ALS Worries

[NJTwitch96]

So here is my story. I’ve been going crazy, and I’m very scared. My mom, who is a nurse, has told me it’s not ALS. My doctor, who I am seeing on Monday, spoke with me over the phone and said it doesn’t sound like anything serious. In fact, he said ALS is the most distant thing my symptoms could be. But here I am, worrying anyway.

For statistical purposes, I’m a 22 year old male. I was previously diagnosed at age 5 with a Chiari Malformation Type 1 and syringomyellia. My syrinx, according to MRIs a few years ago has spontaneously resolved itself. However, before I had my surgery I was diagnosed with herniated discs in my spine. I have not had those treated. I also had my decompression surgery for the Chiari in July 2015.

In late March, my grandfather entered hospice and my family essentially watched him die for a week. On the day or his funeral, on the last Friday in March, my left eye started to twitch a lot. It’s since gotten much better, but still does twitch. In fact, I can make it twitch if I want to.

This last Wednesday, I was laying in my bed when I noticed some hard twitching in my right arm and my left leg. The arm twitch is no longer constant, but I do get random twitches in my arms, face, and chest.

What’s constant now are the twitches in my feet and calves. I can’t say I really notice the twitching when I’m moving around and exercising during the day, but I definitely notice it when relaxing. I also feel twitching in my upper leg and knee as well, but those are not as constant.

I haven’t had any weakness that I can note. Last week I was able to do a couple 5 mile runs and lift some weights with my legs. I also take my dog on long walks, and go on walks with friends to try to stay in shape. I checked if my arms were ok by lifting some boxes and such at work and home, and they are.

However, my anxiety is obviously through the roof. These last few days I’ve had constant thoughts about ALS and dying. Yesterday, I was so nervous that I would have trouble swallowing that O had trouble swallowing. I hacked back up a vitamin as I was swallowing it. Today, I felt like I couldn’t swallow, but when I made myself swallow, surprise, I was able to. I’ve also had some pain in my left hand, but it doesn’t really feel like a cramp. Maybe it’s just getting tired from over use because I keep squeezing it tight to check it I have strength in it still?

I took a Xanax today and I felt like the twitching went down a lot when I did. Like I said before, I can still walk and run. I took my dog on a nice mile long walk just this afternoon. However, I have been suffering from weird sensations in my legs, and my arms. It feels almost like I need to move my legs, and that there’s almost energy or electricity built up in them. Or something else, it’s hard to explain.

So, I think it doesn’t sound like ALS. Whatever it is, I don’t know, which worries me. I should not that I had a false positive HIV test earlier this year, and when it happened, I read online that Lyme Disease can cause a false positive HIV test. Could it be Lyme? Could it be ALS?

I’m heading to the doctor on Monday, and he said he can draw some blood. But any reassurances before then could greatly help. Thank you guys!

 

[David]

So here is my story. I’ve been going crazy, and I’m very scared. My mom, who is a nurse, has told me it’s not ALS. My doctor, who I am seeing on Monday, spoke with me over the phone and said it doesn’t sound like anything serious. In fact, he said ALS is the most distant thing my symptoms could be.

You can safely stop worrying once your Mom says to