Neil1689
Member
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2017
- Messages
- 16
- Reason
- Learn about ALS
- Diagnosis
- 00/0000
- Country
- UK
- State
- NY
- City
- Glasgow
Hi folks,
Another one for you.
I'm 34, male, from U.K.
I have read the recommended posts before putting this up and just wanted to get thoughts.
Like seemingly the majority of those who are diagnosed with ALS, I had an innocuous bout of 'foot drop' in my right foot about 7 weeks ago. I felt weakness in it for about a week before it finally stopped working. At this point I could only move my toes, both underside and top side of the foot just not functioning. I could walk on my toes, but not my heels and resistance to downward pressure very, very minimal.
This carried on for several weeks before I went to the doctor who referred me to the neuro, with the main fear being MS as I was also having pins and needles in the foot and wrist and waking up frozen to the bone at night.
The neuro did a physical exam of me. He noted no fasciculations or significant atrophy.
I told him about my fear of ALS and his exact words were 'I see no obvious signs of MND (ALS) whatsoever and so you don't need to worry about that'.
This settles my nerves a lot and also in the next few days, the underside of my foot came back to life. Almost overnight and it improved my gait to where I don't trip or get it caught as much as I did prior to this.
However, the top part of the foot has still not budged at all and I am feeling lots of twitches. This could well be from stress and anxiety as I am so worried about this and only get about 2-3 hours of poor quality sleep per night and really bad nightmares when I do. I am no longer having pins and needles in the foot too which worries me.
I am concerned that perhaps the underside of the foot is not really involved in the dorsiflexion process and perhaps this is why it has come back to life? Could the neuro really be so sure it's not ALS after just a physical exam?
Any thoughts or comments would be greatly appreciated and thank you so much to anyone who contributes. Neil
Another one for you.
I'm 34, male, from U.K.
I have read the recommended posts before putting this up and just wanted to get thoughts.
Like seemingly the majority of those who are diagnosed with ALS, I had an innocuous bout of 'foot drop' in my right foot about 7 weeks ago. I felt weakness in it for about a week before it finally stopped working. At this point I could only move my toes, both underside and top side of the foot just not functioning. I could walk on my toes, but not my heels and resistance to downward pressure very, very minimal.
This carried on for several weeks before I went to the doctor who referred me to the neuro, with the main fear being MS as I was also having pins and needles in the foot and wrist and waking up frozen to the bone at night.
The neuro did a physical exam of me. He noted no fasciculations or significant atrophy.
I told him about my fear of ALS and his exact words were 'I see no obvious signs of MND (ALS) whatsoever and so you don't need to worry about that'.
This settles my nerves a lot and also in the next few days, the underside of my foot came back to life. Almost overnight and it improved my gait to where I don't trip or get it caught as much as I did prior to this.
However, the top part of the foot has still not budged at all and I am feeling lots of twitches. This could well be from stress and anxiety as I am so worried about this and only get about 2-3 hours of poor quality sleep per night and really bad nightmares when I do. I am no longer having pins and needles in the foot too which worries me.
I am concerned that perhaps the underside of the foot is not really involved in the dorsiflexion process and perhaps this is why it has come back to life? Could the neuro really be so sure it's not ALS after just a physical exam?
Any thoughts or comments would be greatly appreciated and thank you so much to anyone who contributes. Neil