Family History Of ALS Now Me?

[sumedude007]

First Of All My Heart Goes Out To Anyone With This Horrible Disease. I Am A 37yo Male with a strong family history of Als...every person that I have known of on My fathers side has died from this disease between 55+62 years of age. He is 62 now so im often worried. Anyways..ive been having a pain in my lower neck and slightly into my left shoulder. It hurts to hold my head up. Ive been having the pain for a couple months now....it went away (mostly but not completely) for a few days and now it is back and hurts just as bad. I thought it could be a pulled muscle because i did take a fall, but my neck did not hurt until about a month after my fall. Then A couple/few weeks ago in the middle of the day my jaw just started hurting really bad for no apparent reason. hurts really bad when i yawn and i hear a slight clicking sound. So now I Have a few problems going on at once. Has anyone else had symptoms like these with the onset? The doc said it could be an infection or tmj, but said i have a 50/50 chance of getting it anyway because its in my family. He made me a neurologist appt....but i was afraid to go. Any thoughts on my symptoms would be appreciated. thank you.

 

[Alyoop]

Go to your neurologist appointment. You can get real information there. Why should what we say be any less onerous?
It sounds nothing at all like a presentation of ALS, but given your family history, I would go and get my mind put at ease by seeing a specialist. Your aches and pain s sound just like that and no more, try an anti inflammatory, it will help.

 

[trfogey]

I wish I could find the original "clicking joints" poster and slap him/her into next week, if not further.

Bond, James Bond -- sorry to hear about your family. Good to hear that your father is hale at his age. And I agree with Alyoop -- keep the neuro appointment. Nothing that you've listed here sounds anything at all like ALS.

 

[TedH5]

You have been given excellent advice. From what you have described you do not have ALS. Keep your appt just for your piece of mind.

I could be mistaken here so you should ask your neuro this question, but I think your GP made a mistake. You only have a 50 / 50 chance of having familial ALS if you inherited the "gene" that they believe is responsible for trigerring familial ALS. You do not automatically inherit that from what I understand. They can test that for you.

As I said I may have mispoken here so ask your Neuro this question. Good luck and as everyone else said what you have described as your symptoms is definitely not ALS.

 

[asantiago]

I'm in the same boat as you with the familial. Its hard not to attribute every body ailment to possible symptoms. What you described doesn't sound anything like ALS onset.

If your father is 62 with no symptoms then its very likely he escaped the gene. If he is not a carrier he cannot pass it to you. So try to stay positive.