Concerning symptoms

[Hizgal]

Hi, all.

For the past 1.5 months I've been experiencing symptoms, which have been the source of a great deal of anxiety to me, a 20 year old male. I'll outline them in a timeline below:

Mid-July to early August:
- Noticed persistent, strange facial sensation in right side near facial nerve. Best described as a low-grade numbness.
- Headaches near right eye and temple region appeared. These occurred almost daily in the evenings.
- Noticed a general feeling of weakness in my right arm and leg. No noticeable loss of strength or dexterity.
- Body-wide fasciculations became apparent. Typically strong enough to be felt and seen. Last from a few seconds to tens of seconds.

By this point, I was quite worried about the possibility of a brain tumor. ALS was not on the radar.

Early-mid August:
- Saw a neuro who ordered a brain MRI with contrast to spot lesions. Came back clean.
- Facial sensation and headaches disappeared after MRI results (go figure?)
- After a few days of enjoying the sweet relief of that clean MRI with little to no symptoms, the weak feeling returned in right leg and arm.
- Frequency of fasciculations increased body-wide, particularly in legs and feet.

It was in that time that I came across ALS as a possibility. In terms of anxiety, I returned to square one. In fact, I've never been this anxious for this long in my life.

Late August - present:
- Constant fatigue is now an issue in right arm, hand, and leg. Still no noticeable loss in strength, just loss in endurance. (Can still run up stairs two at a time, walk on tip toes and heels, play guitar.)
- I experience occasional aches in my right hand, inner wrist, inner upper arm, both calves, and both thighs. These last maybe an hour or so at a time.
- Strange feeling in throat, which is similar to what you'd feel when crying. No slurring or swallowing issues. Though, I admit to obsessing over my swallowing recently.
- Constant fine fasciculations in the muscle just below my right pinky finger that runs along side of palm. This is one of the more worrying symptoms as I usually can't feel these fasciculations.
- Most mornings I wake up with numbness/tingling in either the right or left ring and pinky fingers.

All of this has made me incredibly anxious to say the least. I frankly have not been able to stop obsessively worrying about my health since early July. Typically, I only have very mild anxiety, but when it comes to health I can get quite worked up. If things turn out alright regarding my physical symptoms, I will promptly seek treatment for anxiety.

I have another neuro appointment set up, but in the meantime I was hoping to hear your insight, which I feel is quite valuable in its own right. I have also read the sticky, which has been helpful to me. My question is: In your opinion, does this combination of symptoms sound concerning with respect to ALS in a young adult?

I thank you all so much in advance. Your efforts on this forum are nothing short of incredible.

 

[WendyWooG]

Hi
I am sorry you are going through this, your symptoms don't seem like als at all. Numbness fatigue headaches are not onset als symptoms. The twitching can be caused by lots of things including anxiety.
I hope this is reassuring
Good luck
Wendy

 

[Hizgal]

Thank you for your response! This is reassuring indeed. I agree that the initial onset of my symptoms, which included the facial sensations and headaches sound nothing like ALS. I've just been worried about what I've been experiencing since those symptoms disappeared.

 

[Hizgal]

I'd also like to make a minor correction to my post. I mentioned that I have "constant" fine fasciculations in the muscle just below my right pinky finger that runs along the side of the palm. I've now noticed that this primarily occurs when the muscle is activated. If it is at rest, it does not twitch so frequently. It is certainly aggravated by activities such as writing.

 

[lgelb]

Wendy is right, while you are waiting the neuro appt, if you have not done so, I would see an internist to rule out systemic disease such as a virus. Assuming all is clean, I'd look to clean up your stress, diet, exercise, etc. as the non-specific sx you mention are for example exacerbated by physical and mental fatigue. Since you acknowledge you've never been this anxious this long, the only way to test what is physical and what is psychologically-mediated is to make a big dent on the side that you can control.

Best,
Laurie

 

[Hizgal]

Thanks, Laurie! I just saw my neurologist, and he ordered a cervical spine MRI. He didn't seem too worried about ALS, but he also didn't do a clinical exam (e.g. strength and reflex testing). When I saw him last month he did briefly check my reflexes and strength, which were normal, but his exam wasn't very thorough.

Regarding ALS, he essentially said that it's not worth worrying about because an early diagnosis won't change anything. He had a very "it is what it is" sort of attitude towards the subject. This wasn't very reassuring, and I don't entirely agree with him, but I understand his point.

In addition, he gave me two samples of anxiety medication to try out. My hope is that it will relieve some, if not all of my symptoms, but I don't expect this to be the case.

So long as this thread remains open, I will continue to update. In the meantime, I'm still more than happy to hear everyone's thoughts on my symptoms.

 

[Atsugi]

Your neurological specialist--one of America's brightest and most well-educated persons--did not seem too concerned about ALS because there is no reason whatsoever to think that you might have it.

"But his exam wasn't very thorough." With what expertise are you judging your neurologist's competency?

In your posts, you didn't mention any symptoms of ALS.
All the symptoms you mentioned had nothing to do with ALS.

If you're going to be anxious about something, don't waste your time being anxious about ALS. Find something else to worry about.

 

[Hizgal]

Thank you, Mike for your reply. I think I needed that firm response. I'm often surprised by the dichotomy that exists within my personality. As a student and researcher in astrophysics I'm required to consistently utilize logic and reason, yet when it comes to my health, I naturally tend towards a much more frantic approach.

Believe me, I am most certainly trying to shift my concerns back towards physics and math, which is where they should be at my age! My sincerest apologies if I have come off as a nuisance of any sort.

 

[Hizgal]

Hi, all.

Since posting two weeks ago, my symptoms have changed a fair amount. Mainly, I've noticed an increase in sensory symptoms, such as buzzing in my right calf, tingling/numbness in my right toes, and a couple of electric shock-like pains in my right foot. Meanwhile, the weakness feelings have actually subsided, but not completely. However, the past few days have seen ALL of my symptoms noticeably diminish. I hope this trend continues!

I had a follow-up appointment today with my neuro. My spine MRI was clean, and in his opinion, I'm healthy, but he suggested seeing another neuro to be safe.

I'm beginning to part ways with my fear of ALS being the culprit. I hope you'll agree that this sounds less like ALS, and more like something entirely different.

All the best!