Could I possibly have ALS?

[bluer34gtr]

Hi everyone,

Im a 25 year old male from the united states. Im a wrestler and spend about 3 hours a week training.

Back in early december of 2021, a traumatic mental event occurred, shortly after I began having fasciculations in my calves and feet, they quickly spread to other areas of my body especially triceps. I was accompanied by neck pain shortly after. The twitching was fairly bad in my calves, thighs, triceps, + random areas of my body.

I saw a PT for a possible cervical radiculopathy and my neck began feeling better, twitches seemed to diminish a fair amount.

I got covid on Jan 5, and endured a few more stressful weeks through february.

Early march is where things get worrisome for me. My twitches begin becoming far worse in my legs and triceps, some of them moving to eyelids and face.
I end up going to my GP, he tests me for deficiencies, all normal.
My twitches begin slowing down in other areas of my body except for my tricep, elbow, and shoulder. Tricep nearly feels like it’s twitching 24/7. Random areas of my body will twitch throughout the day but nothing like my left tricep. It’s constant. I ended up developing a medium sized bruise on my tricep which worried me, but most likely from wrestling.
He decides to put in an order to a neurologist but they can’t see me until may.
I don’t have any weakness that I can tell, occasional cramping in my tricep and arm but I feel fine.
The fact it localized to my tricep and is going non stop for 2 weeks is what’s worrying me so much.
Neuro appt is still almost 2 months away.
Thank you everyone,
SG

 

[lgelb]

If the bruise is on the tricep that's twitching, those could certainly be related. Therapeutic massage might help. You could also send a photo to your PCP.

I don't see any reason to worry about ALS.

 

[bluer34gtr]

Fasciculations alone wouldn’t warrant ALS worry?

 

[ShiftKicker]

Hello-

Have a read here: Read Before Posting

It contains a lot of information- including that twitching without other issues means no ALS.

All the best

 

[lgelb]

No, fascics are very commonly benign (harmless, though annoying). Little things can set them off and you can often accelerate their demise with static stretching, swimming, and other muscle-lengthening exercise that as a wrestler you might do less of, ordinarily. You might also want to lay off heavy lifting for a while, and watch your diet, sleep, and all that. And whatever the mental trauma was, since you got Covid right after, you might not have processed it yet, which would suggest giving counseling a shot, even via telehealth.