Numbness throughout the body

[kaylarene]

Hello,

I have e-mailed Dr. Joshua, but I thought I would post my question here as well to see if anyone has had any similar problems.


I am a 22 year old female, and seem to have a few problems with numbness.* Rather this be a nerve problem, I'm not sure.* I have a patch about the size of a baseball above my left knee that has been numb for some years now.* Also there is some numbness between my legs that comes and goes.* Recently, I woke up one morning and found that the middle of my bottom lip was numb.* I can't remember anything happening to start any of these things, they just seem to happen.* It's been almost 2 weeks now and the lip is still numb.* It has regained some area of feeling (or it could be that I'm getting used to it ha-ha) To give you a background of my health history I'll post some things that seem to be more concerning then most.* When I was 15 I had a sledding accident, where I slammed the end of my tailbone (right above my hips, in the center) on a log.* Sometimes this part gives me problems, especially when I'm sweeping with my head down.* I've had some problems with blood pressure being very high.* 230 as the top number is the highest I can remember.* Other than that, I'm pretty healthy.* If anyone has any feedback it would be appreciated.* Thank you for your time.*

Happy Fathers Day to all the Dad's out there!

-Kayla

[Dr. Joshua]

Thanks for posting your question on the forum, too.

Numbness is a common complaint. More often than not, the cause cannot be determined. A common cause for localized numbness is damage to the superficial sensory nerves, due to trauma (such as hitting with a blunt object, cutting, pressure such as too tight a pair of shoes etc...), infection, scarring, or some unknown and invisible cause that disrupts the superficial nerves.

The fact that your lip is getting better slowly suggests a superficial nerve damage that heals over time. Whatever caused the numb spot on your leg we may never know.

Fatigue also is a common complaint and there is a wide variety of possible causes.

The way fatigue is evaluated is generally as follows:

A thorough history and physical examination, also a neuro exam (your primary care physician can do it) with a basic lab workup of CBC, TSH, (thyroid function), urinalysis, ESR, CRP, ALAT, AFOS, GT, Albumin, Calcium, Sodium, Potassium, Creatinine. Not all of these are necessarily needed, and some others may be needed - the decision is made by the examining doctor.

Medication should be carefully reviewed to see if any drugs may be causing fatigue.

Hypertension and high cholesterol should be carefully followed, and treated if necessary. In a person so young as yourself, possible causes for secondary hypertension should be carefully excluded. Secondary hypertension means that there is some underlying treatable cause for hypertension. Sleeping habits and lifestyle should be reviewed.

Depression should be considered as a possible cause of fatigue, and treated with psychotherapy or medication if diagnosed.

If any neurological deficit is suspected, a consultation with a neurologist is needed.

I understand it can be disappointing when the doctors can't determine the cause of these symptoms, but that's not uncommon in medicine - these are heterogeneous symptoms and the human being is a complex biological entity - sometimes we just can't pinpoint the cause, and sometimes it needs to be determined that something, if not life threatening or severely disabling, has been sufficiently examined and just has to be accepted.

The above is just general information related to the sort of symptoms you describe. I cannot give any specific recommendations to you because I'd need to take a thorough history and physically examine you for that. Please talk to your own doctor about your concerns.