good nights' sleep. If it gets really bad I playing less or stop playing all together for a while (few days). Sometimes my toes go numb in the foot that controls the bass drum foot pedal. I play with my heel up. Pushing down the pedal with the ball of my left foot. Oh I'll also mention I play barefoot.
Anyway, now that the background info is out of the way:
After a long drum playing session last week (Thurs Jan 9th) I tried to go to sleep but I had tingling all throughout my clavicle area and chest (which thankfully hasn't returned) and couldn't fall asleep. I sat up all night, hit the internet and scared myself silly thinking it could be anything from MS to a heart attack/stroke! Eventually I returned to bed and just passed out from exhaustion. The next day I began to feel the tingling randomly in the above mentioned areas though mostly in the upper body -shoulders, inner arms elbow joints etc. Then as the days went on, I began to feel it more so in the other lower body areas, but occasionally back in the upper areas too. So kind of all over.
After continued reading this past week I've scared myself into thinking I could really be MS and this is just my first "clinically isolated syndrome" that will be misdiagnosed as a drum playing related injury because of the timing. I've stopped playing drums entirely and am trying to sit up straight -which once again, I may be fooling myself into believing, but seems to be is reducing the sensations- because I've read it instead could be trauma (like a nerve root compression in the lumbar, thoracic, or cervical spine, if not compressions at 2 or all 3 locations) from all the slouching and repeated impact with the drum sticks and a fat belly in front pulling my lumbar out of whack.
Basically I'm terrified at this point from reading about all the serious things it could be. Yet I also realize it could be nothing and I'm scaring myself because of all the reading I'm doing.
I'm so very hesitant to go to the ER or any other doctor like neurologists who specializes in MS because I have absolutely no medical insurance, currently have limited income, and don't want to be denied in the future, when I can financially afford med. insurance and apply for it at a later date.
I mention that only because I have asthma/allergies (which is why I think it could be another autoimmune disease like MS) or specifically allergy and exercise induced asthma and I had to go to a immediate care clinic for a nebulizer treatment (Had an asthma attack upon moving to Louisville KY from NY) in Nov 08, then when I applied for private individual med. insurance- my new job didn't offer it- the following month in Dec 08, I was denied for being "too high risk" when they saw I had just gone to an immediate care clinic the month prior. Hence I'm afraid now of any medical treatment w/o insurance will not only be too expensive but prevent me from qualifying for medical insurance later when I can afford it.
What on earth should I do? I feel trapped like I'm damned if I do damned if I don't! I'm so very very thankful for any and all help and advice provided.
James