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Parathesia Making Me Nervous.


imapumpkin

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Has anyone ever heard of beta blockers causing nerve damage?

I only ask because the second week of October my neurologist POTS specialist prescribed propranolol for my POTS and two or three days after starting it I started to get parasthesias in my fingers and toes. After a few more days the tingling had spread up my arms and legs and to my cheeks. My dr cut the dose of the beta blocker in half and said that the tingling was likely due to transient bp and heartrate changes.

A week later I was still having the parasthesias and some low blood sugar issues so she took me off the propranolol altogether saying that I don't seem to be tolerating it. Two weeks later the tingling still persisted and my dr said that had it been the beta blocker, it should have stopped after I discontinued the medicine and suggested I have blood work done to check my chemistry panel from electrolyte imbalances. Results came back normal. Asked the doctor gain why I am still tingling. She suggested I asked my prescribing doctor if the lexapro I am not could be causing it. He said no way, I've been on it for 7 years at the lowest possible dose.

Since then I am still experiencing tingling sensations in my hands every single day, and at night it gets worse and travels up my arms and legs. It is uncomfortable, disconcerting and frankly, interferes with my ability to fall asleep. Two days ago I was sitting minding my own business when i realized I couldn't feel my right thumb. While I was focusing on not totally freaking out, my index finger went numb, followed by my middle, ring, and pinky fingers all in order, followed by my palm. My whole hand felt like my mouth feels after novocaine. A minute later it went away. My chiropractor said that it sounds like a vascular issue.

I emailed my neurologist today about the worsening parasthesia and the numbness episode because something is NOT right, and she wrote back asking if I'd ever had a brain and cervical spine MRI before. What does this mean? What is a cervical spine MRI? I've had one on my brain when I was a teen for migraines but I don't know anything about other types of MRIs. Everything I've researched about parasthesia is leading me to believe it's some kind of peripheral neuropathy but it started when I went on the beta blocker?

I'm totally freaking out. Last week I find out I need heart surgery and this week my doctor is talking about MRIs of my brain. Does anyone know anything about parasthesia or nerve damage or anything that would be causing these sensations?

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It's hard to say what's causing it. Personally I have lots of paresthesias in my arms (especially hands), legs and face. The neuro I see hasn't been able to explain it. I was on Propanolol at low doses for several years before the paresthesias started so I don't think it's related. They got worse when I started topomax for migraines, but it's been so nice not having the migraines, I'll take the trade off.

A cervical spine MRI would look at your neck to see if there is any nerve compression or impingement that is causing the numbness in your right hand. There are other potential causes as well such as thoracic outlet syndrome or other musculo-skelatal issues that could be the cause. OR it could "just be POTS".

Good luck! Hard not to freak out when all these things are going on, but it's good that your doc is taking you seriously and checking these things out.

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I have been experiencing similar numbnesses since my problems started 2 years ago, including my lips and cheek. When I started taking clonidine a year ago, I had a lot of odd sensations in my fingers and toes which I blamed on the drug, particularly first thing in the morning.. Then I started losing the sensation in my outer fingers on both hands when I sat down. When my whole arm went numb a few weeks back, I had a brain/cervical mri performed. Unfortunately this showed that I have degenerative disc changes in my neck, and a prolapsed disc with an osteophytic arthritis growth. Earlier this year I was diagnosed as having EDS III, which I hadn't really looked into at all since then. I'm still a bit in shock about all of this to be honest. It seems that most people with EDS have all sorts of numbness issues and no one seems to be able to decide if they are down to entrapment, vascular issues or just nerve damage that seems to go along with the condition.

It's funny, not that many people on here seem to have a diagnosis of EDS with their autonomic issues, but in the UK most people with POTS do seem to turn out to be hypermobile, perhaps because the doctors who diagnose POTS seem to have a good awareness of the connection between the two conditions.

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