Okay - maybe someone has heard of this and knows a dx. I have researched and researched and can not find ONE single professional answer to it. Only thing I can find is thread after thread after thread with HUNDREDS of PATIENTS who have this complaint, yet NO ONE has dx it as being anything yet.
Vibration in your thigh - crease of thigh in women, or groin area usually in men - and it feels exactly like you have your cell phone on vibrate in your pocket and its going off. IN fact - causes many to constantly check their cell only to realize that isn't what it is - can feel it lying down at night, sitting up during the day - just a constant low vibration.
My immediate thought is that its like blood rushing through a vein - but no s/s at all of any kind of DVT - no pain, no difficulty with mvmt, or breathing, no rapid hr - no other signs and symptoms of anything else - just this annoying vibration that feels like a tiny cell phone set on vibrate.
Is the muscle twitching, or is it merely the sensation without any movement of the muscle? A muscle twitch would be more suggestive of electrolytes. Sensory perception without muscle movement would suggest something else.
I've had this before, but only experience it on the left where I keep my phone, which is always in vibrate mode. I've always assumed it was a sort of sensory aftershock. Nerves that are stimulated frequently can become sensitized to stimuli and may trigger a sensation more easily (similar to central sensitization in chronic pain). So, I think my left thigh sensory neurons get triggered more easily because they're primed to feel the vibration of my phone, and now they trigger over the slightest provocation whether my phone is in my pocket or not. This actually sounds exactly like what one of the articles Risk Manager posted talks about, where resident and attending physicians reported increased phantom vibrations in the location of their pagers.
Dogen, you may be on to something. I keep my work and cell phones in my jacket pocket, and get that feeling frequently.
It isn't a muscle twitch, it's an actual vibrating sensation, along my outer thigh.
I too have experienced this a couple times. I have always attributed it to some rogue nerve impulses that fired off causing the sensation. I usually feel it a little higher up at hip level. I don't think it is anything to be concerned about.
I read an article a couple of years ago on this, and found it fascinating! I wish I could find it. I'll look for it later and see. It basically was studying these occurrences, and found that when people get text messages, their body releases endorphins/seratonin. When they looked at these people getting the phantom buzzes, it was almost as if it was their body's new response in cheering them up!
Basically, it was your body trying to knock you out of a funk.... you started feeling a little low, so your brain sent you a buzz that had worked in the past for cheering you up!
Yep, I know EXACTLY what you are talking about, as this happens to me a couple times a week. It could happen at anytime, anywhere, and always leaves me wondering what the heck??? :) Glad I am not the only one!
Specializes in Float Pool - A Little Bit of Everything.
I wish I had an answer, but I must say I clicked on this article because I thought this question was going to be in a Whole. Different. Direction! LOL, the mind of a nurse.
When I was carrying my cell regularly in my front hip pocket I started having these Phantom vibrations regularly. Like many times a day on the front of my thigh and in my foot.
I've since quit carrying there and only rarely experience them now. I didn't pay attention to how long it took to resolve but it was a few years.
Never heard of this. However, have heard of a young woman getting breast cancer where she kept her cell phone against her breast in her bra and they believe the radiation caused it. Also heard of policemen getting cancer from their radar devices. Don't put your cell phone in your bra. I have warned strangers I saw doing this as cell phones do give off radiation.
Has nothing to do with a REAL cell phone. No, it doesn't happen as a result of me keeping my cell phone in that same region regularly -in fact I keep it in my purse. So no - this is not a "phantom" reaction because I'm used to my cell vibrating in that area or anything. The only connection to a cell phone is that the feeling FEELS like a cell phone is in your pocket.
No - the muscle does not twitch. No muscle involvement. No pain. No sciatica.
Vibration - almost want to say it feels like blood rushing through a vein might feel if you could feel it happening.
I get the same thing and I always think I'm going crazy! 🤔 And no, my cell phone is not in my pocket on that side, but it definitely is a vibration.
Specializes in Med Surg/ICU/Psych/Emergency/CEN/retired.
WV-RN said:
May be meralgia parasthetica. A numbness and tingling in the outer thigh sometimes caused by wearing a tight belt like a heavy tool belt around the waist.
Meralgia parasthetica is real. Whether it is what is causing the symptoms, I cannot say. If I had these symptoms all the time, I'd go off the deep end.
Jensmom7, BSN, RN
1,907 Posts
Dogen, you may be on to something. I keep my work and cell phones in my jacket pocket, and get that feeling frequently.
It isn't a muscle twitch, it's an actual vibrating sensation, along my outer thigh.