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Sc1118

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Joined
Jun 11, 2018
Messages
4
Reason
Learn about ALS
Country
Us
State
Georgia
City
Atlanta
Hello. I want to first say thank you for any information or insight you may be able to give me. I also wanted to say that my thoughts are with you all that have been affected by this disease.

I am concerned due to a few reasons.
About a week ago, I noticed something was "off" with my left foot. I shook it off as I thought it was in my head until one day it really nagged me. I discovered that I couldn't walk on my left heel, and that any weight would send my entire foot crashing down. The weakness was so subtle that if I hadn't tried walking on my heels, I may have not given it a thought. I was still able to walk normally in day to day activities, but I went to my GP and he was convinced that it was not ALS. He said it could be temporary muscle weakness due to a nerve or overuse. In my mind it was drop foot not caused by a nerve or overuse.
The reason I wasn't satisfied with that answer was because I had no pain in my back, leg or foot.
A few days of constantly trying to walk on my heels later, I'm now able to walk on both heels for a limited time. After about 5 seconds, my left foot starts straining under the weight and comes down, but is an improvement from where it was a week ago.

I thought this meant it wasn't ALS until I noticed that a muscle fiber in my left quad would twitch whenever I put any weight on it. When there is no weight, it only twitches here and there. I also noticed that when flexing both legs, the right thigh had an instant response, and I could feel all parts of my right leg flex. My left quad, however, takes more effort and time and by feeling with my fingers, I can tell there are areas that don't flex, while the same area on my right thigh does flex. The thing that concerns me here is the twitching under strain, as well as potential weakness that affects my left quad's ability to flex fully.

I have noticed no other weakness other than not being able to walk on my left heel well.
I do have twitches in both sides of my body, but I am aware that these are likely nothing.
The left quad, right next to the inside of my knee twitches when weight is put on.
I am 25, male.
My main questions:
Does it sound like I may have ALS?
Would my foot be able to improve the way it has if I did have ALS?
Is twitching under strain something to be concerned about?
Does the inability to flex my left quad indicate weakness?

Thank you all for your time. I have been fighting anxiety over this, and my follow up appointment isn't for another month. I wanted to see if there were any answers I could get to either put my mind at ease or get me to get a second opinion.

Regards,
Sc
 
Just wanted to add that it is extremely difficult to balance on my left leg compared to my right. Thanks again:)
 
If I'm understanding correctly, your GP thinks this is a nerve or overuse issue and you disagree because there is no pain? Any purely motor nerve problem is not going to entail pain. But that is not really the point. It is not so much how you got here but if there is reason for concern. I see no reason for your mind to jump to ALS.

Waxing and waning weakness with heel walking for a week, might merit keeping an eye on but not much else. We can't rule out ALS via the net, but I would be very surprised if your issue is anything serious. You might consider gentle extension/stretching (holding stretches for several seconds, not bouncing) for the muscle that is irritated in some way, e.g. using a footstool or other support, and your doc can assess at the followup if there is any significant change.

Try not to worry meanwhile, just do some stretching and live your life.

Best,
Laurie
 
Thank you, Laurie.

With things like this it's so hard to tell if I'm actually being rational or if im overreacting. I really appreciate your input. Do the issues with my quad not bring up any alarms for you then? I had felt better about this entire thing when my foot seemed to recover a little bit, but the quad has me spooked!!!
 
No, I don't hear any alarm bells. Again, it's only been a matter of days and it would be pretty common for the feelings you have to move around in some kind of nerve root irritation, esp. as you become more conscious of them. If/when there is flat out consistent lack of mobility in terms of walking or dragging, that would be another thing.

I don't know how much you walk, but keeping things limber couldn't hurt.
 
Sc1118, (Golly, we're getting another run of screen names with numbers and similar
presentations, just coincidence I guess. :) ) as you wrote...

" I had felt better about this entire thing when my foot seemed to recover a little bit."

With ALS nothing recovers
 
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