I'm sorry to ask... but I'm really scared.

[MrsLemonetta]

I'm really really really sorry to annoy you all, it's probably more the anxiety than me writing this but I'm really scared no matter how much I read the "That gives a percentage of 0.0001% or a 1 in million chance . . . and that's at best." I'm just unable to calm.

I'm female, 31 (ok, i will turn 31 this thursday but still), not a single ALS case in my family, just that should calm me enough but it doesn't.

I can't remember how it all started but should be a few months ago, I started to drop the keys in my left hand sometimes, dismissed as "just took them wrong" or "anxiety" or "clumsiness", started to feel like numbness in two fingers, but it happened before and I though "something muscular", then started to feel needles and tingles and "yeah definitely, muscular" and then sometimes it happened with my right hand (the numbness and tingles) I work walking dogs and I knew my left arm was not looking as strong and confident so I went to my physiotherapist, that i go often, and voila in one day the numbness and needles disappeared, really happy thinking it all ended.

But just a few days later two other fingers were started to act weird, the thumb it's like robotic and sometimes it's as a stutter like tries to do it two times, the middle and ring like trying to claw (mostly the middle) and my arm got tremors like I overused it, I suppose it's when my anxiety started to get a big kick?

The last few days I started to get like a buzzing in all my body, like a vibration, like I'm trembling and it's visible, muscles that ...moves themselves, sometimes a finger or foot or I don't know anymore move alone... and like a crawling feeling in hands and legs and really, I don't know anymore. I walk weird, like a robot, and almost all my moves are with a stutter.

It doesn't feel right to write on the computer and I don't take my fountain pen confidently, like I'm clumsy but I think I'm still really strong, I can lift things, open things, walk my doggies and work... but it's like im overdoing my muscles.

Probably my biggest mistake was googling, yeah I thought it will say "you pulled a muscle" or something like that but I ended with Google-ASL, and I can't stop thinking about the mother of a high school friend that got ALS and how I lost already 4 people in my life to misdiagnosed cancer, how a friend wasn't diagnosed with a lymphoma until she was almost a vegetal (recovering!) and how before 2018 end I will lose another, again, because a migdiagnose.

And I'm so, so, so sorry to be a crybaby in a serious place like this but I just can't stop, something in what I write sounds as ALS?

I'm really sorry you read this but rational!me left and I'm really thankful you take your time with me.

PS: Sorry about my bad english, english it's my third language and I'm not really confident with it.

 

[KimT]

Nothing you posted sounds like ALS. You should see a doctor because you might have a pinched nerve or something easily diagnosed.

Please don't spend your time on this forum. See your doctor with the complaints and let him/her figure it out.

 

[Angiegal]

Kim's 100% on the mark.

Angie

 

[MrsLemonetta]

Thanks to both,
Now I'm more scared than before, I went to a Neuro, a really good one, and he detected hyperreflexia and the EEG was abnormal... he says I need more tests (blood and a brain resonance, but now I'm at a point were ALS it's a small possibility but... it's there.
I'm taking Diazepam to ease the anxiety but not helping so far and I got weird things breathing will resting, like my diaphragm got a jerk and the neck makes a tiny weird sound and swallowing makes it too....
Funny thing, my left arm, the one that started the clawing thing it's almost normal again, now I just got the rest... jerks, twitching muscles all around the body but 80% on my legs and something is weird with breathing and my right leg is kinda weak....
More scared than before, I almost beaten the Google!ALS but now my Neuro opened the door....

 

[KimT]

EEG or EMG? There is a difference. If your EMG is abnormal, it can mean many things or nothing. In ALS, the clinical findings must match up to specific abnormalities on the EMG. Part of the testing should include an MRI of your entire spine.

When is your next appointment? Is it with a neuromuscular neurologist? I have a "good one" but he is not an expert in ALS. He had to send me two hours away to get the proper testing. He did an EMG and had no idea what the findings were as relates to motor neuron diseases.

If your neurologist thinks there is even a slight possibility of ALS, you should have been referred to a specialist in ALS and other motor neuron diseases. There are some mimics to ALS and only a specialist can sort it all out.