Father recently diagnosed with ALS worried I may be next

[bpandi1]

My dad was diagnosed with ALS in December 2017. As far as we know no one else in the family has had it. My dad is 73 years old and his parents both died younger than 73 so it's possible someone had it and died before being diagnosed. I have been twitching constantly on my legs, arms and it's now spreading to my back for over a month now. I started taking magnesium and the twitching has reduced but it's still there.
II'm 40 and terrified I may have ALS also as I've never had twitching like this in my life. Trying to understand if someone has ALS does magnesium help with with twitching or not?

 

[Nikki J]

Sorry about your dad.

Twitching is extremely common and can often be brought on by stress. Please read the sticky at the top of this subforum read before posting to get our opinion on twitching as a symptom.

I have never found magnesium to affect my twitching.

Your chance of getting ALS as the child of someone with sporadic ALS is only very slightly more than anyone else with no relatives at all. It is extremely extremely low for your lifetime let alone now 2 months after your dad’s diagnosis.

Even if you had a family history of FALS the odds of someone getting it 33 years younger than their family members would be very very very low.

My family history is fairly typical of FALS. I am the 6th person in my lifetime to be affected in my family and there is currently concern for a 7th. My neuro looked at my family history and just nodded That is what FALS looks like

Please see your doctor and put this aside so you can concentrate on your dad

 

[affected]

Really sorry for your fathers diagnosis - you don't present with ALS at all and I hope you can put your energy into supporting him through this awful time he is experiencing.

 

[lgelb]

Very sorry to hear about your dad, B, but the others are right -- the odds are incredibly in your favor here. It is no small thing emotionally to have a parent diagnosed. Give yourself and him time to process, grieve and be angry together when you are ready, and come here any time for support.

Best,
Laurie

 

[Miav123]

I was where you are a few months ago. My dad was diagnosed with ALS in August of 2016. A few months ago I was having a weird pain in my elbow and felt like my arm was weaker. I was driving myself nuts thinking I had ALS too. Then my father's health went extremely downhill and aside from my mom, I was a main caregiver. My days were consumed with physically transferring him, ordering equipment and supporting my mom. The funny thing is that my "symptoms" automatically went away. I truly think our minds can play tricks on us, and the more we think we have a symptom the more we feel it.
Please try to just be there for your father during this difficult time. I am sure that as children of parents with ALS, we will always sadly have it in the back of our minds. My hope is that we won't spend our years obsessing and analyzing every little twitch.

 

[Atsugi]

I think maybe this happens to many of us. After my wife died, I worried that I had ALS, too.

 

[Bestfriends14]

After I found out about my husband's diagnosis, for a couple of months afterwards I would wake up struggling to breathe, worried that I had respiratory onset. The rational side of me knew that I didn't, but I was still in emotional trauma at that point.

You're not alone in your worries and there's even a psychological term for the proximity worry that you have and others here have describe. I just can't remember what it's called. Med students get it often.

I'm so very sorry about your dad but please know you are not alone on this site. The people here are very kind and supportive.