Jeliota--
You sound very authoritative in your judgments. Do you have any professional training?
By the way, I am perfectly relaxed, thank you. I just initiated this thread to elicit information and, perhaps, the experiences of people--PAL or otherwise--who have been through this twitching business pending my appointment with a neurologist, a process I have already initiated, since I'm well aware that only rigorous testing can tell what's going on. Given the fact that only rigorous testing and the analysis of a specialized neurologist can determine what's going on with any individual--and even the neuros aren't always sure, at least in the early stages--I think it's best that any and all laypeople out here be very careful about offering broad-brush assumptions or dismissals about what may or may not be going on with someone else.
By the way--what I like about Blizna's posts is that he offers useful information, but only as quoted from neurologists he has seen--he doesn't presume to play doctor based on his own layperson's knowledge. More important, his tone is friendly and compassionate, which I think is the right note to strike out here. If someone happens to be worried or concerned, tartly dismissing their worries or concerns--especially when such dismissals are based on no direct familiarity with their case or any professional training--is not likely to make them feel any better. The idea, I think, is to be reassuring, not dismissive, about people's concerns.
At any rate--here is some potentially useful information on this topic I found on-line from a neurologist at the Cleveland Clinic. I quote directly:
"Benign fasciulations tend to be rare [I think he means rare in frequency], spread out over the body and tend not to be progressived. In neuromuscular disease, fasciculations are more likely to be localized, more frequent and occur non-stop. That being said, localized fasciculation and/or progressively worsening fasciculations are not diagnostic of ALS (which is only made by EMG and the clinical picture of weakness and atrophy)."
Jeff