Hi Blue,
May I ask what the road has been that brought your wife to see a neurologist? Symptoms, time line etc.? I ask because it is not just the clean EMG that rules out ALS but also a clean clinical exam and other symtoms that may not fit with ALS that would rule the disease out.
Thanks a lot for asking....it's been a pretty strange trip. I'll have to ask her for more specifics (or just give her my log in) but basically:
She had a lot of thumb and forearm pain starting starting two months after our daughter was born (starting late September 2018...Daughter was born mid July 2018). Both her PCP and DC (chiro) diagnosed dequervain's tendonitis and told her it was relatively common with new moms due to the strain and lifting associated with nursing. She nursed for roughly 6 months. She's prescribed prednizone in October...then comes the lisp...more on that later.
She was off of birth control during and post partum, which exacerbated some hormonal issues. She felt pretty rough mentally for a bit...the sleep loss'll do that! I'm probably screwing timelines up from here, but she inquired about sleeplessness (historically neanderthalic-type sleeper) at a follow up OB appt. and her OB suggested she might have a touch of postpartum anxiety. She went back to her PCP who prescribed lexapro. Wife didn't at all like the way it made her feel, and stopped after a few weeks.
We noticed she was getting a lisp (had one as a kid and corrected through speech therapy) post lexapro and she was still having the same "hand area" pain, so she went back to see the PCP. Told again that anxiety manifested itself in weird ways. This was late October 2018.
She goes to her DC and gets some work done around this time too. Sorry again for not being precise here, but shortly thereafter, her speech really deteriorates....she sounds like she's deaf (no offense!) Hypernasal pitch, labored, MUCH slower pace, and a definite lisp. She calls her DC. He freaks out; tells her he wants to help but that he won't work on anything but her forearms...makes sense.
So the journey begins. She bounces around...gets told this is anxiety, gets routinely pushed into the "postpartum" bracket and then starts getting pissed. Does a bunch of research, consults a few speech therapists, and thinks it might be dysarthric ataxia. Speech therapists are sort of divided as to what it could be....would anxiety do this? Would the throat/neck/jaw be an issue? TMJ? Myasthenia Gravis? MS? ALS?
ALS pops up, and we sh&t ourselves (obviously). She goes to a neurologist and gets an MRI test in November and its clear. She gets an EMG on December 10th and its clear. She does a swallow test and its pretty much clear, though she reports chewing is a bit tougher and she's choked about 4 times....on water.
And around and around we go. Speech pathologists/Otolaryngologists fear it might be ALS or another neuromuscular disease; the neurologist who performed the EMG and MRI says no. She tried to get a second opinion twice and the two other neurologists concurred with the acting after reviewing their notes.
Sorry for the novel here. I'm quite sure I'm missing things. My wife is incredibly tough and organized, so she's taken COPIOUS notes. Just wanted to know how, uh, reassuring it truly is to get a clean EMG.
She's been pushing for a neck MRI, since while some symptoms, taken together, could definitely point to an ALS diagnosis, but the other physical issues she's been having could indicate something else....something rare/weird perhaps. We want to be clear-eyed either way, but obviously, it'll be weeks till she can get into this other neuro and throwing out a potential ALS diagnosis is BRAIN ROTTING!
Thanks for listening...I'll respond back with anything you might need or want to know. Really and truly appreciate it!