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peanut78

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Hi everyone,
I know it's kind of a hard question to answer, but from your experiences maybe you can provide some feedback. Long story short, I started widespread twitching in September, had an EMG about 2 weeks after it started, which was normal. But I didn't have any other symptoms. Would other things (fibs, + sharp waves, etc.) have shown up without weakness, atrophy? Thanks for your help!
 
I can share my personal experience with the EMG/NCV tests, as I have had 7 of them total. The first one that I had done, not by a neuro, back in February 2006 had some abnormalities (I don't know what they were). My second on in May 2006, done by a neurologist, didn't show anything abnormal.

My initial symptom was sudden weakness in my right leg. I could actually feel it coming on quickly while I was driving, sorta of a tingling but not in the skin. I was limping by the time I got out of my car. It worsened over 3 weeks, and then seemed to subside when I had my 2nd EMG. My symptoms got worse and moved to my other leg and my arms a little throughout the summer.

Fast forward to November 2006 after I was walking with a cane, my EMG showed abornmalities in all my extremeties as well as all subsequent EMGs. Now I have been told over and over that it is not ALS, so this may not relate exaxctly to you, but I do have motor nerve involvement in both legs and arms, difficulty swallowing and breathing with an FVC last weekend of 58%. In my experience, even when I was experiencing physical symptoms such as weakness, it still didn't show up on the EMG until it got really bad.
 
DH's experience - September 06 atrophy in his thumb and slight weakness in his ankle. November 06 he had the EMG and NCV and it showed what the physician called "early manifestations of ALS" - fibrillation potentials, positive sharp waves, fasiculation potentials, large prolonged polyphasic motor unit potentials and prolonged F-wave latencies on his NCV. This was on left and right side, though he was only showing some atrophy on the right. He did not have twitching and we did not notice fasciculations until this summer.
 
Thank you guys for your responses. Anyone else have any thoughts on the time between first symptom (twitching for 2 weeks) and EMG? Thanks!
 
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