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Daniel

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Learn about ALS
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Hawkes Bay
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Napier
Hello everyone.
for the past month I have had muscle twitches which sometimes appear as ripples under the skin. They are generally localised but can occur anywhere. Last week the fascics occured above my right knee at a frequency of at least 10 times per hour and as of yesterday thay are ocurring in my left thigh. The interesting thing is that they only occur while I am relaxed - is this typical of ALS? My main concern is that I may have ALS and I beleive this has made me anxious bringing increasing twitching and weakening the bladder; vicious cycle. Other symptoms I have are difficulty articulating words containing certain letters ( I have had this problem for about 4 years.) sometimes have heavy breathing.
Being only 23 with a family I wish to push on and put all of these concerns behind me. please help.
Regards
 
Daniel--
The best route for ruling out ALS is to seek out a firt-rate neurologist who specializes in neuromuscular diseases, get examined, and undergo any tests the doctor deems necessary. The sooner you get that over with, the sooner you'll know exactly what's going on. In the meantime, if you don't notice any muscle atrophy or weakness or cramping, that's an encouraging sign.

Jeff
 
Hi Daniel,
Im 22 and have almost the same as you - twitching a few times per hour, often on the knees, tighs, forearms, shoulders...
The good sign is if fascics cease when you move (stretch) the muscle - for benign fascics its typical but not neccesary. ALS twitches usually dont come and go, they are still present until the muscle is dead.
The anxiety makes it really worse - Im on antidepressants and my twitching is much better - thats something what my neuro doesnt understand since he told me he didnt believe this can be caused by anxiety.
Make an appoitment with neuro, he will checks your reflexes and all the stuff, maybe schedule EMG. With clean EMG, your age and only fascics (ALS starts with fascics only in 6,7% of patients) your chance to have ALS is much lower then death from any other reason.
 
Visit to doctor and Nuero

Thanks for your insight and advise.
I have been to my Doctor who said it could be a number of things but most likely to be Anxiety disorder or BFS. I have also been to see a nuerologists who ran through some quick tests, he mentioned that it is very difficult to diagnose ALS without signs of weakness and atrophy, all he could say is that you don't appear to have ALS but if you show up with other symptoms we will proceed with other tests. I am happy with the results of both consultations but neither were conclusive. Meanwhile my fasics still continue and are somewhat constant in one muscle and then moves to another and is constant in that muscle, Blizna are these similar to your symptoms? I also sometimes get a light burning sensation in the affected muscle. I don't show any signs of weakness and no cramps, I sleep like a baby at night and the twitching ceases but continues when I am awake.
 
Daniel,
oh yes. I have now twitching twice or so per hour, my right has some tickeling sensation and my muscles burn very quickly - but Im not weak. I also feel often something like tiredness but no stiffness, atrophy, weakness. I have just started my 5th month of this hell.

I have some sleeping disorder, not due to twitching, I just wake up at 5 in the morning and feel completely refreshed and dont need to sleep more.

Anxiety and BFS was what I was told by docs I have. However, my neuro doesnt believe you can have fascics due to anxiety. Anyway, with antidepressant and occassional (only when I feel really bad or have panic attack) I take Klonopin - usually only one per week, since its addictive and its withdrawl can cause fascics..thats funny..
 
I have ALS and my twitching never stops. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I even wake my wife up at night twitching in my sleep.

One thing that can be said for ALS, it's different for everyone, but what you seem to be describing sounds more like BFS to me than ALS.

The best way to rule it out is to get and EMG and a NCS from a Doctor who is familiar with MND's. Preferably, a Neurologist. At least this will narrow down the field somewhat.

God Bless
Capt AL
 
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