kevinw
Distinguished member
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2008
- Messages
- 203
- Reason
- DX UMND/PLS
- Diagnosis
- 01/2008
- Country
- US
- State
- PA
- City
- Poconos
Hello everyone...I am new to the forum and a little nervous about posting. Anyway, here is my story. Looking back approximately a year and a half ago I noticed I was having problems going down steps. Whenever I was at my daughters basketball games I always had to make sure I was holding the rail going down the bleachers so I would not trip and fall, then when I would get to the bottom and start to walk on the flat it seemed my left foot would scuff across the floor and I would still almost trip. Well, I didn't think anything of it at the time, and if there were other problems they didn't stand out to me as much as the fear of bleachers did. Then summer came around and I noticed that my legs were always exhausted and along with that came a lot of tripping and falling at work. It seems I would not lift my feet up enough and would trip over just about everything, I suppose it was funny for everyone around at the time and it still wasn't a big concern to myself at the time. As fall and winter began, hunting season started, there I noticed that I was tripping over every stick and rock in the woods, in addition to that my legs had a lot more pain from pulled muscles than I ever remember having, it was about that time that I started to get concerned. In early January of this year I met with my first nero and he ordered a "boat load" of tests (ton's of blood work, three mri's, lumbar puncture, and an emg). After all of these came back normal or negative for what ever they were looking for, he refered me to Drexel University in Philadelphia. After meeting with a Dr. Patterson she kinda confirmed that she believed it was PLS and gave me prescriptions for a muscle relaxer and also for Rilutek and now I guess we are in the monitoring process (she also signed me up for the MDA).
As for now my legs are stiff & tense 80% to 90% of the day and I have pulled and cramping muscles by the end of a work day. The full upper leg shakes when I stand still and I do have some small muscle twitches & spasms throughout my body during the day. The only upper body problem that we have noticed is the movement in the my left hand & arm.
I guess my concern is that it is hard to imagine a year and a half from now, given the way things have gone the past year and a half. And with that being said it is hard to wrap my mind around a diagnose that is not proven by the results of a test.
Anyway if anyone has any ideas or opinions of a different problem here I sure would love to hear them.
Thanks
As for now my legs are stiff & tense 80% to 90% of the day and I have pulled and cramping muscles by the end of a work day. The full upper leg shakes when I stand still and I do have some small muscle twitches & spasms throughout my body during the day. The only upper body problem that we have noticed is the movement in the my left hand & arm.
I guess my concern is that it is hard to imagine a year and a half from now, given the way things have gone the past year and a half. And with that being said it is hard to wrap my mind around a diagnose that is not proven by the results of a test.
Anyway if anyone has any ideas or opinions of a different problem here I sure would love to hear them.
Thanks