I can't figure out what's happening--help?

[veniamviam]

I've had for a while what I've been referring to as "twitches." They're more like full-body jerks, kind of hard to explain. It's very rare that I more than one (i.e. I rarely get them multiple times consecutively, but when it's Bad I'll get them a few times in a row) at a time. I've been doing some digging and the closest I've been able to find is some form of myoclonus? But that (as far as I've found) is located primarily in the extremities. So let me try to explain what my body is doing:

At the mildest, usually when I'm leaning forward a little, my left shoulder will sort of violently jerk back and medially (so if viewed from above, my shoulder pulls my torso anti-clockwise). It usually only affects down to about my navel on my torso when it's that mild, but my head almost always jerks anti-clockwise as well and sometimes it can be kinda painful on my neck. The worse it gets, the further towards my limbs it affects. My arms will start to jerk as well (left arm a bit more than the right) and when it affects my arms, it usually also affects my hips. Upper body tends be affected on the left, lower body on the right. My right hip jerks forward and my legs jerk outwards/upwards (my right a bit more than the left). These twitches only happen when I'm sitting down, as far as I can tell (if they happen when I'm standing, it's the mildest of sorts). It's just a single jerk, and even when they're repetitive, there's usually at least 45-90 seconds between.

Sometimes I can kind of "feel" them coming, like my body's coiled up in the wrong direction and waiting to spring loose, and those tend to be the worse of the jerks. They've been happening since around November of 2015, got to a point of severity that I'd be having them 5-10 times a day at certain points, and then diminished down to a point that I barely noticed them. They've been (noticeably) coming back recently, particularly at night-time, and they're not painful unless my head jerks too hard, but they certainly are obnoxious.

So... any ideas as to what this might be? Does it sound like this might be some sort of seizure, and if so, can anyone point me in the direction of Which kind it might be? (If it's related, I have had some short-term memory gaps for a while--forgetting I've just asked a question, forgetting the answer to a question I've just asked, forgetting I've taken my medications and getting confused as to where they've gone between me getting them out and going to take them a second time, that kind of thing. It could also easily be unrelated, but I've seen a few places that memory issues could be a sign of something?)

 

[zombelina]

It's possible that they are seizures, but there are so many causes of jerks/twitches and memory problems. My personal recommendation would be to see a doctor if at all possible. You can even print out the post you just wrote to show to the doctor - I think it is clear and easy to understand and it covers a lot of the questions they would ask. (when did it start, how often does it happen, the fact that you take certain medications, etc). I hope you figure it out, and I would love to hear what the doctor has to say.

 

[masterjen]

Hi, veniamvian and welcome to CWE!
Lots of great people here to share thoughts and ideas with, and to simply air frustrations. I completely agree with zombelina's response, and the only addition I have is to keep and "event journal" where you write down each time you have these jerks: the time that they occurred, what you were doing just before and how you felt, how you felt before and after the jerks, and anything else that you can think of that might have triggered them to occur (eg. significant sleep deprivation, lack of food during the day, a lot of caffeine, stress, a high level of physical activity - ie. a strenuous workout - just before or earlier during the day, etc.).

Good luck, and I hope you get some answers soon!

 

[seagull]

I do have e but I do get twitch that nothing to do with e if I sit forward and my specks slip on nose my forehead and eyebrows go into spasm,strangely enough it not so bad now I cut lamatical down but I think that just coincidence

 

[Howll]

The fact they are prevalent when sitting would make me think they may not be seizure related and perhaps something to do with your muscles or nerves. Definitely get them seen to though, but try not to worry yourself too much.

 

[SniffleCat]

Do you get enough iron in your diet? Iron deficiencies can create movement disorders. Vegetarian maybe?

 

[veniamviam]

I am a vegetarian actually (have been since age 12, about to turn 21 now), but i get fairly regular bloodwork due to one of the meds I take. Not anemic, I'm actually in the healthy range for all my nutrient levels (with my cholesterol being "perfect" according to my GP). Anyway, I had an episode on Saturday—started with severe dizzy spells, to the point of feeling like I was about to lose consciousness, had probably four or five of the Twitches over the course of about three hours, and had to lie down because I felt my body was going to give at any second. I don't know how to describe it, really, it just kind of... really bad full-body shaking? I've seen grand mal seizures before and (especially since I retained consciousness) I don't think this was on the same level, but the shaking was relatively severe and lasted upwards of 45 seconds. Given my uni's health centre is closed on weekends and I was out-of-town all day yesterday, I had to wait until today to go make an appointment and they took me right away. Got a sobriety test (for some reason), reflexes, eyes checked, the whole nine yards, then got sent away for bloodwork. I have an EEG scheduled for Monday afternoon and hopefully it'll give some answers. Getting rather worried if I'm honest (especially as the dizzy spells haven't stopped), but... hopefully some answers will come soon.

 

[masterjen]

I'm assuming they checked your blood pressure(?). If your blood pressure in the clinic was determined to be low-normal it may in fact be below normal range because of the "white coat phenomenon", and low blood pressure can cause dizziness. Other causes of dizziness include low blood sugar, being too underweight, and insufficient nutrient supply to the brain (due to not eating enough or a metabolic-related disorder that is preventing your body from absorbing sufficient amounts of certain nutrients). All these things can cause twitching of the muscles as well.

 

[veniamviam]

My BP's always been consistently low-normal (highest has been 120/80, which is ideal, but dropping down to 100/65 is not unusual for me, it's been documented many a time since I was about fourteen. Yesterday it was 110/68, well within my usual range.) Bloodwork in the past has come back with normal glucose levels (fasting and non-fasting) and the dizzy spells have happened while well-fed (which would also contribute to nutrient supplies). I will say I have an eating disorder (atypical anorexia, which means I'm about twenty pounds from underweight, but I'm a rather tall bloke so thats a decent BMI still) but this started way before I relapsed again : / It could well be a metabolic disorder that just hasn't shown on my blood panels but that seems unlikely given how many I've had. Thank you for all that information though! I'm a very quick-to-worry person and I'm going a bit mad overthinking this. (Range so far has gone from "nothing that will stop but will not be medically dangerous to you" to "you have tumours in your brain or spinal column" so, it's been a time.) The possibilities are endless so it's good to know there's a plethora of not-lethal reasons this has been happening so long.

 

[seagull]

How old are you and are you on other medications

 

[veniamviam]

20, 21 on the tenth, and taking 3mg/day of clonazepam for anxiety and 150mg/day of lamictal for bipolar. (I made a slight error in the original post--this started up in 2014, not 2015. Also they have since begun occurring whilst standing.) The meds started well over a year after the... whatever's happening started, for relevancy.

 

[veniamviam]

Update: my bloodwork came in, all normal for me except for my lymph% being low, so... no deficiencies or anything there.

 

[veniamviam]

I had my EEG today and the tech seemed... well, less than competent, to put it gently. Now to wait for the neurologist to give my results a look.
With everything that's been happening, I have to ask: what does an absence seizure feel like? I scared the heck out of my best friend tonight having a... something. He's really hoping I have epilepsy because at this point the other two things on the table are autoimmune disorders like MS or brain tumours. From what I've seen, what I'm experiencing aren't absence seizures—I don't have the heart to tell him that until we know more. Unless absence seizures can last upwards of five minutes, with limited loss of awareness, result in breathlessness, and force you to the ground because your muscles just kind of give up...
Have to figure the people here would know better than I what an absence seizure can look like. If anyone has input—if this sounds plausible as an absence seizure or if it's way out of range, it'd be appreciated, from my end at least.