Happyphysicist
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- Jan 11, 2011
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Surprised at myself for writing but I just have to. I want to thank the brave members of this group before subjecting you to my posting. I
I am a 44 year old male.
About 9 months ago I noticed that speaking became an effort. Currently whenever I speak it reminds me of when I was a naughty teen ager and would come home inebriated and try to sound sober as I spoke to my parents. Focusing on each word trying hard to make it come out right. To date no one has noticed whatsoever. In fact I have spoken about it to a few close friends and they say they notice nothing whatsoever abnormal about my speech. But I work very hard to make myself sound normal. I spend a good part of my day talking about complex technical issues so it is appropriate for me to speak very slowly (which I have to do to avoid sounding drunk). I think most people think I am being condescending if anything. But every day I dread the conversations I will have and worry about how I am going to get through them. After an hour of speaking I am exhausted.
I seem to always have too much saliva in my mouth and need to swallow constantly, which just adds to the challenge of speaking. I don't know whether I swallow more or if it is that the act of swallowing is now a conscious concerted effort like talking and I am reluctant to do it.
I choke on my food almost every time I eat (or drink). Very embarrassing. I have found myself taking smaller bites and eating less. I am beginning to dread eating in addition to speaking.
I have chipped my front teeth on each other while eating a total of 4 times in the last 4 months. Usually while eating soft food like pasta.
About two weeks ago my facial muscles started twitching. This involved my lips, chin and nose. They have stopped for now but they were driving me a little crazy and I was becoming very irritable because of them. It was torture.
During this episode I stuck my tongue out one day while watching my facial twitching and was shocked by what I saw. My tongue looked like a bag of worms, twitching furiously. This symptom has not gone away and I have no idea how long it has been going on. Even when my tongue is in and at rest it is still twitching madly. It looks like popcorn, twitching in random places, several times a second all over, sudden sharp tugs in my tongue muscles. My wife has been rolling her eyes at my complaints over the past few months until she saw my tongue. Now she is a little concerned.
Now this next one is odd, please don't laugh but it is yet another thing that has changed lately. When I sneeze it seems to be forced through my nose entirely and it is invariably a messy affair. I can't just have a simple little sneeze anymore. Its like my mouth and cheeks are in the way. It would be like sneezing while covering your mouth. Try it sometime and you'll know what I mean.
When I laugh now I snort like a character from Revenge of the Nerds.
I know, I know, this is all silly but all these little things have shown up over the last 9 months or so. Any one of them or even all of them I would just attribute to getting old. Its just that tongue quivering that has got me worried and what lead me here. If I google difficulty with speech and quivering tongue ALS is always the first thing that comes up.
I'll make an appointment with a primary care physician tomorrow and go from there. I just needed to post it and get someone's thoughts who has experience with ALS.
Now that my wife is researching this online she might stumble across this post. And hopefully years down the road she will ridicule me in front of our friends at a party with "and he even posted his symptoms on an ALS discussion board". That is the future I am desperately hoping for.
I am a 44 year old male.
About 9 months ago I noticed that speaking became an effort. Currently whenever I speak it reminds me of when I was a naughty teen ager and would come home inebriated and try to sound sober as I spoke to my parents. Focusing on each word trying hard to make it come out right. To date no one has noticed whatsoever. In fact I have spoken about it to a few close friends and they say they notice nothing whatsoever abnormal about my speech. But I work very hard to make myself sound normal. I spend a good part of my day talking about complex technical issues so it is appropriate for me to speak very slowly (which I have to do to avoid sounding drunk). I think most people think I am being condescending if anything. But every day I dread the conversations I will have and worry about how I am going to get through them. After an hour of speaking I am exhausted.
I seem to always have too much saliva in my mouth and need to swallow constantly, which just adds to the challenge of speaking. I don't know whether I swallow more or if it is that the act of swallowing is now a conscious concerted effort like talking and I am reluctant to do it.
I choke on my food almost every time I eat (or drink). Very embarrassing. I have found myself taking smaller bites and eating less. I am beginning to dread eating in addition to speaking.
I have chipped my front teeth on each other while eating a total of 4 times in the last 4 months. Usually while eating soft food like pasta.
About two weeks ago my facial muscles started twitching. This involved my lips, chin and nose. They have stopped for now but they were driving me a little crazy and I was becoming very irritable because of them. It was torture.
During this episode I stuck my tongue out one day while watching my facial twitching and was shocked by what I saw. My tongue looked like a bag of worms, twitching furiously. This symptom has not gone away and I have no idea how long it has been going on. Even when my tongue is in and at rest it is still twitching madly. It looks like popcorn, twitching in random places, several times a second all over, sudden sharp tugs in my tongue muscles. My wife has been rolling her eyes at my complaints over the past few months until she saw my tongue. Now she is a little concerned.
Now this next one is odd, please don't laugh but it is yet another thing that has changed lately. When I sneeze it seems to be forced through my nose entirely and it is invariably a messy affair. I can't just have a simple little sneeze anymore. Its like my mouth and cheeks are in the way. It would be like sneezing while covering your mouth. Try it sometime and you'll know what I mean.
When I laugh now I snort like a character from Revenge of the Nerds.
I know, I know, this is all silly but all these little things have shown up over the last 9 months or so. Any one of them or even all of them I would just attribute to getting old. Its just that tongue quivering that has got me worried and what lead me here. If I google difficulty with speech and quivering tongue ALS is always the first thing that comes up.
I'll make an appointment with a primary care physician tomorrow and go from there. I just needed to post it and get someone's thoughts who has experience with ALS.
Now that my wife is researching this online she might stumble across this post. And hopefully years down the road she will ridicule me in front of our friends at a party with "and he even posted his symptoms on an ALS discussion board". That is the future I am desperately hoping for.