Frenchgirl
New member
- Joined
- Oct 3, 2010
- Messages
- 2
- Reason
- Loved one DX
- Country
- FR
- State
- France
- City
- N
Hi,
As you can see I'm new to this forum and I'd like to say how impressed I am when I see how courageous and brave people diagnosed with this terrible disease are.
Early this summer my Grandma, who had been fighting bulbar ALS for almost 2 years, passed away. I didn't get to see her when she was ill since I live in France and she was living in Canada. Before that, I didn't know anything about ALS or even that it existed. It was very difficult for me and my family, especially because we were so far away.
Now, this will probably sound very silly and I hope I won't waste anyone's time with my concerns. I'm 19 years old and two months following my Grandma's death, I started having problems swallowing my own saliva and mucus (I know, yummy...). As stupid as it may sound, the first thing I thought about was how my Grandma had faced those issues with ALS.
I decided to go see my regular doctor who told me I had a tonsillitis/pharyngitis, which reassured me in the first place. A few weeks later, I still had some trouble swallowing and I could barely eat anything solid. After a blood test, it turned out that I had mononucleosis, hence why I was feeling so tired and my throat wasn't healing. But my doctor also said it was anxiety due to my fear of having the same disease as my Grandma that was creating a lump in my throat and causing me some swallowing issues. Therefore, he believes that sending me to a neurologist would only accentuate my concerns.
I still experience muscle twitching and tingling including in my tongue but I always try to calm myself instead of thinking I have ALS. It is difficult sometimes though, probably because I still have to accept what happened to my grandmother. That we know of, no other members of my family had ALS and I also gathered that at my age, it is pretty rare to be diagnosed with it. But as everyone knows, fear is rarely rational...
Thank you for taking the time to read me
As you can see I'm new to this forum and I'd like to say how impressed I am when I see how courageous and brave people diagnosed with this terrible disease are.
Early this summer my Grandma, who had been fighting bulbar ALS for almost 2 years, passed away. I didn't get to see her when she was ill since I live in France and she was living in Canada. Before that, I didn't know anything about ALS or even that it existed. It was very difficult for me and my family, especially because we were so far away.
Now, this will probably sound very silly and I hope I won't waste anyone's time with my concerns. I'm 19 years old and two months following my Grandma's death, I started having problems swallowing my own saliva and mucus (I know, yummy...). As stupid as it may sound, the first thing I thought about was how my Grandma had faced those issues with ALS.
I decided to go see my regular doctor who told me I had a tonsillitis/pharyngitis, which reassured me in the first place. A few weeks later, I still had some trouble swallowing and I could barely eat anything solid. After a blood test, it turned out that I had mononucleosis, hence why I was feeling so tired and my throat wasn't healing. But my doctor also said it was anxiety due to my fear of having the same disease as my Grandma that was creating a lump in my throat and causing me some swallowing issues. Therefore, he believes that sending me to a neurologist would only accentuate my concerns.
I still experience muscle twitching and tingling including in my tongue but I always try to calm myself instead of thinking I have ALS. It is difficult sometimes though, probably because I still have to accept what happened to my grandmother. That we know of, no other members of my family had ALS and I also gathered that at my age, it is pretty rare to be diagnosed with it. But as everyone knows, fear is rarely rational...
Thank you for taking the time to read me
