Hello to all, and thank you in advance for suffering those of us currently living in fear but with no diagnosis.
I am a 40-year-old female with a history of viral infection in my 20s that absolutely attacked my nervous system. Shortly after the first illness, I began suffering a variety of neurologic symptoms, such as twitching, weakness, visible intention tremors, lightheadedness as well as vertigo (falling down), "mysterious" pains (unvisualizable through a variety of xrays and physicals), etc. etc.
About five years later, it mostly seemed to resolve. Other than very mild tremor and periodic vertigo, there were no lasting effects. Throughout those years, I had three MRIs and one brain cat scan, to basically no avail.
Fast forward to one and a half years ago, when it all started to begin again. Most notably I suffered terrible twitching, mild, pervasive cramping, and a great deal of perceived muscular weakness throughout my entire body, but mostly on my left (dominant) side. I received another set of MRIs (brain and cervical spine) and they came back clean.
At that time, my neuro was not worried about ALS (which I became increasingly convinced I had, in absence of a diagnosis), based on my physical exam. The symptoms since then have come and gone, and of course I realize that ALS doesn't "come and go." So please bear with me. The neuro and my GP prescribed an anti-anxiety med, which I took for seven months, until I got pregnant. The meds helped my frame of mind, but I still had much twitching and some perceived weakness.
During my pregnancy (son born 9/2/11), I had pretty much zero in the way of symptoms. I realize MS can follow this course--and believe me, I was convinced I had MS, since it can flare over years--but my MRIs are clean. Then, after the pregnancy, all the symptoms came back.
Now, yesterday morning, I had trouble holding a plate and also holding my pump (for breastmilk). This difficulty/weakness seemed to subside through the day, but the sensation of weakness was still there. My husband thought perhaps I just slept on it funny. This morning, the same thing happened, again with the difficulty seeming to subside through the day (but still with "weakness").
Then--and this is what is killing me--I looked at my arms. There is a very substantial difference in musculature between my forearms. This seems strange, since the left (affected) is my dominant side, so my guess would be that those muscles would be bigger (if this were just a natural variation on normal assymetry).
The arms look reasonably similar when unclenched, but if I have my palms up, and I clench my fists, there is quite a gap near my wrist (not in the middle where the natural dips occur around the tendons), where on the other side, there is a large muscle.
Where the gap is, is where I feel this strange weakness.
Sorry to be long-winded...but does this sound as alarming to you guys as it does to me? My neuro never ordered any EMGs or any other testing beyond the MRI.
Thank you so much. I am so worried, with a 5-year-old and a newborn
I am a 40-year-old female with a history of viral infection in my 20s that absolutely attacked my nervous system. Shortly after the first illness, I began suffering a variety of neurologic symptoms, such as twitching, weakness, visible intention tremors, lightheadedness as well as vertigo (falling down), "mysterious" pains (unvisualizable through a variety of xrays and physicals), etc. etc.
About five years later, it mostly seemed to resolve. Other than very mild tremor and periodic vertigo, there were no lasting effects. Throughout those years, I had three MRIs and one brain cat scan, to basically no avail.
Fast forward to one and a half years ago, when it all started to begin again. Most notably I suffered terrible twitching, mild, pervasive cramping, and a great deal of perceived muscular weakness throughout my entire body, but mostly on my left (dominant) side. I received another set of MRIs (brain and cervical spine) and they came back clean.
At that time, my neuro was not worried about ALS (which I became increasingly convinced I had, in absence of a diagnosis), based on my physical exam. The symptoms since then have come and gone, and of course I realize that ALS doesn't "come and go." So please bear with me. The neuro and my GP prescribed an anti-anxiety med, which I took for seven months, until I got pregnant. The meds helped my frame of mind, but I still had much twitching and some perceived weakness.
During my pregnancy (son born 9/2/11), I had pretty much zero in the way of symptoms. I realize MS can follow this course--and believe me, I was convinced I had MS, since it can flare over years--but my MRIs are clean. Then, after the pregnancy, all the symptoms came back.
Now, yesterday morning, I had trouble holding a plate and also holding my pump (for breastmilk). This difficulty/weakness seemed to subside through the day, but the sensation of weakness was still there. My husband thought perhaps I just slept on it funny. This morning, the same thing happened, again with the difficulty seeming to subside through the day (but still with "weakness").
Then--and this is what is killing me--I looked at my arms. There is a very substantial difference in musculature between my forearms. This seems strange, since the left (affected) is my dominant side, so my guess would be that those muscles would be bigger (if this were just a natural variation on normal assymetry).
The arms look reasonably similar when unclenched, but if I have my palms up, and I clench my fists, there is quite a gap near my wrist (not in the middle where the natural dips occur around the tendons), where on the other side, there is a large muscle.
Where the gap is, is where I feel this strange weakness.
Sorry to be long-winded...but does this sound as alarming to you guys as it does to me? My neuro never ordered any EMGs or any other testing beyond the MRI.
Thank you so much. I am so worried, with a 5-year-old and a newborn