Cramps and twitching...do I have ALS?

[mbdavis1976]

Hi everyone,
I'm a 34 year old male. For 2 weeks I've been having occasional muscle twitches in my calves, thighs and hamstrings (and very rarely in my right shoulder). Then this week I started getting some occasional cramps in my right calf. Saw the neurologist last week and had a normal neurological exam (normal strength and reflexes and no atrophy) but I feel like my right leg is "heavier" than my right (just my feeling, no objective evidence of weakness on the neurologists exam). I am scheduled for an EMG tomorrow. Freaking out a little bit...actually a lot. Do a lot of people present with just cramps and twitching without muscle weakness or atrophy and normal reflexes?
God I hope my EMG is normal...

 

[pumpdoc]

Hi everyone,
I'm a 34 year old male. For 2 weeks I've been having occasional muscle twitches in my calves, thighs and hamstrings (and very rarely in my right shoulder). Then this week I started getting some occasional cramps in my right calf. Saw the neurologist last week and had a normal neurological exam (normal strength and reflexes and no atrophy) but I feel like my right leg is "heavier" than my right (just my feeling, no objective evidence of weakness on the neurologists exam). I am scheduled for an EMG tomorrow. Freaking out a little bit...actually a lot. Do a lot of people present with just cramps and twitching without muscle weakness or atrophy and normal reflexes?
God I hope my EMG is normal...

Go away, you don't have ALS...........................

 

[TedH5]

To answer your question, no it is not normal to present with just twitching and cramps without weakness. If your clinical exam showed no weakness and everything appeared normal you should feel very good about that. Your EMG will be very telling but I would not worry about having ALS because your symptoms do not point towards it at all. Good luck tomorrow I am sure it will go great!

 

[sadiemae]

Muscle Twitching: Is it ALS or Anxiety or BFS? Best Information for Terrified People - Associated Content from Yahoo! - associatedcontent.com

 

[BarryG]

If only ALS was just twitching and cramps we would all be so happy.

BTW this PALS has never has significant twitching or cramps.

 

[Robynnblue]

Hi everyone,
I'm a 34 year old male. For 2 weeks I've been having occasional muscle twitches in my calves, thighs and hamstrings (and very rarely in my right shoulder). Then this week I started getting some occasional cramps in my right calf. Saw the neurologist last week and had a normal neurological exam (normal strength and reflexes and no atrophy) but I feel like my right leg is "heavier" than my right (just my feeling, no objective evidence of weakness on the neurologists exam). I am scheduled for an EMG tomorrow. Freaking out a little bit...actually a lot. Do a lot of people present with just cramps and twitching without muscle weakness or atrophy and normal reflexes?
God I hope my EMG is normal...

I'm not going to tell you to go away (you have every right to be here and ask questions), but I will say I am very confident that you dont have ALS. You passed your clinical exam with flying colors so I suspect you will do the same with your EMG, so try really hard not to get your self all worked up about it.

Ask your neuro about Benign Cramp Fasciculation Syndrome, that could very well be your issue and the link Saidemae gave you has some good info so read up on that and it should bring you some relief and reassurance.

Let us know how it goes, but you will be fine

Take Care

Robynn

 

[mbdavis1976]

EMG done on right arm and leg were normal. going back to primary doc for further eval of MS or BFS or vitamin deficiency. but normal EMG was a relilef!

 

[AndyDJX]

Congratulations! It's always a good idea to have symptoms like that checked out by a doctor, especially for important but easily treatable things like vitamin deficiency, but you can safely stop worrying about ALS! Also, MS really doesn't present this way either.

My best advice: stay off the internet, talk to your doctors and go from there. If they can't give you any answers, which is entirely possible, just accept that you're one of the many (many many) of us who have weird symptoms but no real answer. Sometimes when they can't tell you what it is, you just have to find comfort in knowing what it isn't.

Take care,

Andy

 

[Pat Paine]

Congrats on a neg/clean EMG. That should give you great peace of mind.
blessing, Pat

 

[nightwolf_mk]

I've been dealing with these symptoms for four years and I would like to give some advises. First of all, try to stop taking anything that has stimulants like coffee, chocolate, coca-cola and other things. Second, start drinking more water than you normally drink . I don't know why and I haven't found many sources about water and fasciculations but as soon as I started drinking more water it helped me decreasing the symptoms. For cramps I drink tonic water and take potassium pills. I take a supplement called dolomite that is a mix of calcium and magnesium. Although I don't have signs of vitamins deficiencies on the tests that I've done I believe that I have some kind of electrolyte imbalance and the mix of water and the other supplements make these imbalance less severe but as I said it is just a guess since I don't have any scientific proof for that. These "treatments" have been helping me through these years. They haven't made my symptoms went away but at least they have helped me relieving them a lot. I hope this things can help you too.

God stay with you.

 

[TedH5]

Great stuff! Congrats! A clean EMG should put your mind to rest!