Very worried at this point.

[FrankReadyIII]

Hello everyone, before I begin i’d like to say thank you for taking your time to read my post. The recent mass awareness that ALS charities have achieved has made it possible for me learn about this terrible disease and acquire a deep respect for all of you who have been touched by it. I also understand that such a sudden spike in global awareness has probably resulted in a lot of new people becoming afraid and anxious about every little twitch in their body and then they navigate to places like this to vent their fears. I hope that what i’m about to say doesn’t come off as such.

I’m 27 year old male and basically i’ve been experiencing an array of symptoms that seem to have slowly creeped up on me over the last month. It started out as a combination of twitching in my legs and weakness in my hand and foot on my left side. The weakness began to present itself in the form of an odd uneasiness; you know that feeling you get when you hit your funny bone? I had the lightest tinge of that funny-bone/numb sensation in the fingers of my hand and toes in my foot in the beginning. This along with constant twitching became a cause for worry. It’s been about a month now and my hand has become very clumsy with most things like writing, holding the fork, or gripping a cup. As far as my leg is concerned, the twitching has not let up and particularly in the last couple days, i’ve noticed the addition of the feeling of popping static in my foot. Like there’s an electrical storm where there is both constant twitching, and popping/cracking feeling in my foot. Also, I’ve been getting bouts of this same funny bone feeling in my leg from the toes all the way up to my thigh which has become very painful and is triggered by walking. Finally, i’ve had an odd weakness in my voice. Once again, this began as the slightest weakness projecting my voice which has turned into a definitive weakness in projecting my speech especially in my tongue and swallow muscles. I can’t engage in conversation for more than a few minutes before my speaking muscles feel exhausted. The odd thing about the voice problem is that if I give myself a rest, I will feel 100% rested and ready to speak, then within a few minutes I need to slow down and let my tongue and throat rest. I’ve also lost a good portion of my appetite and get tired within a few hours of starting a new day.

All in all, I’ve come here today because I can’t doubt what i’m feeling anymore. The funny bone feeling/weakness in my hand and foot have become so apparent that I feel that something is definitely wrong with me. Add the constant twitching in my legs and body for a month and I felt compelled to post my experiences on this board wondering if my symptoms might identify with MND or ALS. Thank you for your time.

 

[ECpara]

No they do not. At all.

 

[Atsugi]

Hi Frank,

Nothing you described sounds like ALS at all.

First, twitching can be anything at all. It's not diagnostic of ALS.

Second, your weakness is appearing, within one month, in your hands and your legs. That's not the way ALS works. In ALS, a single extremity is affected, such as your foot, then your ankle, then your knee, then your leg, until both legs are limp and useless. It works in a serial manner, not in parallel to both your hands and legs.

"Popping and cracking" is not a symptom of ALS. You see, ALS affects the motor nerves, not the sensory nerves, so you get paralyzed, but you don't feel anything at all. The discomfort and pain that ALS patients eventually feel come as a result of long days of joint immobility.

You also mentioned your voice getting better after resting. That's not ALS. In ALS, once a muscle is affected, it doesn't get better after being rested.

Your appetite has nothing to do with ALS.

Getting tired early. Again, nothing to do with ALS. ALS isn't about feeling weak, it's about nerves dying and muscles becoming permanently limp and useless.

In summary, you don't have ALS.

 

[nebrhahe53]

> Once again, this began as the slightest weakness projecting my voice which has turned into a definitive weakness in projecting my speech especially in my tongue and swallow muscles. I can’t engage in conversation for more than a few minutes before my speaking muscles feel exhausted. The odd thing about the voice problem is that if I give myself a rest, I will feel 100% rested and ready to speak, then within a few minutes I need to slow down and let my tongue and throat rest.

This is NOT ALS. ALS never gets better. Once you have lost something it stays lost forever.

> which has become very painful

ALS is a motor neuron disease. Pain is sensed by sensory neurons-different system-not affected by ALS. If you have pain that's good its not ALS.

 

[FrankReadyIII]

Thanks for your response, i'd like to clarify that the sensation that i've been feeling in my hand and leg (same side) is much more in the realm of numbness/funnybone than pain. Also, the weakness in projecting my speech has not improved and is getting worse, when I said I felt 100% rested, I was referring to my tongue/throat and not my lungs. If that makes sense. I'm very sorry for the confusion.

 

[nebrhahe53]

Numbness is also a sensory sensation not an ALS feeling. Once again ALS involves motor neurons not sensory neurons-make sure you understand the difference.
You dont feel numb, you dont feel pain. Your muscles just dont work. If they work and are not weak your dont have ALS period.

 

[Nikki J]

This poster is using multiple identities (2) and is banned