Some Questions for Concern

[AndrewAgnew01]

Good Morning,

Hope everyone is doing well! I have a few concerns with the way I have been feeling lately and want to share some of my symptoms with the community to see if you can help thanks! For the last 2 week’s I started to feel muscle weakness primarily in my left leg/ foot however no foot drop just a weird sort of tingly/ticklish weakness. I also noticed twitching/spasms in muscles all over my body arms, Hands, and shoulder’s have the same kind of feeling along with my pinkie and ring fingers on both hand’s sometimes feeling like I won’t be able to move them but of course I never actually lost mobility . Another cause for concern has been an excessive amount of mucus in my throat that I must clear throughout the day which I never had along with a tight feeling in my throat. What really scared me was last night I went to do a light workout in the gym no problems with lifting this time thank god however I noticed that same feeling in my leg’s during some points of the work out and when I went on the elliptical my left foot felt completely numb like I was walking on air of course feeling that I panicked and decided to call it quits on the way out the foot felt extremely weak and tingly. I’ve been to a Neurologist and ENT doctor this week both said I’m normal however the neuro scheduled me for an MRI and EEG test I’m really worried thank you everyone.

 

[Atsugi]

It's time to relax, Andrew. There's a good reason the neurologist and ENT both said you're normal.

There's a thread at the top of this subforum titled "Sticky: New Members Read This Before Posting." If you had read it, you would understand why your symptoms do NOT lead to ALS.

You're noticing lots of sensations. You felt weakness, tingly, ticklish, numb, walking on air, foot felt weak and tingly. These are sensory symptoms that don't occur in ALS.

You wrote that you never actually lost mobility and at the gym you had no problems with lifting. But if you had ALS, you would have true weakness. That is, a muscle or muscles that didn't work.

You see, at the beginning of ALS, a motor nerve in your brain gets destroyed. That nerve can no longer pass a signal to its muscle telling it to contract. So the muscle lays limp and useless, paralyzed. Another nerve nearby gets destroyed, and fairly quickly, you can't use your hand anymore. You don't feel anything, it's just that the muscles don't work. You don't feel them being weak or exhausted or anything. They just don't work anymore.

As for twitches: Twitches are really common. Half the population has them. They get worse as you get older. Twitches are so common that they are not diagnostic of anything.

RE: Mucus. I'd believe your ENT on this. Sometimes people make a lot of it. Maybe you passed by an allergen.

Andrew, if you do have a disease, it isn't ALS. Read the sticky post for more details.

--Mike

 

[AndrewAgnew01]

Mike,

Thanks for the quick response I guess all the symptoms are hitting me at once it really rattled my nerves a bit. I forgot to mention I'm 28 years of age and my family and GF think im losing my mind even considering ALS. The neuro had me walk on my heels across the room and tippie toes I'd did this with no issues at all I'm scared after last night's episode at the gym.

 

[Atsugi]

RE: your age. Average age for ALS is 65. I recently looked over a database of ALS patients. Out of 1800, only three were in their twenties: 27, 28 and 29.

The tip-toe and heel test is a good one for testing foot and leg weakness.

You wrote "I'm scared after last night's episode"
Fair enough. You can be scared. But not of ALS. Don't worry about that.

--Mike