Is this Bulbar Onset???

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kellyp1684

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Hello! I’m trying to piece together my symptoms and I’m lost and need help. Beginning of May, started with heart palpitations. They came suddenly, then wouldn’t come back for a few weeks, then they would come back. Then, I noticed I was feeling food go down my throat into my chest after I swallowed. It was a very uncomfortable feeling.

This feeling comes and goes. Now it’s been bothering me, along with phlegm sitting in the back of my throat and burbing after I eat anything. The heart palpitations have stopped and now it’s just this feeling when I swallow I feel food going down into my chest, like it’s taking it’s sweet time going down. I had endoscopy done, it came back ok, I have had extensive blood work done, all normal. Chest X-ray- looked good and ekg done on heart it was fine.

I have lost alot of weight, partially because I’ve been upset and haven’t eaten all that much. I overall feel weak, my bowels are all out of whack. I am a social smoker, done some things I shouldn’t, but overall I’ve been blessed and have had good health. Had Bell’s palsy in 2011 and fully recovered from that. I have a busy lifestyle with teenagers in sports and such and my job requires me to get up very early. My family thinks I’m going crazy and that nothing is wrong with me but I feel so terrible. At night sometimes I lay down and I feel tingling in both my arms. Seems to happen only at night when I’m laying down.

I don’t seem to have any limb weakness, I did notice however that for a couple days my calves felt like they had worked out and were sore, but that seems to have subsided. I sometimes have night sweats and need to take sleeping pills to go to bed. Went to a psychiatrist and she prescribed me lexapro. Been taking 5 mg of that for a week, now starting on 10mg. I’ve been driving myself insane googling all my symptoms and they seem to point near bulbar onset als which is scaring me. I’m a 36 year old women with 2 teenagers I want to see graduate high school and college.

My Gastro is ordering a swallow test and my GP is ordering an MRI just for piece of mind for me. I told him I just want to feel better again. I have some good days and bad. If anyone has some insights as to if my symptoms sound like Bulbar Onset ALS, I would appreciate any feedback. I’ve been on a googling rampage and Im scared. GP did a self exam on me and said it wasnt neurological but I didn’t tell him about bulbar als. Constantly feel like I need to swallow to clear phlegm or cough up some. And even when I cough up, there’s not a lot of phlegm. Please help me out cause I’m going insane!
 
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Kelly, this is my advice: stop googling, start living and take the wake-up call to fine-tune that life. Maybe re-evaluate the (overly?) "busy lifestyle," including maybe too little sleep and continued smoking (which can contribute to things like palpitations and tingling even in "social" amounts), that is causing you stress and likely contributing to physical issues. I would also consider counseling to test the idea that there are some issues worth talking about. Small sips of liquid before, during and after meals can help with the feeling of needing to cough and food not going down well. Note also that SSRIs like Lexapro take 2-6 weeks to reach full effect.

You have described nothing that would lead us to be concerned about ALS, bulbar or otherwise. Your GP's conclusion, whether you brought up ALS or not, that nothing neurological is going on seems on point, but I would expect the MRI to be reassuring as well.

Best,
Laurie
 
Thank you so much for your feedback! I am hopefully on a path to living a healthier life. Just need to get those tests done. Very stressful still with my husband who is self employed and all these medical bills are adding up. But thank you for your advice I really appreciate it!
 
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