Whirlwind of symptoms

[Lanebryer]

Hi all. I'm 27 years old and I've had a rough 1.5 months. I know a lot of this sounds nothing like ALS but please bear with me. Around late January, I began having daily headaches for about 2 weeks (I'm not one to ever get headaches). I began to have a lot of brain fog and head pressure at the base of my skull. I was having mild confusion, inability to think/process information, etc. The headaches subsided after about 2 weeks but I was left with the pressure and inability to really think/focus. My vision is slightly blurred and my hearing is diminished. This culminated in an incident about 2 weeks ago where I went to sleep like usual and woke up face down on the floor with a pretty solid injury to my face. No idea how I got there. I stayed overnight in a hospital and had a clean CT scan and clean brain and cervical spine MRIs. I've been thoroughly evaluated for MS and all of its mimickers. I've also developed a significant caffeine sensitivity (even one cup of coffee makes me feel very loopy and nauseous). Now my neurologist has no answers for me and I know none of this sounds like ALS. However, in the past two weeks I've also developed some stiffness/cramping/sensations of weakness in my left arm and leg from about the elbow/knee down. I've also now developed my most concerning symptoms which are difficulty swallowing, a slightly hoarse voice, and excessive saliva production. I also wake up frequently at night (apnea?) and sometimes have the sensation that I can't breathe well, like my diaphragm/muscles aren't functioning fully.

I know that everyone here is dealing with a very serious disease or has loved ones who have been affected by ALS, and I hate to inundate you all with my concerns, but after 2 months of not feeling normal whatsoever, I'm beginning to fear the worst.

Anyways, thank you all for your time and best wishes to you all!

 

[Lkaibel]

None of this sounds at all to me like ALS, but you will need a second opinion for sure from a Neurologist, and I mean a second Neurologist because your symptoms are need answers. ALS, to the best of my knowledge does not present in the combination of symptoms you describe so I would bet a month's pay that is not the issue at all.

 

[WendyWooG]

You are going through an awful lot, if your neurologist doesn't have answers it really does seem that a second opinion would be good. It really doesn't sound like als in how your symptoms are progressing.

I wish you well and hope that your doctors can find some answers for you soon.

Wendy

 

[Atsugi]

No ALS there, Lane. Not even close.

 

[ShiftKicker]

Hi there.

I'm looking over your postings- you've been here since 2012 with concerns about symptoms. While you have mentioned visiting with doctors- who have said "No MND"- there seems to be no mention of what doctors might think it is. Or where they might think your symptoms should lead you next.

Having such long term symptoms must be frustrating. However, if the doctors can't find ALS in your symptoms, and the people here really can't parse what your symptoms might mean, the indication is that you must head in a different direction than ALS. While it must be frustrating having no clues, despite your searching, you're going to have to back to your doctor and ask them what yor next steps should be.

 

[Lanebryer]

Thanks everyone for reading my post. I understand that the onset of initial symptoms is nothing at all like ALS, I just figured I'd provide a full background of everything that's been going on. My concern regarding ALS was more with the swallowing/breathing type things that have surfaced in the past week or so with no seemingly related cause (no cold, stuffy nose, nasal drip etc).

ShiftKicker, you are correct, I did initially sign up for this board when I had some neurological symptoms back in 2012. The symptoms back then were a bit different but, much like what's happening right now, my neurologist found nothing wrong. The only difference back then was that I never had any issue of fainting/blacking out/whatever happened to me recently. To this day I believe that my incident in 2012 was related to a severe reaction I had to an antibiotic I was given. However, most of those symptoms resolved themselves in approximately 2 months and until recently I had no remaining symptoms from that incident except some lingering joint/tendon issues. Just wanted to clarify that I haven't had these symptoms since 2012.

I believe I will be referred to a teaching hospital if my upcoming sleep studies (to test for a seizure and sleep apnea) yield nothing, but it's very difficult to wait so long not knowing what might be wrong with me and the onset of these more recent "bulbar" type symptoms have me a bit stressed.