What does tingling and feeling of cold arms and legs indicate?

Posted on Wed, 5 Mar 2014

Question: Hi I've just come off a plane. Flying for 4 hours. However I also flew another 3 half hrs on Sat. I have a slight nerve miss firing on my right side of my breast. (Right breast) I am on a medication of 30mg of Amitriptyline. While flying today about an hour & half into the trip my left thigh started to tingle and feel uncomfortable. Then it started to ache. I felt I had to keep moving it. Then all of a sudden I felt rather weird. My arms started to feel funny - like cold ice running down the backs of my arms and legs. Actually as I type this it's still there but I'm not felling sick like I was. I started to feel faint. I got up & walked to the back of the plane & got assistance. However I had this feeling of either being sick or I was going to faint. It kept coming & going like this until I landed. Do I need to go to see a doctor? Ps: I've never suffered from panic attacks etc.

Answered by Dr. Pavan Kumar Gupta (3 hours later)

Brief answer...given below Detailed answer... Hello, Thanks for the query. Your symptoms of tingling and feeling of cold ice running down your arms and legs suggest some form of peripheral neuropathic pain. There could be various causes for such type of symptoms and these include... Deficiency of calcium,potassium etc Deficiency of VIT B12 Use of excessive alcohol Smoking and use of tobacco Underactive thyroid Diabetes Multiple sclerosis. Very rarely amitryptaline can itself cause peripheral neuropathy although in general it is given for treatment of peripheral neuropathic pains. My advise for you would be to consult your doctor and get investigated for it,if you feel that symptoms are persisting or if they are bothering you. I hope it helps,however you may revert to me for any further query. Best of luck Thanks

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar