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Teddy35

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Learn about ALS
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Uni
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District of Columbia
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Washington
About three months ago I started getting serious twitches in my calves. I had recently restarted strenuous exercise so I didn't think much of it. But they persisted for weeks so I got a referral to a neurologist.

In the months since, the calf twitching has decreased but I have developed intermittent twitches elsewhere, mainly on my right side. I've also notice atrophy and a feeling of weakness in my right shoulder and arm, as well as my right thigh and lower leg.

A couple weeks ago, the neurologist examined me and found no clinical weakness or reflex issues. I had an EMG last week in various muscles on my right side and it was perfectly clean.

I am less worried about ALS now because of the clean EMG, but the right side atrophy I have is real and seems to get worse on a weekly basis. I am still able to do everything but my right arm gets tired easily and so does my right leg.

I've seen other people on this forum go through a similar set of issues. Any recommendations on what to do next or what could be causing these issues? Thanks.
 
Teddy, did the neurologist verify that you have atrophy?

Even if you do, the normal neuro exam by a neurologist and the clean EMG rules out ALS.

Assuming you do have verifiable atrophy, there are many potential causes for it other than a motor neuron disease. Probably the most common would be a musculoskeletal problem (ie. process involving joints, tendons, or ligaments). Peripheral nerve issues can also lead to atrophy. No one is perfectly symmetrical, so it’s not unusual for healthy people to have differences in muscle bulk from side to side.
 
Thanks for the reply. At my request, my neurologist looked at my shoulders and said she didn't see any discrepancy between the right and left sides. She didn't look at my legs.

Also, if it's relevant, my blood work was all normal except for a slightly elevated CPK level (230, when the top of the normal range for my age is about 190). The neurologist said she considered that high normal and wasn't worried about muscle breakdown because my aldolase level was normal, and that was "more specific."

I know the mind can play tricks on you when it comes to atrophy, but I feel pretty confident there has been some muscle loss on my right side, along with other symptoms (a burning feeling when I stretch muscles in my right arm or leg, lethargy in the afternoons) that make me feel like something is up. I wanted to ask people in this forum for feedback because I feel like I've read quite a few posts that resemble mine, and I'd love to hear what people ended up finding out.
 
Teddy hon you are deceiving yourself and determined to force what you imagine to fit what you fear.

If you are talking about others that have asked if they have ALS they are not permitted to answer you here because this is not a general health anxiety forum. Posts that resemble yours will have been from people who were scared, but went away as they did not turn out to have a terminal illness - they rarely return to say the ended up fine but it is even more rare for them to return to say they were diagnosed with ALS.

May I gently ask you to read the post at the top of this forum section titled READ BEFORE POSTING as I am pretty sure you didn't do that yet.
 
Twitches: A lots of conditions cause twitches. Twitching happens so often in so many conditions that it is not diagnostic of anything. Healthy people twitch. Twitching is most often caused by stress or anxiety—subconscious reactions to changes in life, new job, getting married, etc. The twitching you describe is common—all over and random. But twitching in ALS occurs when and where a muscle is losing its nerve connection and the nervous system is trying to re-establish innervation, so the twitching is tightly focus on the next muscle in danger of paralysis.

You have no paralysis.

Drink Gatorade. Electrolytes help reduce twitching. Also water.

A doctor looked and said this alleged atrophy is within normal healthy limits.

Atrophy occurs for many reasons in many diseases. In ALS, when a patient develops an atrophied muscle, it is after the muscle has been disused, laying unused, limp, paralyzed, and flaccid for some weeks and months. Unused and receiving no nervous inputs, the muscle got loose, flattened out, lost its tone, and began to wither away. After paralysis.

Feeling weak and feeling pain as a beginning sign in ALS: Normally, in a non-ALS healthy person, a muscle feels weak because it has been overworked and doing too much. In ALS, the muscle hasn’t done any work, so it doesn’t feel weak

ALS doesn’t cause the muscles to feel pain. Why would it. But after the limb—arm or leg—has lain still for day the joints hurt and the flesh swells, which can cause pain, But that’s after you’ve become profoundly disabled.

The doctor who physically examined you and studied a whole bunch of high-tech test results is not concerned. The people who answered you here know more than most doctors about ALS, and we don’t see any reason for you to be alarmed about ALS.

If you’ve got something, it isn’t ALS.
 
Thank you. Let me just ask this final question then: if the supposed atrophy and weakness that I'm feeling was caused by ALS, it would have shown up on the EMG, correct?
 
Yes
Now time to focus on bigger and better things
 
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