Christy47
New member
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2020
- Messages
- 2
- Reason
- Lost a loved one
- Diagnosis
- 04/2005
- Country
- US
- State
- OH
- City
- Munroe Falls
I would like to start by saying thank you to all the people on this forum for taking time out of your day to answer questions/concerns/provide support. I would like to share my story with losing my father to ALS and then see if some symptoms I am having is anything that is pointing toward ALS.
My father started off with what he thought was a rotator cuff injury in his shoulder and then a pulled muscle in his back from working out that was not getting better. As they treated those issues he experienced “foot drop”. He was eventually diagnosed in April of 2005 having both spinal and bulbar onset which the doctor said they had only seen 1 other case like that and I believe they used his medical information for research.
Looking back I would assume the shoulder and back injuries were due to him becoming weaker from the ALS and getting injured from trying to force his body to do things it couldn't do? He deteriorated quickly with weakness, falling, cramps, twitching, having trouble breathing as well as eating and passed away August of 2005 at the age of 56. I do not believe genetic testing was done. My father is one of seven and neither my grandparents or my father’s siblings have had ALS.
About two months ago I started with shoulder and shoulder blade pain/cramps. In the last two weeks I have had strange symptoms of the toes on my right foot feeling numb or tingling like they have been hyperextended and slight cramping as well as the same thing in my thumbs on both hands (more so the left). The right leg feels very heavy and the calf will sometime feel numb. A week ago I started having mild twitching in my muscles and the past four nights I have had rough, jerky involuntary muscle movement for hours at night which keep me from falling asleep.
In my estimate 90% of this is occurring on my right side in areas that are having the issues (shoulder blade, foot, leg, hand) but also had this in my neck, side and tongue. I keep telling myself that ALS is failing not feeling and keep reading the sticky but the twitching and sometime very forceful involuntary muscle movement has me a bit stressed as well as my perception of how things started for my father. I am 47 years old and have went to my PCP this week who I told my dad’s history to and he is sending me to PT and is prescribing muscle relaxers. He stated if these don’t help then we will move on to a neurologist. In your opinion, should I be concerned this is possibly ALS? AT this point my mind is in a little bit of panic.
Thank you in advance for taking the time to read and reply.
My father started off with what he thought was a rotator cuff injury in his shoulder and then a pulled muscle in his back from working out that was not getting better. As they treated those issues he experienced “foot drop”. He was eventually diagnosed in April of 2005 having both spinal and bulbar onset which the doctor said they had only seen 1 other case like that and I believe they used his medical information for research.
Looking back I would assume the shoulder and back injuries were due to him becoming weaker from the ALS and getting injured from trying to force his body to do things it couldn't do? He deteriorated quickly with weakness, falling, cramps, twitching, having trouble breathing as well as eating and passed away August of 2005 at the age of 56. I do not believe genetic testing was done. My father is one of seven and neither my grandparents or my father’s siblings have had ALS.
About two months ago I started with shoulder and shoulder blade pain/cramps. In the last two weeks I have had strange symptoms of the toes on my right foot feeling numb or tingling like they have been hyperextended and slight cramping as well as the same thing in my thumbs on both hands (more so the left). The right leg feels very heavy and the calf will sometime feel numb. A week ago I started having mild twitching in my muscles and the past four nights I have had rough, jerky involuntary muscle movement for hours at night which keep me from falling asleep.
In my estimate 90% of this is occurring on my right side in areas that are having the issues (shoulder blade, foot, leg, hand) but also had this in my neck, side and tongue. I keep telling myself that ALS is failing not feeling and keep reading the sticky but the twitching and sometime very forceful involuntary muscle movement has me a bit stressed as well as my perception of how things started for my father. I am 47 years old and have went to my PCP this week who I told my dad’s history to and he is sending me to PT and is prescribing muscle relaxers. He stated if these don’t help then we will move on to a neurologist. In your opinion, should I be concerned this is possibly ALS? AT this point my mind is in a little bit of panic.
Thank you in advance for taking the time to read and reply.
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