Do I have ALS, early symptoms?

[bdbellace]

Hi, I wanted to see if I might have very early signs of ALS. These are my symptoms. I have a positive pronator drift, my left hand is very weak, and I have a pulsating twitches on my thigh muscle and near my wrist(pulse). I have complete weakness in my left leg and foot drops inward & mild twitches(not visible just under skin) in my calf and stomach. I have been to Neuro in Phila, & he has run many tests, including MRI, MRI spinal, all blood work, and I have had ANA & kinase ran twice, all results normal. I have very stiff muscles during sleep and after I wake up. I had an EEG, normal, but no EMG yet. My hand cant make the ok sign wout my fingers failing and cant keep fingers up or straight without jerky movement or floppy thumb down, or keep my left hand on my waist, & when I tap my fingers with my thumb I do double taps. I have no speech issues. My Dr. and I do not know what is wrong. I feel very nervous, however it has only been 6 wks, but I wanted to see if anyone could help or make any suggestions. Thank you, Barb

 

[vickim]

All you can do is follow up with your dr. Being only 6 weeks the dr may want to see what kind of progression there is before determining what is wrong. From what I understand als does not affect that many parts of the body at once and so rapidly.

With it being only 6 weeks it could still be anything at this point. My advice is to trust in your drs, they are far more knowledgeable than us here, and far more experienced.

 

[vickim]

My post went to moderation....hopefully it will show up later.

 

[ottawa girl]

Barb,

This is a duplicate of your August 7th thread.

Beky, a most knowledgeable and senior member replies as follows:
( I agree with Beky's comment)

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I can only suggest to follow up with your doctor, he sounds like he's working hard for you. In general, having symptoms in both your left hand and foot/leg in just 5 weeks is not something that would suggest ALS, but until you get through the electrical studies you won't be able to know for sure.

Whatever is going on, to have such symptoms in just over a month must be very difficult. If you have any practical questions in the meantime, "how do I do so and so with this sort of weakness?", that we could probably help with, feel free to shoot me a visitor message. Even if we have different conditions, the practical living lessons come down to very similar things.
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Beky
Probably PLS, I have a unique mutation of SPG7