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mno555

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Learn about ALS
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UK
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London
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London
Hi,

I want to start out by pointing out that I suffer from health anxiety/general anxiety since about 3 years back. Had panic attack and so on and up till now I've been worried about my heart mainly, but since about 2 weeks back I haven't been worried at all.. but then I guess my brain realized that I'm not worried, so it decided to give me something new to worry about.

I've had twitching off and on since my anxiety started, but now it's mainly in my left hand/arm. I also get it in my calves, chest, back, feet and lips. This is nothing that I really worry about, since my understanding is that twitching alone most likely benign.

BUT.

For the past 10 days or so I've also been noticing that my middle finger on my left hand is getting stiff. It's usually fine when I wake up, but since I work at a computer and spend the majority of my time at home at the computer, the finger feels very stiff with pain/twitching throughout my hand/arm when I go to bed at night.

I've always had a deskjob, so what worries me is that this starts now. I did start a new job about 2 months ago with obviously means that I have a new type of desk etc.

The twitching in my hand is mainly in the area between my indexfinger and thumb and in my "thumb muscle".

I'm currently on a break from the gym, but the last time was there about a month ago I didn't notice any weakness when working out arms. This was before I started notice the pain/stiffness though.

I realize how silly I sound, but I'm freaking out big time and figured that people on here should know if I need to see a doctor, or if I should simply wait for it to go away.
 
Short answer: No ALS, whatsoever. None.


For further reading, so the sticky post stuck to the top of this Do I Have ALS sub-forum titled "READ BEFORE POSTING." Lots of questions are answered there.
 
Short answer: No ALS, whatsoever. None.


For further reading, so the sticky post stuck to the top of this Do I Have ALS sub-forum titled "READ BEFORE POSTING." Lots of questions are answered there.

Just this answer alone pretty much reduced my anxiety by so much, thank you!

I wanted to add a couple of symptoms I've experienced, hopefully it's nothing to worry about.

- My left arm is generally very "shaky". If I lean on my arms I can notice my left arm shaking as if it's struggling.

- My middle finger feels like it "locks up" when I keep it extended for more than a few minutes.

- My fingers on my left hand is also very shaky. I've got some tremors in my right but much more in my left.

- The twitching usually comes on in my hand when I keep my hand in certain positions or after doing something where my hand gets tired(noticed it after I had done some handwashing the other day for example).

- Muscle between my index finger and thumb on my left hand is slightly smaller than on my right hand with a bit more loose skin etc

Thanks!
 
Many of us have stiff middle fingers. As for the rest, twitching often occurs when muscles are weak because they are not used enough/properly, e.g. we misuse them at work keyboarding, not because they are being lost due to a disease. You may wish to evaluate your new desk from an ergonomic perspective.

The actions you are doing (leaning on arms, extending middle fingers to test them) are not actions those muscles are used to supporting anyway. So why would you expect them to work well?

Find/do some arm and hand exercises when you get up. This is not an ALS picture.

Best,
Laurie
 
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