Buslady, please find a good internal med doc for the multiple health issues, and a neurologist for the loss of function in the body.
While ALS causes insidious loss of function and ultimate paralysis, what you describe sounds like something just as sinister, but not ALS, since it's affecting so much at once.
You have bleeding from where? Are you on blood thinners?
With diabetes and with neuropathy that accompanies it, you will want someone to be checking your feet often.
Just because you might not have a lot of medical knowledge doesn't make you as dumb as a rock. That's a horrible thing to have a spouse say to you.
Like me, apparently, you have more than one health issue going on. I've had more than one doctor refuse to treat me as being too complicated a case, normally those are family medicine doctors. Internal med docs are a bit more trained in some more complicated cases.
Has someone suggested ALS to you? Do you have a neurologist? Sometimes, a call to the insurance company can get you a list of doctors and their specialities. It sounds to me that you aren't being seen to properly.
If your legs are not working, do you have access to a wheelchair to prevent falls? I hope you find the help you need.
Edward, atrophy starts slowly, as Ms Pie said, her doc noticed it. Eventually, like in the picture of the hand above, it becomes quite obvious, and by the time it looks like that picture, it's quite obvious to the person with it as that hand will have substantial loss of ability.
I don't know of anyone that had atrophy before any weakness.
That can sometimes make things more confusing during the diagnostic process as well. I had clinical weakness months before atrophy. And I'd noticed weakness months before it became apparent I wasn't just clumsy.
But, all that said, there are many causes of weakness and even atrophy other than ALS. See yor doc, Edward. Not much gets past a good neuro.
