Having symptoms

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John D

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Hi, First of all, thank you for allowing me to post here. I truly appreciate it. I'd like to introduce myself. I'm John, 63-year-old widower. Lost my wife to cancer 4 years ago. She only lasted 5 months after her diagnosis with stage 4 bile duct cancer. I was her primary caregiver. I know it's a whole different ballgame from what you folks are going through, but I hope that my experience can help me emphasize just a little.

Last year my cousin, whom I was quite close to when we were young, died from ALS. In November I experienced weakness in my left hand/forearm. It was at the gym after a fairly rigorous workout so I didn't think anything of it. A few days later it happened again, with an element of pain. I tried to do an exercise I had just done 45 minutes previously but couldn't, it just wouldn't move. I thought it was an injury so I went to an orthopedist. He said that I didn't injure it, it's structurally sound, with maybe some mild tendonitis, which wouldn't really explain the weakness. He said rest a couple of weeks and see what happens. I'm a runner and was training for a marathon at the same time.

A week or two after this I got a feeling of stiffness in my right hamstring, and pain in my buttocks. This is similar ( I think) to issues I've had with my piriformis muscle over the last year and a half. It's painful but seems to come and go. Anyway, I ran the marathon in December, with some discomfort but in an okay time. Then I went back to the gym and tried exercising again. The hand was still weak but I could do the exercises I couldn't do the month before.

About this time I noticed muscle twitching, first in my calves and then pretty much everywhere. I also had a feeling of having difficulty swallowing saliva. First thing I thought about was my cousin, so I went to my GP, she said 'I don't think it's ASL, she tested my grip and said twitching could be anything and that swallowing issues almost always come later on in the progression of ASL, not at the onset. However, she did say, if you're worried I'll refer you to a neurologist, which she did.

I saw the neurologist last week, he did a manual arm strength test and said my arm seemed fine. He also said that as far as my arm goes, If you couldn't do some weightlifting a month ago, but now you can, it doesn't sound like ALS. Said the same thing about my leg. Thing is my arm feels weak and my leg feels stiff and painful so he did some bloodwork and scheduled an MRI.

I live in Japan and all these doctors ae Japanese, I can speak Japanese and the physicians can explain things in English, so I'm pretty sure the translations were all accurate.

Any thoughts? Thanks.

Sorry for the long, burdensome post..thanks for your patience and bless you all.
 
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Hi
sorry about your wife and cousin.

everything you were told sounds reasonable and correct. You got better and you have no clinical weakness. Not ALS. Japan has excellent neurologists who know ALS. You are good to go

i don’t know what else to tell you
 
Thank you! appreciate your answer,
 
Likewise, don't see any worries about ALS but maybe look at your positioning in sleep and at work. In consultation with a trainer, you might back off lifting for now and focus on static stretches (classical, Pilates, tai chi, swimming, etc.) and consider therapeutic massage.

Best,
Laurie
 
Thanks a lot! Could I bother you again for a little clarification? How do you define clinical weakness?
 
Found by the doctor on exam. You state the neurologist said your arm seemed fine thus no clinical weakness
 
Thanks again, Nikki
 
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