ndephill
New member
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2018
- Messages
- 3
- Reason
- Learn about ALS
- Country
- US
- State
- PA
- City
- Harrisburg
Hello,
I am 23 years old and for the past two months have been experiencing a number of concerning symptoms. The timeline of my symptoms are as follows:
Feb - I work out a fair amount and was just getting back into running when I had a patelleformal knee injury to my left which caused pain, swelling and tingling. This subsided but I began to notice a lot of twitching in the affected leg. I had a massage during this time and was noted I had a lot of tight muscles (affected leg and back muscles on the opposite side sort of pulling my shoulder out of alignment).
Feb/March - The twitching escalated in the leg to focus mostly in my calf area and also began in my other leg. I would get twitches in other parts of my body including arms, back, abdomen, neck, and occasional face. I experienced a lot of hand cramping where I would be sitting and feel/see my pinky and ring finger tighten up. At time I'd experience a tight jaw and tickling around jaw area and a tight neck.
Apr - Twitching seemed to subside everywhere except legs/feet (would occasionally get pops in other extremeties). Feet and legs twitching very noticeable at rest (especially laying down), twitches seem to be more 'crawling like'. Noticed my pinkies curled in and overlapping my ring finger when making a fist. When I tense my neck or frown the front of my neck rapidly twitches. Face feels 'flabbier' or more rubber-like, especially around jaw and primarily on right side. Left foot, original side of knee injury, feels weaker and and running tends to tire it out quicker than the right but stationary strength tests seem okay. It looks like my left leg has gotten smaller and when I touch the back of my lower leg, I can feel a 'electric shock' through my foot. Maybe this relates to sciatica. Feel like I can see small rippling twitches in left bicep, and left side pinkie seems abducted.
I am very anxious this may be something serious and was hoping someone could provide me some insight. My primary questions are
1. Can ALS start in the middle of a leg (knee) and spread to other leg and the jaw/neck muscles before any noticeable weakness?
2. How are the front neck muscles involved? When I flex that part, there are a lot of muscles and tendons that move out and in of my neck (I apologize as this is hard to explain)
2. I can really see the calf twitching when pressing on my heel and feeling my hamstring. Is this typical of these fasculations?
3. Is sciatica experienced in early stages?
I have seen my GP in March who ran some blood work. Everything was normal except elevated CK level (429). I had lifted both days before my blood was taken so he thought that was the reason for the elevated level. Also had bloodwork done recently and everything was still normal with CK level at 290 (slightly elevated).
I appreciate your time and help with this.
I am 23 years old and for the past two months have been experiencing a number of concerning symptoms. The timeline of my symptoms are as follows:
Feb - I work out a fair amount and was just getting back into running when I had a patelleformal knee injury to my left which caused pain, swelling and tingling. This subsided but I began to notice a lot of twitching in the affected leg. I had a massage during this time and was noted I had a lot of tight muscles (affected leg and back muscles on the opposite side sort of pulling my shoulder out of alignment).
Feb/March - The twitching escalated in the leg to focus mostly in my calf area and also began in my other leg. I would get twitches in other parts of my body including arms, back, abdomen, neck, and occasional face. I experienced a lot of hand cramping where I would be sitting and feel/see my pinky and ring finger tighten up. At time I'd experience a tight jaw and tickling around jaw area and a tight neck.
Apr - Twitching seemed to subside everywhere except legs/feet (would occasionally get pops in other extremeties). Feet and legs twitching very noticeable at rest (especially laying down), twitches seem to be more 'crawling like'. Noticed my pinkies curled in and overlapping my ring finger when making a fist. When I tense my neck or frown the front of my neck rapidly twitches. Face feels 'flabbier' or more rubber-like, especially around jaw and primarily on right side. Left foot, original side of knee injury, feels weaker and and running tends to tire it out quicker than the right but stationary strength tests seem okay. It looks like my left leg has gotten smaller and when I touch the back of my lower leg, I can feel a 'electric shock' through my foot. Maybe this relates to sciatica. Feel like I can see small rippling twitches in left bicep, and left side pinkie seems abducted.
I am very anxious this may be something serious and was hoping someone could provide me some insight. My primary questions are
1. Can ALS start in the middle of a leg (knee) and spread to other leg and the jaw/neck muscles before any noticeable weakness?
2. How are the front neck muscles involved? When I flex that part, there are a lot of muscles and tendons that move out and in of my neck (I apologize as this is hard to explain)
2. I can really see the calf twitching when pressing on my heel and feeling my hamstring. Is this typical of these fasculations?
3. Is sciatica experienced in early stages?
I have seen my GP in March who ran some blood work. Everything was normal except elevated CK level (429). I had lifted both days before my blood was taken so he thought that was the reason for the elevated level. Also had bloodwork done recently and everything was still normal with CK level at 290 (slightly elevated).
I appreciate your time and help with this.