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arss786

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houston
Hi ,
Appreciate the amazing work the kind souls here are doing helping others.

My story.
Am an active male of 30 years old who works out daily.
2.5 years ago i started twitching al over the body.

The twiches are like in right calves, abdomen, left forearms, sometimes eyes, sometimes legs... All over the place.
Many of them twitch for days , then stop.
Didnt bother about it much.
Last year hit sites, found out abut MND.
Incidently looked at my First dorsal of left hand, it had much lesser "Peak" than right.
It was not at all so voluminous as right.
Panicked, thought i will die in a year, quit job, went to a doc.
One neuro dismissed me outright.
I went to second, he found that he had observed that left was "different" than right, but didnt need any followup since i didnt have any weakness.
But he did reflexes, found it normal. And since i insisted on EMG, had it done.
EMG was absolutely fine.

A year has passed since then, i still have twiches all over, esp in calves.
I dont have any clinical weakness anywhere, since i do heavy weights, and can grip everything quite fine.

BUT

1. My first dorsal of left hand seems to have shrunk even further when i peak it.
Incidentally i noticed my left hand was never quite as voluminous as right when i looked at pics 5/6 years old. But the size is showing some progressive decrease.

Question is .
;
1. Is the atrophy/weakness so slow that even after one year i can do everything just fine.
2. If atrophy did exist in first place, would it not show up on EMG last year?


What other illness have these fantastic symotoms of atrophy, twitching?


Appreciate if you kind people helped...
Cheers..
 
Everyone twitches. Some more than others especially if you work out every day. If you really had atrophy then you'd be experiencing weakness. Believe your doctors. Enjoy your life. Why did you quit your job without knowing what's going on with you? My real atrophy came after I noticed weakness. And it's ugly atrophy. Not slight. And I don't twitch much at all. Good luck to you!
 
Look into Ben ign Fas ciculation Syn drome. Maybe thats where you need to start. I agree with Ms. Pie, you need to stop worrying and go live your life.

Everyone has differences in the right and left side of their bodies. that is why when you try on shoes you always try the right foot, it is usually predominately larger. If you are right handed then your right hand is bigger. If you were to take a mirror and hold it so you mirror the right side of your face (cutting off the left side) and then do the left side you would appear to be two different people.

I wish you peace and a long healthy life.
 
Arss,

I stopped reading after the " dying in a year part so quitting a job". What's up with that?

Many PALS continue working post diagnosis.

I'm sorry you have these fears and I hope you seek help to resolve them. Those are your biggest health issues, in my opinion. Not ALS.

Run, don't walk, to your GP. Go today, and bring a printed copy of your post with you and ask your doc. to read it.

Good luck to you.
 
..pumping iron everyday....no wonder yr muscles twitch....when you struggle to pick a cuppa tea up, then come back here.............otherwise enjoy your super fit body....johnny
 
What everyone posted above is correct. You be able to assuage your fears by looking up the anatomy of the hand - it is primarily composed of bones, fat, and connective tissue. Seeing a different look doesn't mean you've lost any muscle at all. I am not sure why, but people with BFS often lose fatty tissue in a way that looks like atrophy but leaves them fully functional. If you lose the ability to use your hand, then go back to your doctor.
 
HI
Thanks to Johhnyliver,Tokahfang,sadiemae, ms pie, vickim.
Appreciate your help.
Death comes to everyone, sooner or later, what matters is living like a good human while were are here.

May you guys live long!


However, if its not too much trouble, i d like to ask a few more questions.
1. Did any of you guys noticed body wide twitching before weakness?
2. What kind of weakness of hands, before atrophy, did you notice. were your hands perfectly in shape when you did see this weakness? was it only 2 fingers weakness, or more widespread, like entire arm?


Sorry to bother you guys.
Cheers.
 
ALS does not present with body wide twitching. It will be on one side, then slowly move to other side. We did not see weakness, it was felt. Such as not being able to grip something. Once the muscle starts dieing, the muscles will try to heal, causing twitching.
 
It is not a matter of seeing weakness. For example, I used to lift my 5 lb canister of flour with one hand, now I need both. I have a hard time opening jars. A 10 lb bag of potatoes feels like 20 lb.

I had weakness before, I noticed it in my walking, I felt like I couldn't hold up my weight. I could not get up from a squating position. The muscle cramping and twitches started later.
 
Hi,

Perceived weakness cannot be seen, it can only be felt.
For example, if you used to open a jar cap with your bare dominant hand (either right or left) but you can no longer do it even putting up a lot of effort, that's weakness.
With ALS, weakness doesn't come and go. Once it takes over, just stays until those muscles affected by it, atrophy and die.

The muscle twitching in ALS (also known as fasciculations by some Neuros), shows up after weakness is felt and noticed. Think about it as a distress call by your motor neurons still left alive (some of them have already died) trying to make it up for those that died.

ALS never presents as a body wide twitching, never. It starts on one side of the body (left arm, hand or left leg, foot) and then moves to the opposite side.

So, based on the reading of your own posts, I do not think you have ALS.


HTH
 
Twitching is not the first symptom of ALS--especially if it has gone on for 2.5 years. I promise you do not have it.
 
Thanks Everybody,
Appreciate your kindness, again.

After 2.5 years of bodywide twitching , of course, i still dont have any weakness, let alone clinical.
I lift hard weights, run kms etc.I Dont have any cramps etc too.

My only concern is the damn first dorsal muscle, which i feel is slowly diminishing in size and reducing the peak that i make.
and we are talking years , about 3/4 , maybe more.

Doctor stuck a needle last year for EMG right up there, but couldnt find anything.
He didnt even feel it was atorophy.

My question is,can atrophy happen ever so slightly and slowly without weakness
How fast did it happen for you guys?

Thanks
 
For me, it was weakness then fasciculations then atrophy then diagnosis.
You are not hearing your doctor. Or us.

Please oh please, don't waste precious time obsessing. Life is too durn short! Really.
 
couldn't turn key in lawnmower, and never recovered. when starting diagnoses my
measured hand squeeze. right hand 90lbs, left hand 45lbs now that is weakness as much as you want us to say you have als, its not so
 
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