Mirrors
New member
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2023
- Messages
- 1
- Reason
- Learn about ALS
- Diagnosis
- 00/0000
- Country
- US
Hello everyone, this is my first post here. I am very new to this forum and ALS in general, so I don't have much knowledge on this disease. I am almost 19 years old and a university student. Before I talk about my symptoms, I want to say that my prayers go to everyone who has been diagnosed with ALS.
On the 10th of February, last month, when I was about to sleep, my left upper arm muscle started twitching and it was pretty slow and rhythmic when starting. I ignored it and slept for 5 hours. Then I got woken up by the same muscle twitching very rapidly. It was twitching this way continuously for 3 days. Then the twitching reduced in that upper arm area and started in the brachioradialis of the same left arm. It later started in my left cheek, chest, thigh and calf. All through this it was mostly only on the left side of my body with occasional right arm or leg twitches. This twitching also stopped every time I look at or pay attention to that muscle and start again when my attention is elsewhere. I also did not have the clinical weakness symptom either. But I'm still worried if that might show up later.
A week later, these symptoms stopped and I suddenly had trouble swallowing food one day because I felt like something was stuck in my throat but when I tried to clear my throat it did nothing. It felt like my saliva had gone thicker and was accumulating at the bottom of my throat. I spent 2 hours on that meal which, the day before I finished in 40 minutes. This did not return although I still feel something stuck in my throat sometimes that goes away after drinking something warm.
2 days after that happened, my left foot arch began to vibrate when I was sitting down. This was happening in frequent intervals when that particular area would vibrate like a mobile phone and then stop in a second or 2 and then return in a few seconds. This kept going throughout that night and I had it when I woke up the next day, but it vanished later that day. Although, later I couldn't feel anything in that area of my foot arch anymore and the skin there is always dry and looks puffy. Apart from these I also experienced short periods of vertigo and low cognition that did not return later.
I was getting extremely worried and anxious about all this every time a new symptom out of these kept showing up, that searching about them on google was consuming a large portion of the last month. I lost interest in everything I used to feel happy doing. In fact all that worrying went so far that, I kept convincing myself that I was dying slowly and kept thinking negatively. I talked to my mother about this so many times and she would tell me to stop thinking about it but I just could not.
Another week later, I got an MRI for which the results showed a white area on the right side of my brain on the front. We are yet to see a neurologist about it, but could this possibly be how ALS shows up in an MRI? I don't even know if it does but I just wondered. My anxiety about ALS stopped after the MRI because my doctor said that my brain looked normal aside from this one area.
Last night, my left upper arm started twitching again and the electric shock-like-vibration on the same area of my left foot arch returned, and I still can't feel anything there when I touch it. My left calf muscle is also a little bit stiff. Both my legs also shake when I lift them up now or stand up. The fingers on both my hands make small movements on their own, side to side, when I open my hands. Right before I starting typing up this post, I started feeling something stuck in my throat and I'm really anxious once again. Can someone please help me?
On the 10th of February, last month, when I was about to sleep, my left upper arm muscle started twitching and it was pretty slow and rhythmic when starting. I ignored it and slept for 5 hours. Then I got woken up by the same muscle twitching very rapidly. It was twitching this way continuously for 3 days. Then the twitching reduced in that upper arm area and started in the brachioradialis of the same left arm. It later started in my left cheek, chest, thigh and calf. All through this it was mostly only on the left side of my body with occasional right arm or leg twitches. This twitching also stopped every time I look at or pay attention to that muscle and start again when my attention is elsewhere. I also did not have the clinical weakness symptom either. But I'm still worried if that might show up later.
A week later, these symptoms stopped and I suddenly had trouble swallowing food one day because I felt like something was stuck in my throat but when I tried to clear my throat it did nothing. It felt like my saliva had gone thicker and was accumulating at the bottom of my throat. I spent 2 hours on that meal which, the day before I finished in 40 minutes. This did not return although I still feel something stuck in my throat sometimes that goes away after drinking something warm.
2 days after that happened, my left foot arch began to vibrate when I was sitting down. This was happening in frequent intervals when that particular area would vibrate like a mobile phone and then stop in a second or 2 and then return in a few seconds. This kept going throughout that night and I had it when I woke up the next day, but it vanished later that day. Although, later I couldn't feel anything in that area of my foot arch anymore and the skin there is always dry and looks puffy. Apart from these I also experienced short periods of vertigo and low cognition that did not return later.
I was getting extremely worried and anxious about all this every time a new symptom out of these kept showing up, that searching about them on google was consuming a large portion of the last month. I lost interest in everything I used to feel happy doing. In fact all that worrying went so far that, I kept convincing myself that I was dying slowly and kept thinking negatively. I talked to my mother about this so many times and she would tell me to stop thinking about it but I just could not.
Another week later, I got an MRI for which the results showed a white area on the right side of my brain on the front. We are yet to see a neurologist about it, but could this possibly be how ALS shows up in an MRI? I don't even know if it does but I just wondered. My anxiety about ALS stopped after the MRI because my doctor said that my brain looked normal aside from this one area.
Last night, my left upper arm started twitching again and the electric shock-like-vibration on the same area of my left foot arch returned, and I still can't feel anything there when I touch it. My left calf muscle is also a little bit stiff. Both my legs also shake when I lift them up now or stand up. The fingers on both my hands make small movements on their own, side to side, when I open my hands. Right before I starting typing up this post, I started feeling something stuck in my throat and I'm really anxious once again. Can someone please help me?
