This may sound like a dumb question (this is my first time posting so please be patient), but here it goes. I’ve been noticing for the past few months that the skin on both of my thighs has been getting numb. It’s a very weird feeling because I’m not numb underneath, it literally only the skin. Is this something I should be worried about or am I worrying about nothing? Any ideas what it could be? Thanks for your help!
If it happened to me, I’d be asking for a referral to a neurologist ASAP!
It’s a weird-sounding thing. I have numbness on the soles of both feet, but the reason for my right sole numbness is different from the left sole numbness, and, in any case, I know why for both. If I suddenly (it is a recent, sudden thing, right?) had numb patches on me, you better believe I’d be asking doctors to tell me why.
Please see a doctor!!! :wally
I call you putz because, well…, see a doctor!!!
Has anyhone experienced this before? What do you mean by “numb skin?”
Well, the SDMB is not the place to solicit medical advice, and if you have questions about a diagnosis or indications for a given set of symptoms you are experiencing, you are advised to seek the aid of a physician, in person. For, you see, posting a message on the internet is as easy as writing on a bathroom wall. You wouldn’t take medical advice from a bathroom wall, now, would you? For these reasons, threads like this are liable to be closed by the mods when they find them.
Now, if you were to ask: “I have this set of symptoms and have an appointment to see a doctor but am afraid of what he will tell me. What do you think he is going to diagnose?” Then perhaps you might get a better response.
And the answer would probably mention that he would check you first for back problems, to see if your vertebrae or disks are pressing against nerve bundles emerging from the spinal cord. He will ask you if you have injured your back, or if you have pain in your back, or weakness in your legs, or back pain when you move your bowels. He will check you for this first as it is the most frequent cause of symptoms like you describe.
Or maybe you’re doing some physical activity which puts pressure on your nerves, like cycling or sitting in unusual positions or keeping things in your back pockets.
He will likely perform a neurological exam on you, which will involve taking a little spiky wheel and running it along your skin in places, touching your skin with a vibrating tuning fork, reflex tests, eye tracking tests, etc.
If he can’t find any evidence of peripheral nerve problems then the other things he might check you for are spinal cord damage, head injuries, blood supply problems to the brain, infections of the brain, or possibly Multiple Sclerosis or Lupus or other degenerative neurological diseases. But these are very unlikely.