Hello,
I'm a 38 year old female. About a month ago I started experiencing body-wide twitching. Most of it is located in my back, but almost every part of my body has experienced some twitching. I also have a great deal of body-wide muscle pain, not cramping but just constant soreness (like I've been exercising constantly). Of course I googled my symptoms and I found out that twitching is often associated with ALS.
Upon further reading I learned that body-wide twitching is usually associated with benign fasciculation syndrome rather then ALS. However, I came across a post where someone mentioned having body-wide twitching and bulbar onset (slurred speech). I'm really confused at this point. I do not have any signs of slurred speech, but I do from once in a while swallow my tea the wrong way (Hence why I worry about bulbar onset with the ongoing twitching). I'm getting super anxious as you can imagine.
I should also mention that I've noticed tonight some tremors on my left hand (pinky and ring finger mostly). I had the "bright idea" of doing a wrist test for clonus and of course that made the tremors even more pronounced which of course made me fearful that I might have clonus. I feel like I'm spiralling out of my mind. I sometimes feel as if I might have some weakness in a hand, but then a few days later it goes away and another part of my body will feel weak. Which leads me to believe this is more a case of perceived weakness rather than real clinical weakness.
I guess what I'd like to ask those of you who have first hand experience of ALS is do my symptoms line up with your own experiences? How exactly does bulbar onset manifest itself? Does one start experiencing slurred speech first, then followed by dysphagia? Or does one start chocking on liquids first and the slurred speech appears later? About the chocking on liquids does it happen from time to time or is it more constant as an early sign of ALS...does one choke several times a day or is it more like once every few weeks? Does one's voice become more hoarse or is it more a change in the quality of the speech (clarity and rate)?
I've read the post on your site where it is mentioned that body-wide twitching is not usually how ALS presents itself, and that really made me a lot less anxious. So thank you in advance for all the awesome info you guys have provided.
I'm a 38 year old female. About a month ago I started experiencing body-wide twitching. Most of it is located in my back, but almost every part of my body has experienced some twitching. I also have a great deal of body-wide muscle pain, not cramping but just constant soreness (like I've been exercising constantly). Of course I googled my symptoms and I found out that twitching is often associated with ALS.
Upon further reading I learned that body-wide twitching is usually associated with benign fasciculation syndrome rather then ALS. However, I came across a post where someone mentioned having body-wide twitching and bulbar onset (slurred speech). I'm really confused at this point. I do not have any signs of slurred speech, but I do from once in a while swallow my tea the wrong way (Hence why I worry about bulbar onset with the ongoing twitching). I'm getting super anxious as you can imagine.
I should also mention that I've noticed tonight some tremors on my left hand (pinky and ring finger mostly). I had the "bright idea" of doing a wrist test for clonus and of course that made the tremors even more pronounced which of course made me fearful that I might have clonus. I feel like I'm spiralling out of my mind. I sometimes feel as if I might have some weakness in a hand, but then a few days later it goes away and another part of my body will feel weak. Which leads me to believe this is more a case of perceived weakness rather than real clinical weakness.
I guess what I'd like to ask those of you who have first hand experience of ALS is do my symptoms line up with your own experiences? How exactly does bulbar onset manifest itself? Does one start experiencing slurred speech first, then followed by dysphagia? Or does one start chocking on liquids first and the slurred speech appears later? About the chocking on liquids does it happen from time to time or is it more constant as an early sign of ALS...does one choke several times a day or is it more like once every few weeks? Does one's voice become more hoarse or is it more a change in the quality of the speech (clarity and rate)?
I've read the post on your site where it is mentioned that body-wide twitching is not usually how ALS presents itself, and that really made me a lot less anxious. So thank you in advance for all the awesome info you guys have provided.
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