Concerned

[Mon]

Hi, my father started feeling weakness in forearm area up to a year ago. He thought it was the result of injuring his shoulder. He was told to use light weight to strengthen area. Fast forward 9months later, his arm is weaker and there is a level of finger involvement. He has a weak grip, cannot lift a coffee cup if wanting to give it to me, however he can hold it. He is not able to button his shirt, so there ia loss of fine motor. This is the left hand. The area appears to have suffered muscle loss.

He has been doing pretty much all he normally does except uses right hand. He does not appear to have issues anywhere else. Legs, throat and swallowing and right arm appear to be ok. He recently saw neurologist( i was not present for appointment) and EMG was completed. EMG was abnormal. Neurologist said there is nerve damage and scheduled an MRI and ordered a huge panel of blood work. Also mentioned the shoulder is fine and not the cause of this. There was no mention of ALS but he asked questions related to the disease and said to keep weight up.

I have no clue the exact results on EMG, other than abnormal and he wants to find cause of nerve damage. Why would an EMG be abnormal? Would the symptoms have progressed more by now? I just dont now what to think but concerned more than ever.

 

[Nikki J]

an emg can be abnormal for many reasons other than ALS. One example is a pinched nerve in the neck another would be a muscle disease, a third would be an autoimmune disease to name a few What part of the body is being mri’d neck or brain or both?

without knowing what the emg showed it is hard to say how worried you should be. Progression rates vary widely. If it is ALS ( I hope not) the fact it has started slowly augers well for a slow progression

 

[Mon]

Both areas are being mri'd..we dont have a date for mri..approx 2-3weeks.


An NCS was done before the EMG. I dont believe there was a muscle concern.

 

[Nikki J]

primary muscle diseases are found on emg. Ncs shows nerve conduction.

it sounds like the doctor is doing appropriate tests. I know it is hard to wait.

to reply without quote use the little box below rather than the reply button. Quotes lengthen the thread and that is hard for people who are scrolling with their eyes or a toe etc

 

[Mon]

<quoted text removed>
Waiting is hard..i just cannot imagine a pinched nerve without pain. Is it the norm to have progressed so slowly or would a majority be seeing other symptoms by now?

 

[Nikki J]

Completely variable as I said
and please please stop quoting as I asked. I edited your other posts which is a lot of work

 

[Mon]

<quoted text removed>
Ok. Thx for your help with my questions.

 

[Mon]

Hi

I have a question.regarding the big writeup about als in this forum that many say refer to. It mentions in it regarding weakness that certain tasks you simply cannot do. Not a progressive difficulty..cannot do. Also a comparison to a wifi signal going out is made. Is this suppose to sound like progressive..because i would think progressive means its getting more difficult..not lights out. Can this be clarified?

 

[Nikki J]

Most things require multiple muscles. So your whole leg is not affected at once. There will be one little thing ( in case my case the muscle on the outside of my lower leg) that fails ( in my case meaning I fell over when I stepped to the side that direction) but everything else works ok. ( I could walk,even runand jump). Then an adjacent muscle goes and so on. So it is progressive in that sense from spreading failure

 

[KarenNWendyn]

There are many lights to extinguish. For example in the lower leg, many different muscles control the foot. It does happen that someone with ALS will notice all of a sudden they can’t stand on their heel on one foot, but they might still be able to lift the foot a little because other muscle fibers compensate. And they will still be able to walk because many other muscles are involved.

Nikki said it well.

 

[affected]

In the early days my husband quite suddenly could not squeeze a peg open, but he could hold the steering wheel and drive the tractor. So he had failure to do something, but as things progressed he could not even lift his arms to the steering wheel.
He never 'felt' weak, he simply was unable to do things and that progressed to being unable to do more and more and more things as each muscle failed.

 

[Mon]

Thanks all for your insight. My dad is able to do most things quite well. Luckily weakness is in non dominant hand. He does not feel weak overall, just impacted area of forearm and left hand. It has definately progressed but very slowly. I think i have a better idea of loss of ability in muscle now, so thank you.

 

[affected]

My husband, and all other PALS I speak with for years do not feel weak in the impacted area. All the best.

 

[Mon]

Interesting. Ive read so much, probably too much. Ive read personal stories, reached out to researchers, read medical books. Not sure what im looking for. Tryin to find something that will convince me its not what im worried about. Just hate being in this position of waiting. Bottom line that is fact/concrete, we have abnormal EMG and some slow progression. Friends are telling me to stop reading or even looking into it..guess im just in a bad place. Thanks again for your insight and comments. Maybe once we have completed this process i will inform of outcome. Perhaps it will help someone else.

 

[Nikki J]

Waiting is hard but as you know no matter how much you read and search until all the information is collected and the tests are in you aren’t going to have an answer. Spend the time having fun with your dad and yes please let us know. I hope the answer is something else but if it is not we will be here for you