strange issues and now elevated liver AST level

[bill2336]

My name is Bill from the PA area and I'm 41 with 3 children. I will give a brief list of the issues I've been having since last December.

It started with numbness in my right thumb and noticed a lump under the skin and the Dr. I went to said it was a cyst, but should cause numbness in my thumb. I tryed to ignore this issue and then noticed one morning my right thigh has no feeling. Then over the course of a few weeks I felt my right arm get numb and tingley. My Dr. ordered an MRI which my health insurance plan deemed not medically necsassary. I tryed to forget about it then realized my thumb was no longer numb. The pins and needles continued in my right arm for a few weeks and also when I was sitting at the computer my mid section would feel numb and tight. Most of this subsided and went away by April. At this point I felt twitching in my shoulder and typed in twitching in google and found ALS. I begin to panic and started searching everthing there is about ALS.

At the beginning of May I woke up one day and noticed this severe pain in my fingers and it lasted for a few weeks. Then a pain in my lower back that hurt like hell and lasted for a week. The twitches begin everywhere in my body. My legs, chest, back, neck, arms, and hands. I started to feel like speaking was difficult and getting a sentence out was difficult.

I went back to the Dr. at the end of May and I finally brought up my concern with ALS. He asked if I had any muscle weakness, so I said I feel more tired than noramal and outlined all the other symptoms I had. He said it doesn't sound like ALS, but lets do an initial nurological screening. He checked my strength, reflexes, and ran a metal probe arcoss my foot and said everything looks fine. He came back in and asked if I was ever diagnosed with a panic/anxiety disorder. He put me on Klonpin for this. I went back a week later and had him do the test again and he found the same result. So this time he fought for an MRI and it came back with two foci in my right tempral lobe that the radiologist deemed as not highly suggestive of MS, but could not be ruled out. At this time he noted an elevation in my liver enzyme (AST), which is indicative of muscle disorders or heart attacks rather than a liver proplem. He order a test for hepatitis and an ultrasound of my liver. When I arrived I had him conduct the basic nurological exam again and once again he said no clinical sign of muscle weakness. He also said the liver ultrasound was normal, but my liver enzyme was still slightly elevated.

I'm scheduled to see a nurologist this Wednesday and I'm scared to death because of all these mucsle twitches.

Does anyone have a similar story to mine? I feel like I'm waiting for my execution day next week.

Best Regards,
Bill

 

[trfogey]

Does anyone have a similar story to mine? I feel like I'm waiting for my execution day next week.

Tear up your death warrant, Bill, at least as far as ALS is concerned. Tons of things can cause muscle twitching other than ALS, not the least of which is anxiety, which you obviously have in abundance.

I really don't understand why you would think that you have ALS, even with the muscle twitching. If you've read here for any length of time, you've read that pain and other sensory problems (numbness, pins-and-needles, etc.) point away from ALS because ALS is a disease of the motor nerves and not the sensory nerves. You will also have read that ALS symptoms don't come and go but rather come and stay. Finally, you will have read that there is a lot of bad information about ALS on the Internet and that people with anxiety levels like yours should listen to their doctors and stay off of the Internet, since those anxious people lack the ability to see their own symptoms in the proper perspective and do a lot of mental and emotional damage to themselves by feeding their anxiety.

If you feel like you're waiting on your execution next week, look in the mirror and blame the guy you see there looking back at you. He's the one that told you that you have symptoms of ALS, not your doctors and certainly not this forum. If you're smart, you'll stop listening to his medical opinions, because he's a lousy diagnostician.

Good luck to you.

 

[notme]

Bill

I worked as a medic for 20 tears. Pain down the arm, especially the left, can be heart related. Heart issues can radiate to both arms. Some have heart attacks with all their pain in arms and back. Your age puts you at enough risk an EKG would not hurt.

Of course severe back pain can be many other things like pulled muscles, disc problems or even kidney stones. The arm problems are most likely a trapped nerve or neuropathy.

I'd suggest a full workup to rule out the normal suspects. I totally agree with trfogey...twitches are not ALS.

 

[pumpdoc]

Another victim of g88gle.

 

[laurel]

Bill are you on any cholesterol lowering drugs?
Laurel

 

[KC2U2]

maybe I'm just lucky, but I still have not had any real pain from ALS, i have had pain from falling and a few cramps. before my EMG the only twitch i noticed was just above my right knee and only after working all day so no, nothing like what you've experienced

 

[trfogey]

Here is a lyme symptoms list: If you have / had more than 20, strongly suggest lyme:

If you've lived to the age of thirty, you've almost certainly had 20 of those symptoms, whether or not you've ever been exposed to Lyme.

Save the LL proselytizing for the Lyme forums. One misdiagnosed case does not prove any kind of connection between neurological Lyme borrelliosis and ALS.

 

[Alyoop]

Oh my goodness, that list covers almost every disease known to man. Its mind boggling. The compulsive worriers will have a hayday with this list. Thanks

Actually when you read it, its kind of hilarious! It sounds like an illness called "being alive".

 

[bill2336]

Thanks for all the valuable feedback and I guess I do worry alot, but when you get symptoms that are hard to explain sometimes its hard not to worry. I went to the neurologist on Wednesday and went over my entire list of symptoms dating back from last December. He said the same thing that ALS is not sensory and numbness is not a symptom and joint pain in my fingers without muscle weakness does not fit either. I did present him with a copy of the MRI performed last month. He did not think much about it, but did ask to have the actual disk sent to his office.

Here is a copy of the MRI report
A multiplanar study was performed of the brain.
The ventricles are normal in size and position; there is no midline shift or abnormal mass effect. There are two tiny foci of
increased signal in the white matter in the right frontal lobe, one adjacent to the frontal horn. Diffusion-weighted series showed
no evidence of acute infarct.
The pituitary is not enlarged; the corpus callosum is normal. There appear to be a few small retention cysts involving the
maxillary sinuses; there is no air fluid level. The orbits and IACs are symmetrical. There is no displacement of the cerebellar
tonsils.
IMPRESSION:
TWO TINY NONSPECIFIC FOCl OF INCREASED SIGNAL IN THE RIGHT FRONTAL LOBE. THE PATTERN IS NOT HIGHLY
SUGGESTIVE OF MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS ALTHOUGH THIS CANNOT BE EXCLUDE

With so google research, I know I'm a google victim, I found nothing suggesting small foci in the temperal lobe is an idicator of ALS. Most of the data I gathered indicated that these spots are sometimes refured to as age spots in the brain.

He conducted a basic nuerological exam and said he did not see any signs of muscle weakness or atrophy. He then asked me to walk in a straight line and then on my tippy toes. The only mention he made was twitches he noticed during our exam in my arm and calf muscles. Then asked about my medications;
1. Aceon - blood pressure
2. Ritalin - ADHD
3. Klonopin - Anxiety
4. Avodart - Hair loss

At the end of the appointment he wrote me a script for an EMG, scheduled for the 22nd of July. I asked why the EMG and if he was thinking ALS he said highly unlikely, but lets get the test anyway.

I wonder if he saw something in the type of twitches and said highly unlikely to remove my fears. Should I be worked about this EMG? I really don't know much about it. More google research this weekend?

Have a great 4th to everyone,
Bill

 

[Al]

EMG is just another test in the list to eliminate different conditions. Enjoy the weekend with family. Worrying does no good.

AL.

 

[trfogey]

I wonder if he saw something in the type of twitches and said highly unlikely to remove my fears. Should I be worked about this EMG? I really don't know much about it. More google research this weekend?

Beer this weekend? Yes,! Good food this weekend? Yes! G--gle research this weekend? No way!

Oh my goodness, that list covers almost every disease known to man. Its mind boggling. The compulsive worriers will have a hayday with this list. Thanks

Actually when you read it, its kind of hilarious! It sounds like an illness called "being alive".

See attached graphic below.