scared

[cynth]

I have a whole lot of the symptoms of als. I do not gag or drop things, just seem weaker all over my body. My tongue seems weaker, and I am getting spaticity. My neck feels heavy. I have some joint popping. I just do not understand how it could have happened so fast. I seemed pretty fine until about 3 weeks ago, and then boom, my toe started to twitch and then one thing after another happened. I also can still walk "weakly" without falling. I tremble when I do things, though. Please help me. Also my finger joints are still. I twitch more at night.

 

[GlenBrittle]

Hi Cynth.

Welcome to the board.

Sorry to hear that you are feeling really poor.

The best help that can really offered is to tell you to see a neurologist . They can give you a proper diagnosis.

Just relax , you can drive yourself crazy if you believe everything you read on the internet. Stressing about your symptoms can oly make them feel worse.

Glen

 

[crystalkk]

Have you been to the dr? There are sooooo many things that could be causing the weakness all over....
Usually ALS does not start that way, with weakness all over.

 

[cynth]

I did go to the doctor, she refered me to a neurologist. I have to wait for him to call me. I did start out heavy in both arms, then both arns hurt, then my left arm felt weak. After that every week a different limb felt weak. It is like a wave would hit, and I could literally feel it weaken in that instant. Like I said I feel spasticity. Now the tongue thing. So now every limb feels weak, but like I said not so weak that I can not still do stuff, just I have to rest alot more often. All this did happen in a matter of 3 weeks. Does this still sound like it could be something else instead. Thank-you for any information. I also forgot to mention that my neck started to feel heavy around the same time both arms were being affected.

 

[Zaphoon]

ALS is insidious with its onset; you don't realize something's "got" you until you've been "had" for a lot more than 3 weeks.

It doesn't sound to me like what you are experiencing is ALS but, you never know!

Let the docs sort it all out. It may take some time, but the medical folks will get to the bottom of things for you, eventually...

Zaphoon

 

[cynth]

I also started having a little trouble swallowing yesterday. My only thing is it seems to be a new symptom every week to every day. My arms do not seem to be getting in worse, it jumped to my head and mouth. What could be going on?

 

[BethU]

Cynth ... those symptoms do not sound to me at all like the onset of ALS. It sounds like maybe stress or anxiety, but I'm no doctor. I'd suggest you go see your family doctor and discuss it with him/her.

Take care.

 

[laurel]

HI Cynth,
It could be an autoimmune attack of some sort i.e. Guillain-Barre, CIDP, Myastenia Gravis etc. Hopefully the neurologist will get things figured out. Of course if symptoms worsen especially the swallowing issues you need to see a doctor asap.
Laurel

 

[cynth]

How fast is the progression usuallyin ALS? Say my arm is weak, is there a time limit that you would expect the other arm to grow weak. I know that everybody is different, I was just looking for an estimate of the progression.

 

[joelc]

Unfortunately there is no way to tell how fast things can happen. It may be tomorrow, or 5 years, or never. That is one of the mysteries and frustrations of this disease.