Hello My Name is Lee,
You look like a very nice person and are probabley close to my age, maybe. And since you are a southerner and I am too (Tennessee) I feel like maybe you would be willing to talk to me about ALS. So I haven't slept last nite since I have come to the realization of what is going on in my life. Do you remember the point in your life when all the little things added up and you were faced with knowing(with high probability) that you were living with ALS. Well for me that conclusion came tonight. I will try to keep this short for you and get to the point. The last few days after shaving I began to notice some bumps or sores on my face. Well they were under the skin. I blew it off as engrown hairs of coarse. Strangely enough these were engrown hairs but when I tried to sqeeze to releave them and remove the hairs nothing would come out and finally after extreme pressure it would produce a clear liquid. Plus the whole area of the sore would expand under my skin anywhere I applied this pressure. But next this happened elsewhere. My neck was extremely sore and bumps under the skin their too, my jaw hurts, I clinch my teeth, face mucled hurt and I was in the mirror the other day wondering why I had aged so rapidly. My face sags, absolutely no elasticity. Sores elsewhere on my body do the same thing- pick at them and they expand and it feels like I have taken all the tissue away from that area. On my chest too and worst is one right on the back of the top of my leg. Now I really made him mad cause he shouts pain all down my leg and puts needles through my nerves.But boy now do all the things just add up. I will not go into full detail or extension of all my symptoms to save time so here it goes...last several months- sleeping problems, aches and pains, fatigue, pain in my lower right leg that extends downward, pain in my lower right back, dark urination, inability to focus, depression,anxiety,confusion,notice of enlarged lymph nodes(which my pc physcian noticed when I went in for a check up because I could not figure out whats wrong. I tell her my symptoms- weight loss of about 20% of my body weight, a few ulcers that would not fully heal, problems swallowing, feeling something is in my throat- so she refers my to a specialist. I give him the run-down of the list. Checks my mouth, few ulcers...he disregards it, enlarged lymph nodes-he thinks its just nothing and says its only slightly swollen, swallowing and throat obstructions. He shoves his hand all the way down my throat and just lets it slide). Now other symptoms include- agitation if I drank beer, spicy foods or even soft drinks,itching,indigestion and if that got severe I'd cause me to vomit, drink beer feels like gasoline and vomit for sure,fever occasionally, etc.... Basically the whole list of qualifications fr ALS including all the more serious ones too. Finally I will end with this...my wife and I went through some major problems about 5 years ago- the stress, feeling I couldnt see my kids everyday or that I was abandoning them was the worst plus throw in joblessness (got laid of when economy soured). Couldnt pay bills..etc. So what I would up in a treatment center for depression and thoughts of suicide... After release My psychologist says I have Bi-Polar disease. Everyone of my friends abandon me. People think I nuts and all the rumors traveled all over the state real fast. Ruined my Life is what that diagnosis did. My ex took the kids from me and controlled the very little amount of time I could spend with them. Ruined my relationship with my children (trying hard to repair it now) but see I lost it all! Now Im not crying and I don't need your sympathy or pity. I'm basically saying all this because thats what happened. Today I'm off to see the Dr., maybe he will say I don't have ALS maybe he'll say I do. Now if I do i will be so relieved to finally know that I have ALS, the root and the cause of all of this. Maybe then people will see what a huge mistake it was blaming me for this. If you took thr time to read this I am so grateful and it just really feels good to type this all out. Put it out there. Thank You, Maybe I will get the chance to fo something nice for you one day. Sorry for any misspellings its been a long nite and hard to type this on my screen cause it keeps moving.
Lee