zulalily
New member
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2012
- Messages
- 8
- Diagnosis
- 05/2012
- Country
- US
- State
- TN
- City
- Chattanooga
I have visited this site for information several times, but this is my first time to write something. My husband retired two years ago at 58 after 30 years in manufacturing management so that we could start our own small business. I had had many health issues over our 40 years of marriage, but he had always been very healthy. Around the first of this year, he started complaining of general weakness in his thighs and upper arms. He also started losing weight and having difficulty lifting anything. His muscles lost all of their mass in his upper arms and legs. He was finally hospitalized in May by his primary care physician who had no idea what was wrong with him.
He was seen by a couple of neurologists in the hospital and given the muscle test with the needles. He had a complete work-up of blood tests and some scans and MRI's. The day he left the hospital, one of the neurologists came in and told him that he felt like there was a 60% chance that he had ALS. He has had a muscle biopsy that we hoped would show myositis, a possibility suggested by my rheumatologist, but the biopsy seems to have ruled out muscle inflammation.
He has lost about 45 pounds, he can't lift his legs, he is having some tingling and numbness in his hands and feet, he walks with a strange gait that the doctors call a "waddling gait". He can only lift the very lightest objects and his neck muscles are so weak that he has to lean his head back against something to keep it from falling forward. I had hip replacement surgery in June (I tried to postpone it, but I literally couldn't walk and our daughter insisted I go ahead with it so that I could recover) and that postponed our ability to get him to a specialist.
Our plan right now is to get him to the ALS Clinic at Vanderbilt Hospital (we live in Chattanooga). If you have any other advice for us, it would be greatly appreciated!
He was seen by a couple of neurologists in the hospital and given the muscle test with the needles. He had a complete work-up of blood tests and some scans and MRI's. The day he left the hospital, one of the neurologists came in and told him that he felt like there was a 60% chance that he had ALS. He has had a muscle biopsy that we hoped would show myositis, a possibility suggested by my rheumatologist, but the biopsy seems to have ruled out muscle inflammation.
He has lost about 45 pounds, he can't lift his legs, he is having some tingling and numbness in his hands and feet, he walks with a strange gait that the doctors call a "waddling gait". He can only lift the very lightest objects and his neck muscles are so weak that he has to lean his head back against something to keep it from falling forward. I had hip replacement surgery in June (I tried to postpone it, but I literally couldn't walk and our daughter insisted I go ahead with it so that I could recover) and that postponed our ability to get him to a specialist.
Our plan right now is to get him to the ALS Clinic at Vanderbilt Hospital (we live in Chattanooga). If you have any other advice for us, it would be greatly appreciated!