Als symptoms but no ALS

[Mumphry]

I've been coming to this board for many years and wanted to provide some relief to those who have fasciculations, weakness, cramps and spasticity issues.

About 4 years ago I had simultaneous itching in my calfs and forearms. It lasted a few weeks and I was diagnosed with non-specific dermatitis.

About 2 years ago I experienced a Charlie horse cramp in one calf and then the next day the other cramp. This was followed by months of spasticity in both calfs and both forearms. Within days I experienced waves of tingling, numbness in my arms, hamstring and finally upper back. An MRI with dye contrast cleared MS.
I went to an ALS specialist who did an extensive EMG and determined that there was no degeneration or signal loss. The symptoms got better but were never totally gone.

Recently I had a cramp and spasticity in my upper back and the spasticity in my calfs and arms came back. This time I noticed a decrease in fine motor skills in my left hand and that I was hobbling slightly on my right leg. These noticeable impairments were sustained for months and only now are improving. I also experience random soreness in my arm and leg muscles.

Of course I was worried because of the google results when you type in EMG ALS false negative. The truth is if the EMG is done by a professional in the LMD unit, not only can they detect ALS but they can detect ALS in areas where you haven't began experiencing symptoms. I went back to the ALS neuro and he did another EMG and said he continues to find nothing wrong.

My faith has been important during this whole time because BFS and other disorders are aggravated by stress. I am confident I will be healed and wanted everyone to know my testimony of cramps, fasiculations, spasticity, numbness, tingling and even impairment, and no ALS.

 

[Atsugi]

Thanks for the post.

For future readers:
Itching
charlie horses
cramps
spasticity
tingling
numbness
hamstring
soreness
twitching
fasciculations
and anything that gets better from time to time
are NOT symptoms of ALS.

Some persons with ALS might have twitching, but many, many other people twitch, who don't have ALS.

The hallmark symptom of ALS is true clinical weakness. And there is no feeling of weakness, no feeling of strangeness, not all all. The muscle just won't go. It lays limp, useless, flacid, paralyzed, for no apparent reason and with no feeling of weakness. It just doesn't go.

 

[Anomaly2017]

I also have many symptoms of ALS (also non-ALS symptoms as I have sensory symptoms as well) but cleared of it. I have muscle atrophy up and down my body, including facial muscles. Cannot bend normally, can barely walk at this point and don’t have ALS.

I have a sensorimotor peripheral neuropathy as indicated on NCS. Still in the process of figuring out what is causing the neuropathy but ALS isn’t in the picture.

My EMG was perfectly normal without a slight abnormality despite all this. So anyone panicking because your symptoms resemble ALS, there is a good chance it’s something else.

 

[Lkaibel]

The “just won’t go” thing with movement is something that jumps out about ALS.

If you listen to my sister in law talk about her various MS symptoms and how they started, nearly every sentence starts with “I felt”. If you listen to my mom talk about BFS, she feels her twitches acutely and can do everything normally.

Then there is my husband’s ALS. One evening we just saw he could not raise his toes, yet he felt nothing. He had to look to see his toes were not raising up when he “told them to”.