Painful Symptoms

[Glenda78]

I was recently diagnosed with Pernicious Anemia (PA).. I'm having severe muscle spams in lower right back, and pounding heart with chest and back pains -- severe pains. I've finished loading doses of B12 shots, and will start monthly shots. Will see my doctor again in a few weeks. I also have soft tissue arthritis, but I think a lot of my pain is from PA. Has anyone else had severe back spams and chest pains from PA? And, did they go away after you'd been on B12 for a while? I have pain meds, etc. but still get very painful symptoms. Thank you!

[clivealive Forum Support]

Hi Glenda78 are you in the U.K or the U.S.A?

It is not uncommon for some symptoms to appear to get worse before they get better as the B12 starts repairing the damage done to your nervous system and your brain starts getting multiple messages from part of the body it had "forgotten about" or lost contact with.

I sometimes liken it to a badly tuned radio on which you have turned the volume up high trying to catch the programme you want when all of a sudden the signal comes in loud and clear and the blast nearly deafens you.

A lot will depend on the severity and longevity of your B12 deficiency as to how long before there is no further improvement or recovery. Some symptoms will "disappear" quite quickly whereas others may take months or even years. There is no set timescale as we are all different.

If you can get to see a doctor please also ask him/her to check your Folate level as this and B12 help your iron to make red blood cells and to function properly.

I am not a medically trained person but I've had P.A. (a form of B12 deficiency) for more than 45 years.

I wish you well

.

[Glenda78 in reply to clivealive]

Thank you--I am in the USA. However, my family doctor grew up and went to medical school in England.

[Frank77]

Hello Glenda78. Yes I had quite severe chest pains (upper left quadrant) - one of the more disturbing of my B12 deficiency symptoms, though I had/have most of the others. I think this is a recognized B12 symptom, though not everyone seems to have it. I did not have any back pain though. In my case the chest pain disappeared after a couple of weeks of sublingual B12 drops (2000 mg a day). I have never had injections though I may decide to go down this road once i get the results of my Intrinsic factor test in a week or so, and since I still have some of the other symptoms. I saw a cardiologist about the chest pains but it was a waste of time: ECG etc was all normal. Both he and I thought initially that I had angina pectoris, but since the symptoms left after the high doses of B12 I am now certain that it was linked to PA. Best of luck!

[Glenda78 in reply to Frank77]

Thank you!