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Hey guys, I'm 23 (I've read the statistics, I feel like me even coming here is slightly ridiculous) but none the less I'm trying to be proactive while waiting to go to the neuro. I've been having a lot of weird symptoms for awhile now and trying to figure out what the hell is going on with me, so I figured I'd come here with the few questions I did have and hope you could share your experiences. My first one is whats the difference between spasm, and fasciculation? I had small contractions at the base of my thumb for a time, but they seemed to have stopped a week or so ago, I've been reading a lot of your threads and it seems like had it been real spasms I would not be able to do a whole lot of anything with those muscle groups had the twitching stopped. The second question I guess will sound dumb but it's been hard for me to under stand, what it muscle weakness? I've been having odd feelings in two of my finger tips and pain on top of my hand, an noticing some perceived clumsiness. However when I went to the neuro to check for ms the doc tested muscle strength and said there was no issue, it's strange to me because the whole arm feels off and clumsier, like its not my own doesn't stop day to day function it's just really weird. Third question is what about pain? Like sore tender areas? Thanks for reading all of this, and any response would be great, I dunno...could just be nerve compression or something I do a lot of physically intensive stuff.
 
I wanted to say aswell that I'm taking to time to read all the stickies, and one of the things it talked about was taking into consideration th fact that alot of folks here do have als. If anything about my previous post came off as insensitive I am so very sorry, I can't even begin to imagine how hard alot of this stuff must be.
 
Corey. You have found the stckies or you can search for your answers. They have all been covered many many times in the last few weeks/months.
You do not sound even remotely like you have ALS, so you may be better not to spend time hanging out here and getting unnecessarily worried.
Just leave it to your doctor to sort out and try not to google your symptoms
 
Tried to reply to you but for some weird reason it's gone to moderation again. Getting rather sick of it.

Anyway keep off google, the answers to your questions should be in the stckies, you don't have ALS and leave it to the doctor.
Aly
 
Sorry now 2 have gone to moderator. Have tried to answer you post, but gave up.
 
I think that at this point you need to listen to your doctors. Your symptoms are so new and could be caused from any number of things. I hope you get answers soon, best wishes.
 
Clinical weakness works likes this:

A pencil neck geek and an olympic weight lifter both rate the same: a 5. That's why most able bodied worried types don't understand why they don't have weakness, because they don't realize a guy who can bench 10 lbs and a guy who can bench 500 lbs both score the same: basic healthy human, 5.

A completely paralyzed muscle is rated a 0. Even just the ability to twitch the muscle uselessly already climbs you up to a 1. At a 2, I believe you can use the muscle on a horizontal surface without friction - like the ability to pull your leg across silk sheets. The differences between 3/4 are whether you can use the muscle against gravity and resistance.

Now, in MND, what's really weird is that feeling doesn't often come into it. It seems whatever feedback track that is supposed to warn us of motor trouble gets burned out with our motor neurons themselves, so we feel strong, we just aren't. Hand weakness doesn't make you feel clumsy, it's seeing your entire frying pan of food on the floor day after day that makes you feel clumsy. I remember one time in particular, I though I was pouring my drink into my mouth, until I realized I wasn't feeling less thirsty... it was a huge puddle on my shirt. Things feel right, but they don't work right. It's like when our brain sends the signal to do something, it just checks off the "did that" box without checking if it worked or not. I would go so far to say that feeling weak/clumsy is actually a big sign that whatever you're looking at isn't an MND, though I won't claim that's 100%, it is a good sign though!
 
HA i'll make real simple weakness is not being able to pick up something simple or as light as a glass filled with milk..................you don't have ALS.
 
I had mainly bulbar onset and didnt even realize the muscles weakness untill the exam. With my left foot I could move her the right foot I couldnt. Very good explanation Tokafang.
Corey, Doesn't sound even remotely like ALS at this point.
 
If you put in the word Google in your post, it gets moderated. Try G--gle instead.

AL.
 
Oh thanks Al, never knew that. G.....gle it will be from now on :)
 
I think its important to point out that with ALS, clinical weakness (which is what is being discussed here) does not happen overnight, nor within a span of days or weeks.

ALS and the MNDs are an insidious group of diseases that gradually infringe on what a person could normally previously do. My neurologist has explained to me, that by time a person is deemed clinically weak during an exam, they would have lost at least 60% of what was their strength before the problem began.

What doctors are looking for, therefore, is not necessarily only how strong we are, but also if the muscle is able to contract fully. Adduction and abduction, etc.

Here is a glossary of sorts, that give examples of medical terminology for anatomical motion:
Anatomical terms of motion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Additionally, coordination issues are not really strength driven. With MND it is the upper motor neurons which cause clumsiness. I notice it most in my fine motor movement of my fingers. There is a slowing, and I am not as accurate as I was. I believe this is a feature of what is termed spacity.

Like so many others here have commented, not only in this thread, but others as well, I did not perceive I had bulbar weakness. It was pointed out to me by my doctors and other medical professionals involved with my care. It came on so gradually that I was able to just get used to the changes without consciously realizing there was a change.

Corey, I agree with the others that what you're describing sounds nothing like ALS. You've said you're physically active, and are involved in physically intense activity, so that most likely is your answer right there, just like you thought (an impinged nerve) leave it to your doctor to sort it out, and put fears of something like this type of disease completely out of your head.

good luck to you 8)
 
Well for me it has been four months of crazy symptoms, the strange thing is I'm not by any means normally a hypochondriac. Its just kinda scary I geuss when yur arm feels...I dunno it's hard to explain...foreign? Thats a good start. I feel clumsy and aside from that I've been having real weird nerve feelings (think euphoric pleasurable nerve feelings but they are confined to the top of my hand) for several months now, that sounds trivial but I assure you it's very apparent, and distracting. I'm so confused as to what to think an my doctor is under the opinion that if your under 35 something cant be wrong, and I mean rightly so But stil I wouldn't be worried if things weren't so out of my damn experience. My clumsiness and the fact that one of my thelnar mounds is twice as small as the other one I guess freaked me out, I guess I might have freaked a bit =(
 
Anyway thanks guys, I really appreciate the help an support, god knows if I was on this bored I'd get awful tired of the waves of freaked people posting hear =) I hope it's okay if I keep you guys informed. Its incredible to me that there are so many people with this terrible illness and very little on the web in the way of information or understanding, its funny that in my search into MS I've found a lot of the same thing (I've had MS esk symptoms off an on for awhile to the point to where my neuro wants to get the MRI, but a lack of medical insurance has made that fairly difficult.) I guess your average pharmaceutical company feels there is very little money in it. It's unfortunate.
 
With ALS, it's not how your body feels, but how your body fails. ALS is a progressive degenerative neuromuscular disease, which means that, over time (and a short time at that), more and more nerves and the muscles that they control will fail -- permanently. It starts in one part of the body -- a hand, a foot, your mouth or tongue -- and spreads through the body from there.

If no muscles are failing, it's not ALS. If the muscle failures aren't spreading -- from the fingers up the arm, from the foot up the leg, or from the tongue to the rest of the mouth and throat -- it's not likely to be ALS. If your problems come and go, it's not ALS.

Good luck to you.
 
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