warhog6g
New member
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2015
- Messages
- 4
- Reason
- Lost a loved one
- Country
- US
- State
- Illinois (IL)
- City
- Champaign
Hello all and thank you for the support you provide.
First off a little background on me. I am a male who is about to turn 30. I was a soldier for 8 years. I did deploy overseas to Afghanistan in 08-09. Three weeks after I returned home I found out I was to become a CALS. My father fought for almost exactly three years before succumbing to ALS in 2012. It was devastating on all of us especially my mother.
Recently (within the last 2 weeks) I have noticed my left leg feeling weaker. My left knee popped rather unpleasantly a couple of times just walking around at work and after the second time was quite sore for a couple days. I had a knee surgery to repair a significant meniscus tear on my left knee in 2011. There was a 6 month time gap between the injury and the surgery (long story not relevant here) and the leg atrophied a noticeable amount. Fast forward to today, as stated before I have had what feels to be weakness in my left leg. It feels that it is weak enough to impair my gait although I haven’t really tripped or fallen more than usual. I have been having fasciculation’s in my left calf that have been somewhat persistent not to mention obnoxious. My wife noticed that my left leg is smaller than my right leg (honestly I couldn’t tell you if it is still atrophied since my knee surgery). I know even if I did have ALS the symptoms would not progress this quickly. I know everyone gets fasciculation’s from time to time. I want to think that I just re-injured my knee and that is what is causing all of this, but what if my leg muscles weakened that that’s what caused the knee to pop?
What I am worried about is that all of these are eerily similar to my dad’s symptoms around the time of diagnosis. While I guess it could be something else; the weakness, the fasciculation’s, the impaired gait, and the atrophy just all fit. What I do have going for me is that my father and I were not biologically related so there isn’t a chance that he passed any hereditary gene on to me. I just wish that it didn’t take so darn long to see a neurologist!
I know that was a little long winded and I would like to thank everyone for their time. I know how terrible this disease is and I want all CALS and PALS to keep fighting the good fight and never give up.
First off a little background on me. I am a male who is about to turn 30. I was a soldier for 8 years. I did deploy overseas to Afghanistan in 08-09. Three weeks after I returned home I found out I was to become a CALS. My father fought for almost exactly three years before succumbing to ALS in 2012. It was devastating on all of us especially my mother.
Recently (within the last 2 weeks) I have noticed my left leg feeling weaker. My left knee popped rather unpleasantly a couple of times just walking around at work and after the second time was quite sore for a couple days. I had a knee surgery to repair a significant meniscus tear on my left knee in 2011. There was a 6 month time gap between the injury and the surgery (long story not relevant here) and the leg atrophied a noticeable amount. Fast forward to today, as stated before I have had what feels to be weakness in my left leg. It feels that it is weak enough to impair my gait although I haven’t really tripped or fallen more than usual. I have been having fasciculation’s in my left calf that have been somewhat persistent not to mention obnoxious. My wife noticed that my left leg is smaller than my right leg (honestly I couldn’t tell you if it is still atrophied since my knee surgery). I know even if I did have ALS the symptoms would not progress this quickly. I know everyone gets fasciculation’s from time to time. I want to think that I just re-injured my knee and that is what is causing all of this, but what if my leg muscles weakened that that’s what caused the knee to pop?
What I am worried about is that all of these are eerily similar to my dad’s symptoms around the time of diagnosis. While I guess it could be something else; the weakness, the fasciculation’s, the impaired gait, and the atrophy just all fit. What I do have going for me is that my father and I were not biologically related so there isn’t a chance that he passed any hereditary gene on to me. I just wish that it didn’t take so darn long to see a neurologist!
I know that was a little long winded and I would like to thank everyone for their time. I know how terrible this disease is and I want all CALS and PALS to keep fighting the good fight and never give up.