Numbness/physical distance

Shaheen · 03-15-2007, 05:21 AM

Hi all, wondering if anyone has any ideas *what* this is, what it may be caused by, or how to solve it, please! If you need more information let me know, and I'll try my best to describe it.
About 3 months ago I started to notice when I went to sleep I couldn't really feel my lungs. I could only tell I was breathing if I listened to myself, or if I put my hand in front of my mouth. THe problems worsened since then. Now most nights I seem to 'detach' from myself. I can barely feel physical sensations, some I miss entirely. Like scratching my nose feels like I'm either brushing against it, or not touching it at all. This has finally started happening in the day and it's really worrying me. I have asthma and not being able to feel my lungs I'm not sure when my breathing problems come along. The only words I can think to describe this are: Blunted feelings towards everything, distant feelings twoards everything, like someone wrapped my body in some sort of filmy substance that I can feel through, but it dampens everything. Or it also feels like someone else owns my body and allows me a sample of what they feel. This 'blunting' has also happened to my emotions, I used to be fairly depressed and would cry a lot at night. Now I'm never sad, never happy, never angry, I can't feel anything.
If you need more, I'll try to rephrase or describe it better, any help or knowledge in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Diane817 · 03-15-2007, 09:30 AM

I think you need to see a doctor. Are you on any medications now? If so you may want to get them checked and change them. Seems like you are disassociating with everything and it's time to seek help. I wish you the best. Don't keep going with this until you're unable to "feel" anything.

feelbad · 03-15-2007, 09:42 AM

this really does sond like some strange neurological issue going on somewhere within your body.it could be a brain issue or spinal cord issue.what you have explained actually sounds like a loss of whats called your prioperception?this is your bodys ability to actually reckognize itself or posistional sense?i lost some from a spinal cord injury where it damaged my spinothalamic tract.there are also certain areas of the brain that can also affect your prioperceptive abilities.i do think seeing a good neurologist for an initial eval then obtaining perhaps a contrasted MRI on the brain and at least the c and T spine would possibly find something that may be affecting a specific area that governs your prio.my affectation is mostly within my legs actually.when i am lying in bed at night,i do not actually know just what posisition my legs are really at til i start moving them around.its kind of scarey,espescially when it first started occuring two years after my SCI.

but you really DO need this evaluated and some nside pics taken tosee what possibly may be there affecting the specific prioperceptive areas.you can also have your primary order the MRIs and have those in hand when you actually see the neuo,it will just save some time,and if something DOES indeed show,i would change that neurologist appt to seeing an actual neurosurgeon instead.they are just a bit more knowledgeable about the possible things that can pop up within our brains and spinal cords.but you most definitely need this fully evaluated by a true specialist,not just a primary as this would already be considered to be way over most primarys heads.good luck and please keep me posted as to what you find and how you are doing,K? FB

Shaheen · 03-15-2007, 08:13 PM

Thanks a bunch, I contacted a neurologist after reading your replies this morning and I should have an appointment fairly soon, in a week or two. I'm currently taking albuterol and Advair for my asthma, though I've taken them for years now. Once again, thank you very much.

feelbad · 03-16-2007, 09:26 AM

glad to hear you have an actual appt with a specialist.hope they can find the source of your symptoms,please let me know what you find out,K? good luck,FB