Suddenly can't move legs

[Whitfloor]

My friend had a general anaesthetic two days ago (her first) to correct a minor problem. She seemed fine. She's in her late thirties.

Two hours ago she felt very sick and became unable to stand. She became unresponsive. No raised temperature. An ambulance was called.

Waiting on a CT scan. She can't move her legs.

She was frightened about the possibility of having a reaction to the anaesthetic. Could this be a delayed reaction?

Reduced sensation in all four limbs. SATS fine throughout. Now perfectly clear mentally but passed out for a while in the ambulance.

What could be happening?

I feel exactly the same way. Even though she has apparently recovered, we need to understand what happened much better than this.

She was given some crazy theory that maybe the ear surgery jiggled her brain about a bit. I'm paraphrasing what she said but it sounded nuts. Like they didn't know and they didn't care and they didn't even care how crazy this sounded.

Say she has a predisposition to ADEM or similar and an MRI highlighted inflammation, if this occurred again it would likely be worse but there would hopefully be no wait time for steroids. I feel like she is in a vulnerable place now, having been so ill with no sound explanation. I don't know anything, these are just feelings really.

If it is FND then a neurologist is required to diagnose this, my daughter has just had this diagnosis.

She has had a lot of medical interventions over the years and a really bad experience with a gynaecologist, an absolute arsehole. All this has left her with CPTSD, diagnosed by a psychiatrist. Her body and mind have had enough, it was described to us as like a software problem, nothing shows up on scans or blood tests. The mind is mighty powerful.

To top it all the hospital that diagnosed her, just 12 miles away, can’t treat her as we are in the wrong postcode. I’ve raised this with our local M.P and he is on it, fingers crossed 🤞

@Snippit I hope you manage to get some progress for your DD soon.

I'm currently working with 8 teenagers who are either diagnosed with FND or going through testing to confirm it and trying to get them any meaningful support is like getting blood out of a stone.

I all of a sudden had a violent reaction to the anaesthetic used by the dentists during a procedure. I was shaking violently and became very weak and barely able to stand. I’m now apparently unable to have anaesthetic with adrenaline in it. The whole thing was very scary. I have M.S and wondered if it had anything to do with it 🤷‍♀️

Sounds bizarre I know but a friend of mine had very similar symptoms, was in hospital for weeks having tests and it turned out to be a severe vitamin B12 deficiency, affecting her nerves. She had numb arms and legs and also briefly had vision problems. She’s home and slowly getting better (with vitB12 injections) but even months later she has to use a walker, still has numb fingers and pins and needles in her arms.

Your anaesthetic will have just been accidentally injected into a blood vessel. That's all. Happens.

I had an FND diagnosis by a top London neurologist, I saw a private endocrinologist to see if it could potentially be a thyroid issue also. He was amazing, said my FND was most likely a functional b12 deficiency and after a few months on persistent b12 injections it absolutely was! I got my life back. They never test b12 and seem completely unaware of a functional deficiency where your bloods show as normal. I went back to the original neurologist and he said "oh yes, that's great you are better"....had I of accepted his complete negligence I'd of been in a wheelchair by now"
The b12 society website is full of help and amazing medical based evidence to support the misdiagnosis and even the NICE guidelines highlight the lack of accurate testing..have a really good read up x

I came to say the same thing, FND.
I have two friends with it and it’s scary af

That may be one explanation. But what @Snippit describes is a common experience for people with Myasthenia too and we have to avoid anaesthesia with adrenaline for that reason, and given Snippit has MS it seems likely that there are overlaps between how the two conditions respond to anaesthesia

But surely your "anaesthetist husband" would know that some people are told to avoid anaesthesia with adrenaline? I mean its the key advice our neurologists give us before a trip to the dentist (along with expecting to be weak for quite some time afterwards).

What's scary is how ready drs are to diagnose it before they have eliminated all possible physical causes.

I know so many people (because of being in rate disease groups) who coped with "FND" for years before finding out there was a physical and treatable cause

I totally agree, FND is a blanket term but they fail to test all possibilities, functional b12 deficiency is a huge misdiagnosis point for MS and FND, both create white lesions on the brain. B12 society charity are amazing fighting for change and have had a hand in recent NICE guidelines updates in this area, we are still a couple of decades away from change as there is so much misinformation. At the moment they test b12, it comes back in range and they disregard. It's amazing they are unaware of the functional part?!?

That comment was made without input of my DP, I happen to be a dentist, you're welcome to check my posting histroy if you also don't believe that either. LA with adrenaline isnt contraindicated accross the board for MG patients. Certainly aspirating prior injecting important, to avoid inadvertant delivery into a blood vessel but use of vasoconstrictors maximises anaesthesia whilst limiting dose.

a) that's on the advice note my neurologist provides for dentists
b) There is more than one type of Myasthenia, not everyone has MG so abbreviating Myasthenia to MG is incorrect.

(plus even if you do see a patient with MG, as opposed to one of the other Myasthenias, there are quite a number of different sub types depending on the antibodies they have, and each works in a slightly different way).

Yes.......i agree, i had ADEM as a child, which resurfaced as MS after i had a general anaesthetic for my teeth as an adult. I was lucky enough to have private healthcare back then, so was immediately put on IV steroids and given an MRI. As there was no delay i got the appropriate meds and you would never know i have MS by looking at me..........the NHS took over, as they are the experts and they have done right by me, i can't praise them enough........she needs to know....not knowing will exacerbate stress, which is bad for any neurological condition.

that's interesting, i can't have adrenaline anaesthetic as i start to pass out and will shake so much it looks like a seizure.......i have cataplexy so if i'm under stress i literally shut down......if i laugh too much my legs lose their tone and i fall in laughing heap.....lol.......so i make sure i'm either seated or i have someone to grab......it's just a quirk of mine......it's not dangerous and my MS is under control for now.......but i do have NO ADRENALINE ANAESTHETIC on my medical and dental notes....... :o)

😀😀

Thank you so very much for that information, it’s very interesting 🤗

@Poopants1000 that is quite amazing and worrying all at the same time. So glad you kept going and investigating this. I might take a look at the B12 website, not for me, but for someone else.

Isnt it just! It's more so the fact that even specialists seem to ignore this dangerous condition with a simple treatment!
My deficiency was functional so all basic blood tests came back fine. You really need to find someone aware which I now know (to my horror) is a needle in a haystack x

If you aren't family, I don't suppose the doctors can talk to you about her conditon. Yhe nurses might be more helpful.

Actually, the NHS isn't "unbelievably shit" as you so kindly put it

My youngest DD had a broken arm anf surgery over the past couple of days, and her care was the absolute best. Kind, sympathetic , and very good in an acute emergency setting. A consultant met her literally at the door on the emergency department desk, briefly examined her, and expertly / accurately said she needed an x-ray and pain relief.

Yes, the NHS is understaffed and underfunded, but not once did I see any evidence of that whatsoever at the very modern, state of the art teaching hospital in Norwich. It couldn't have been better care.

I'm happy that your daughter received a good level of care, but you should be able to expect that.

The NHS is, I'm afraid, absolutely terrible. The UK have done a fantastic job of gaslighting the British public into believing they should be grateful for it, despite the extraordinarily poor level of care that is given

I have rheumatoid arthritis. On many many occasions throughout my teen years I had classic symptoms including excruciating pain and loss of mobility. I was never given so much as a blood test, I was accused of lying to cover up for "not having revised for my Alevels", I was told that I was to "stop wasting appointments that people who are actually ill need" when I cam back in my early 20s as a single mother and was told I was "just tired" it was incredible, and it wasn't just one doctor, it was multiple places in Manchester. Birmingham and Cambridge (born in one, studied in the other 2).

In Spain, I had one bad flare, went to the GP, blood test the next day, specialist rheumatology appointment within a week, within a month I was prescribed a biologic that changed my life. If I still lived in the UK, and the treatment had continued as is was (and I see no reason why it wouldn't have) I would have permanent damage and probably be in a wheelchair by 50.

My story is not unique. The maternity care in the UK is dangerously poor, the fact that people can barely get a GP appointment is absurd (here I live in a working class area of a major Spanish city and if a child has a fever and you call the GP at any time between 0800-2000 Monday to Friday you will be given an appointment with your paediatrician the same day and usually within an hour or so. If outside those hours then there are out of hours services. Same for an adult

I could go on and on and I'm sure there are good doctors and nurses in the NHS but as an organisation is is dangerous underfunded and routinely fails to pick up on complex illnesses because of the dismissive attitude that is often given towards patients and I suspect this is partly due to lack of funding, burnout etc but also due to a culture where noone dares criticise -you only need to look through Mumsnet for a day to see multiple posts of women who are clearly unwell wringing their hand about whether they "really need" medical attention, because there is this culture of "you need to be half dead to take up one of our valuable appointments " it's extremely sad.

So, I'm sorry your daughter broke her arm, the poor thing must have been in a lot of pain and I'm glad she was seen quickly. But this is not an illness requiring a diagnosis, it's a fairly simple and clear injury that was fixed. As it bloody well should be! A child with a broken arm should always be seen quickly and taken care of - that's basic.

But the NHS, is still, unbelievably shit.

Can I ask what test(s) are needed re functional b12? Thanks