Subtle fine widespread twitching for 4 weeks

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Angela43

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I am 43. I started having fine little twitches all over my body for the last 4 to 5 weeks. One week ago about 3 half weeks into this I had a emg performed and it was normal. At first I was relieved but read studies that early on it may not detect it on emg.
I have no other symptoms other than my tendons around my ankles hurt some after walking all day.
Could anyone tell me if this is good or bad? Experience with this? I will go bad again to see neuromuscular physician in month but extremely worried. Thank you.
 
Stickies say it best, twitching means nothing. It's very common. In fact, your Doctor probably did an EMG to humor you. Sometimes they want to do them if the twitching is constant for a number of weeks, to confirm that they are in fact nothing.

EMG's in ALS are virtually never normal. By the time you have any symptoms, the EMG will show specific abnormal markers indeed in ALS. They are floridly weird, with chronic and active denervation, sometimes short wave abnormalities, in more than one spot on the body and frequently in places that do not even yet show symptoms. So no ALS in your case.

Lastly, as if this even mattered to you now given that you have had a normal EMG, weakness, as in clinical weakness, "I can't do that" weakness typically comes before twitching in ALS.

If you even need more info, please do read the stickies. Better yet, go away happy you do not have ALS and stop reading stuff here.
 
I appreciate your response. I read a study from NIH that stated fasciculations can come before weakness. I was worried they did my emg to soon and since I continued to have the twitching that I will go on to develop the disease in few months. I was just looking to see if this happened to my one else. If anyone has had my wxperience. Thank you so much.
 
Thank you Lenore.
I also have read that fine twitching that isn't seen all of the body at rest was a early sign of The disease so I was wanting to understand if anyone had that experience and went on to develop the disease later. Thanks again.
 
Millions of people twitch. Very few ever get ALS. I would like to read that study if you can give the citation please? Did those people have EMGs when their only symptom was twitching and were their exams normal?

It is true that some forms of FALS have twitching before other symptoms. The percentage of SALS who present with twitches is extremely small and the normal exam and EMG would cut that number down even more - I suspect to near zero though I do not have research to back that up
 
This is discussing EMG changes NOT twitches that you feel. Your EMG was normal. This is NOT you.
 
Nikki what I am worried about is the twitches. I out of th blue developed them all over one moment leg then othe leg the hand then shoulder then foot then abdomen bee light twitches. The are persistent and only stop when I am using the muscles but at rest or siting thu start back up. So I went to mayo and this was three weeks after they started. They did a emg on my left side. It was a normal study. I wasn't stressed or anything they just started. I was worried that I jumped the gun and went to soon o get the emg and it was further enough along to pick up an abnormality. What do you think?
 
We address all of this in the sticky. Lenore told you too and then you cited the study which you apparently interpreted incorrectly.

Twitches without weakness and other abnormal exam signs which the doctor would have mention are meaningless. The study supports our frequently mentioned point that the EMG shows problems before there are signs that either the patient or the doctor can detect
 
There is no explanation for the fasciculations. I read by DR Rothestein at John Hopkins medicine that fasciculations were a hallmark of the disease and this has frightened me terribly. I have had many labs and tests before the emg and it was all normal. I was just trying to fin out if muons else experienced this and it was ok. Or if it is the disease. Sorry I was just looking for answers. Thank you for posting.
 
You can have fasciculations with lots of other illnesses other than als. Which is why if you just have them without any other indications such as clinical findings and EMG findings they are not something to worry about. Lots of people twitch without having a terminal illness.

Ask your doctor what could be causing them. Don't ask is it als, ask what is it?

Wendy
 
Many many many people twitch and are ok. Look up benign fasciculation syndrome. There is a forum for it, closed to new members , but you can read.

Again can you direct me to your source? If there was a statement that the one hallmark of ALS is twitching I would be surprised. ALS is all about weakness
 
No further clarification is actually needed here, but as a bit of "twitches mean nothing" trivia, my mom has enough twitching to have been diagnosed, after about twenty years of grumbling to her doctor off and on, with benign fascilation syndrome/BFS. It basically means you twitch and no one knows why. In addition, there can be cramping (which she gets in her hands on occasion) and some feelings of tiredness from the twitching. It comes and goes - her longest streak was 8 months of solid twitching, more or less everywhere from the neck down. Some of the drugs that help with it make her drowsy so she avoids those.She has had issues with this since I was born in 1965.

As for myself, it is rare indeed that I go a week without some episodes of twitching, and in the summer (for some reason) it does not miss a day. Some part of my body will twitch for anywhere from a minute to several hours, daily. I have not been diagnosed with BFS, but given my mom that may well be a diagnosis for me one day of it gets obnoxious enough. I hate the distraction of it when it goes on and on.

I should note that there is NO history of neurological conditions in my family, not ALS, MS, Parkinsons, nothing (unless you want to count the BFS). If my mom - or I for that matter are going to bust out in ALS at some point, we are taking our time about it. She has twitched for 51 years and I have done so for around 40.

Stop chasing your own tail with worry and have a toast to your normal EMG, not ALS.
 
Nikki. I was like you thy weakness was the hallmark but then I read this article by the foremost doctor that runs the clinic at john Hopkins and then it hit me so hard I began sobbing. I can't tell you how scared I am. I have started taking anxiety medication because I am in a wait me see game now. I was just trying to find if anyone experience this and what my chances were. Thank you Lenore your words made me think of a possibility. I am still afraid. Sorry to tell you this but I have no one to talk to.
 
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