When You Feel Weak: Describe the Change and Find the Right Help

When you feel weak, you don't have to prove you're strong enough or sick enough to ask for help. What matters is the change itself: a task that takes more effort, an arm or leg that no longer does what you expect, or a lack of energy that makes ordinary plans hard.

When is sudden weakness an emergency?

Call 911 immediately for sudden weakness or numbness in the face, arm or leg, particularly on one side; sudden trouble speaking, seeing or walking; or a sudden severe unexplained headache. These can be stroke warning signs that the CDC says need immediate treatment. Note the time they began, go by ambulance, and get help even if the symptoms fade.

The FAST reminder (face, arm, speech, time) helps, but it doesn't catch every way a stroke shows up. In a published review of stroke records, Kleindorfer and colleagues found some patients had symptoms outside that reminder. Don't wait for every sign, and don't use a checklist to rule out a stroke.

Back pain with new symptoms in both legs, bladder or bowel changes such as difficulty passing urine, or numbness around the genitals or anus also needs emergency assessment; the NHS lists these as emergency symptoms. Don't wait for a routine appointment, with us or anyone.

Is it tiredness or weakness?

Fatigue is tiredness or low energy. A bad night's sleep or a long day can bring it on, but fatigue that hangs on can also come with illness, medicines or other health problems. It's a symptom, and it can have many causes.

Muscle weakness is reduced strength. You can also feel weak when an exam finds no measurable loss of strength at all, and a medical doctor can tell the difference and look for the cause.

For example, "I feel exhausted before I start the stairs" and "my right foot has started catching on the steps" describe different changes. You don't have to pick the medical term before you call for advice.

Who should check unexplained weakness?

Weakness with no clear reason, in just one area, or that won't go away should get a prompt look from a medical doctor. Sudden weakness needs medical advice right away, and if it's in the face, arm or leg or comes with any of the stroke signs above, call 911. The assessment may include questions about when it started, recent illness and your medicines, plus an exam and tests when they're needed.

Tiredness that's lasted for weeks is a job for your primary care doctor, and MedlinePlus recommends getting ongoing fatigue checked. It helps them to hear how it affects your days and if rest changes it. Long-running tiredness shouldn't automatically be put down to motivation, or to a need for chiropractic care.

How to describe feeling weak

Whoever examines you will want to hear these:

• "This started on ___, and the change I noticed was ___."
• "The task that's hard now is ___."
• "It affects ___, and it's getting better, worse or staying the same."
• "The help I need today is ___."

Needing a ride, or a hand with a task that feels unsafe right now, isn't a failure. You don't need a diagnosis before you ask someone for that kind of help.

Where chiropractic care fits in

New weakness needs urgent assessment from a medical doctor, and a routine chiropractic visit is never a reason to delay it. Once a medical doctor has checked it and what's left is a muscle-and-joint problem, a chiropractic plan should aim at something you can name, like carrying the groceries in from the car, and say how progress will be checked.

Our guide to what a chiropractor may help with covers where chiropractic care starts and stops. For more on putting an everyday goal into words before you talk to anyone about care, read the value of health.

If a medical doctor has checked the weakness and now a stiff back, hip or knee is turning the stairs into a project, call our Clarksville office about the stiffness and we'll take a look. If our exam suggests it isn't a muscle-and-joint problem, we'll tell you and refer you for the right medical evaluation.