could this be bulbar als?

[vdus]

hey here! i'm new to this forum but i've been reading it for a long time.. now my concern is about my mother
she has been diagnosed with fibromyalgia she has all the pains and the symptoms but a neurologist also had suspected als (that happenned 3 years ago) because she had absence of gag reflex but she didn't have any weakness.. she also went to a 2nd neurologist and he told her that she likely doesn't have it.. but now we see that her voice has changed... it's what we call hoarsness
that happens when she gets tired and she's a little concerned that it's a symptom of bulbar als that progresses slowly..
she doesn't have any other symptom like slurred speech or something
i wish it's not one of the rare cases with symptoms progressing too slowly
what do you think?

 

[KarenNWendyn]

A lot of people have a decreased or absent gag reflex. If anything, it might be increased in ALS.

Did they do a brain MRI to evaluate for any evidence of a stroke? Without other weakness, there is no reason to be concerned about ALS.

 

[vdus]

A lot of people have a decreased or absent gag reflex. If anything, it might be increased in ALS.

Did they do a brain MRI to evaluate for any evidence of a stroke? Without other weakness, there is no reason to be concerned about ALS.

thank you for your answer Karen! she did the MRI and it didn't show anything bad... but we're thinking it might be early yet and symptoms have not appeared.. hoarseness might be the first! the thing that it's a little comforting if that it's been 3 years since the neurologist suspected als
i guess it would be something more than the symptom she has now..

 

[KarenNWendyn]

You are correct that the time course points away from ALS.