Strange Sensations: What Not To Google

There are times when I get peculiar sensations and I think to myself, "I’ll Google that." This isn't so I’ll find out I have some weird disease and ponder my mortality, but rather to assure myself that I don’t. I'll find comfort when the search results tell me: "It’s cool. It’s just this totally normal thing you won’t ever, ever have to worry about again. All is well. Carry on."

Sometimes my searches involve symptoms I think must be, or could be, related to restless legs syndrome.

Considering the possibilities

I get a lot of strange sensations in my legs due to  paresthesia from my fibromyalgia (I assume that is the cause of that issue), and then the RLS on top of that. So I was going to write an article about this weird sensation, hoping to give some information about it.

So I thought I would Google my symptoms to see if they are an RLS thing and if it has some sort of special name. You know, because that’s what I do. With random phenomena like this, figuring it out isn't always possible.

But sometimes it can help, and Google has the answers.

What is the sensation?

It is like there's a muscle undulating in the bottom of my foot. You can see it and feel the muscle moving. but it isn’t painful really, especially compared to the pain I experience from fibromyalgia. It’s just weird. Really weird.

But if you get this sensation too, I really do not recommenced Googling it. You wouldn’t think Googling "muscle undulations in your feet" would turn up more than a few genetic muscular disorders but, yeah, there ya go.

Narrowing my search

I’m not about to think I have a genetic muscular disease. I may assume this is due to fibromyalgia, given the existing paresthesia and so forth. If it wasn't from that, then the next logical option would be RLS.

I tried again. When you Google the same thing and add "AD RLS" it comes up with a whole lot of references to Periodic Limb Movement Disorder (PLMD). I do have that, for sure. But I don't know if PLMD can occur during the day, the way that RLS most definitely can. Either way, I doubt that is what this is. I’m definitely awake and conscious. And it isn’t that sort of twitchy-kicky sort of deal that comes with PLMD.

Google failed me this time

Maybe it has something to do with RLS, but maybe not. It’s hard to say. It definitely didn’t pop up with a big neon sign when I Googled it with the term RLS though. However, some of the sensations we can experience simply don’t show up that way. Instead, the answers might appear in groups and forums like this one, when we describe what we feel and relate to other people’s experiences.

What do you think?

So many of us with RLS have all sorts of sensations -- pulling, gnawing, itching, crawling, or all of the above. And more. I would be interested in knowing if anyone else has the sort of movement I'm experiencing, that flowing sort of undulation of the muscles in the feet, with their RLS. I have to remind myself not to Google each of these sensations because that turns up with some strange things indeed. I'm just a curious person, but I won't be going down that rabbit hole.

Share your thoughts in the comments below.