I had Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning - still tingling 3 weeks later, no dr. has seen it before

I was in the ER with Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning 25 days ago and continue to have neurological issues - it's extremely rare, none of my doctors had heard of it and there's very little research so nobody knows what to do. I'm 39F, active and healthy, no medications or medical issues except occasional migraines, no alcohol/drugs/smoking.

25 days ago I got PSP from grocery store mussels - my entire body was tingling and numb (it started in my mouth and spread), lungs burning, heat sensations moving through torso, felt like I was floating out of my body, and at one point my temp dropped to 96, had major shaking and blood pressure spike until they warmed me up. 15 hours after eating the mussels, the tingling faded to just my hands and feet, I felt much better and was sent home.

The problem is the tingling never stopped - my outer extremities and sometimes head are always tingling and about once a week (4 times) for 4-6 hrs I get a bad episode of intense tingling moving around my body, even inside ears, throat, chest, etc. and heat sensations in my chest with occasional lightheadedness. If I touch the tingling area, the tingling fades and moves to a neighboring area. It's quite scary and impossible to sleep or focus on anything else, but I can still breathe and function. Each episode was slightly milder than the last, so that's progress.

The first two episodes were leading up to my period (it was 3 days late, had spotting), and this second one I might be ovulating soon, so could be hormonal. I have no weakness or shaking, and have excellent balance, reflexes, vision, and I'm functioning normally and cognitively sharp.

I also have odd mini episodes every few days, often an hour after eating, with sudden restless leg syndrome followed by my nose suddenly getting stuffy followed by lightheadedness, and then all fine after 15-20 min. Additionally, my stomach/digestion/appetite was poor for weeks and I've been waking up every night around 3am with nausea, but that's been steadily improving and now my stomach is 80% better and I only wake up for 30 min at night. I eat several small meals throughout the day, still can't stomach normal amounts of food. Trying to catch up on sleep now. I also have dry mouth often despite hydrating frequently.

Any insights or thoughts or ideas would be massively appreciated - it's been really scary and there's very little info on this. Only a handful of people get it each year so none of my doctors have seen it or know what to do. All the sources say people make a full recovery in a few days, and then I found one journal source that says people recover up to 45 days later, but there's no citation or a single thing mentioning these ongoing symptoms. I'm getting bloodwork and a MRI, and my EMG nerve test came back normal, but they have no advice or any idea what to do really so that's been deeply unsettling.

Posted Aug 5, 2026, 1:20 PM UTC

11
Loading comments…