Question
Hello,
About a month ago I was stretching when I had a sharp pain in my neck.  Felt like I had just pinched or pulled a little something.  Within three days - I also had this strange perineal pain - like the area from my low back through the saddle to both of my thighs was kind of burning - hyper sensitive.  I initially called my MD because I thought I had a UTI - started ABX without relief.  I was having the sensation of having to urinate or even have a BM - although the function was normal - the sensation was of urgency and very painful as if I had an infection.  Within the next couple of days the symptoms developed into having odd parasthesias which seemed to migrate from my low back, down my buttocks bilaterally and reached my left foot and right leg behind my knee. I had low back pain.  Saw an urgent care who did an xray of the low back - and digital rectal exam...told me it sounded like I had MS and I needed to call a Neuro.  I felt like the symptoms were somehow related to the neck pain I had experienced before any symptoms started - so I began a routine of ibuprofen 600 mg tid and rested with heat on my neck and low back for a couple of days with some improvement.  Over the next week or so it kept getting a little better each day until it was gone.  Now - about a month after the last symptoms - I am having the same urgency sensation - and now a deep pain in my left hip and the skin is so sensitive/burning/tingling.  My right arm is heavy and mildly numb.  The left foot is tingling.  Gracious this is pretty confusing - but I did fall in the tub about 5 days ago and banged my head - had a sore neck from that so I still want to think that some way this business is related to my neck.  Sure hope so.  But I am concerned with the bowel and bladder sensations.  Any idea if this set of symptoms can all come from some injury to the neck?  Where do I start with trying to figure this out?  With this now as the second episode - I think I need to see a Neuro MD but sure would love to know what you think about origin??  What I would really like to hear is that it is probably a neck injury and probably not MS.  Hoping you can give me a little good news to make going to the Neuro a little less intimidating!  Thanks so much for your time.
Denise

Answer
Denise,
This is hard for me because you are not in my office, there is only so much that I can do over the internet.  Have you had any MRI or X-Rays of your C-Spine done in the last 6 months to year?  If so email them to me so I can learn more about you.  Otherwise, you might want to go to a neurologist for a diagnosis, but if you do please do not let what ever they tell you scare you into depression and shutting down, because once you do that you are beat.  I can tell you that whatever they tell you (almost), I can offer you the answers that you would rather hear and that are realistic, and I can almost certainly offer you hope as well.  I would need some further information however to be able to do that confidently.
When you do reply include your part of the country/world.
In Your Best Interest,
Dr Robert Arnone
St Louis, MO, USA