Bulbar ALS Symptoms?

[lararobin]

I have been experiencing a severe dry throat and mouth for about 1 month. I drink water the entire day and it's immediately dry after I take a drink. I have also noticed occasionally I have trouble pronouncing "sh" sounds. It will come out "th" instead. Josh is Joth.

Also, I have been experiencing slight tingling on the left side of my mouth with an occasional twitch in my cheeks. Just 1 twitch like a little sudden shock sensation in either side of the middle of my cheek.

In addition, I have a sticky feeling above my lips at times in between mouth and nose as well as some slight numb feeling under the skin by my left eye. The numbness and tingling in my lip and around eye comes and goes throughout the day. Also, I have a cold sensation that comes and goes a few times a week on my chin.

I have been followed by a Neuro for twitches and spasms after a West Nile acute viral illness in 2003. He did an EMG back in 03 and found my left calf readings to be slightly abnormal. He attributed this change to the West Nile illness that put me in the hospital in 03. He also found white spots on my brain MRI in 03. All has remain unchanged since 03 on MRI. He even MRI'd my neck and spine which are completely normal.

Since May 2008 after the birth of my 2nd child I have had dizziness and slight light sensitivity/fuzzy vision. Dizziness/lightheadedness is constant... better in mornings, worse at night or when I am stressed. Just had my 3rd child in January of 2010 and now the face numbness/tingling and SUPER severe dry throat and mouth. Plus cold sensations.

My Neuro just performed an EMG yesterday afternoon, Friday and said my EMG was completely normal except for the same calf finding that he saw in 03. He said he could tell it was old damage. He even did a needle prick up through my chin and it was normal. He also did a spinal tap on me a few weeks back which was clean and normal (o bands negative, proteins normal, etc etc). I do have a positive ANA but it's very low titer and speckled.

My recent mouth and throat dryness has me concerned my West Nile has triggered ALS, which is currently being studied and researched. Does anyone have any insight into what this all might add up to? Any suggestions or thoughts would be greatly greatly appreciated.

I am a 34 yr old Mom of 3 desperate for answers. Thank you all so very much for taking the time to read my post.

Hoping for answers soon,

Lara
Frisco, TX

 

[BarryG]

Doesn't sound like my experience with Bulbar ALS at all. I had no numbness, no tingling, no dry mouth, no cold sensations and most importantly I have not given birth to any children!

I started out sounding drunk, then drunk and hoarse, then just no talking at all. Now I cannot walk much, lift my arms over my shoulder level, eat or talk but even though I am speechless I will say this. Listen to your doctor and stay off of the internet because Doctor Google is a quack.

 

[Phil M]

Nope..................

 

[Marjorie R. Wilcox]

Diabetic neuropathy. Any sugar during your pregnancies? Excessive thirst, dizziness, etc. are symptoms of. With ALS you may stagger from weakness, but it's not dizziness. Uncontrolled diabetes causes all kinds of things.

 

[Karin Bolette]

Sounds like diabeties to me. Prior to my diagnosed of diabeties I had dizziness, numbness, tingling and excessive thrist and sicking in my mouth because of the thrist. These symptoms all became normal when I started on meds for diabeties. Now with Bulbar ALs I have an excess of saliva, no numbness or tingling or dizziness. See if your doctor can have your sugar monitored for a week, it just the 24 hr fasting test.

 

[Nicole1987]

I had the numbness, tingling, dizziness, and dry throat(along with extremely dry mouth) (I couldn't even swallow solids) in addition to burning sensations and cold sweats. I was convinced it was ALS, but I was diagnosed with Lyme Disease last week. Since starting the anti-biotics I can now swallow things like bread and vegetables, I'm walking straighter, and my skin and muscles are somewhat more comfortable(less weird sensations). I would demand to be tested for every virus or infection possible before going through the worry of ALS again.