Leg Weakness, Left hand weakness when extending or specific tasks

[Ness253]

Hi,

First I would like to apologize if I come off as insensitive to anyone here on this forum. not my intention.

I want to start by saying I feel like I hid from these issues for 6 years or so by drinking a lot over the years. Mainly weekend binge drinking.

First Symptom - Left Arm Weakness whole body fatigued
So I noticed about 5-6 years ago, my left wrist/hand would periodically get weak. playing computer games. shrugged it off. when I drank beer the weakness would either be less noticeable or went away. As of now, if I fully extend this arm and try to do something, its incredibly hard. I can do it, it just my hand shakes and gets weak. I dont believe this has traveled up my arm. it has kind of stayed isolated.

Second Symptom - Both Legs Weak upon Engaging (Feel Wobbly) (noticed about 2 years ago)
Fast forward a couple years. my legs seem to be weak everyday when I engage them. getting up from a chair, just plain fatigued. Upon Engaging them walking for a bit, they feel better. I work in an office, anytime I bend over, or crouch down, my legs feel weak and almost have like a tickling feeling. its hard to describe. its almost like butterflies your stomach but in your legs. Again, I can still do these things, but makes it incredibly hard when I have this weakness/butterfly feeling.

Other Examples of what's going on
Another example, I took my kid to the fair about 9 months ago. My son who is 4 wants to go down the huge slide, so I put him on my lap and held him super tight to make sure that he does not fall and hurt himself. After we went down the slide, 10 seconds, I immediately go into this like shock feeling where my body feels like its shaking, but its not. the butterfly feeling lasts for like 10 minutes. It was almost like an electrical current i could feel all the way up to like my neck.

Last Example, same scenario but on a kiddy rollercoaster. I was holding my kid making sure he didn't hurt himself. Same thing happened. my body completely shut down.

Concerns
The obvious concern is I have some sort of progressing illness happening in my body. My PCP chalks it off as i am out of shape. I am convinced something is going on.

I will say that I was a binge drinker for 10 years. I hid from this problem for 6 years with drinking. Always kinda chalked it up to just having alcohol withdrawals. but now I've not touched a drop in 2 months, still the same issues of fatigue.

I have not been diagnosed, have not shown signs of clinical weakness, atrophy etc.

You guys have any ideas?

Thanks,

 

[ShiftKicker]

Hello there- sorry your searches have brought you here. We do ask that folk read here first: Read Before Posting to make sure their questions haven't already been answered.

You speak of intermittent and sensory issues. These types of issues point away from ALS. I am also wondering if you have been up front with your doctor with regards to your heavy drinking. If you look up Vitamin B deficiency and alcohol use/abuse, you will find there is a pretty large body of information about how this can affect the central nervous system. Even if you've been dry for a couple months, it's important to make sure your doctor knows what's going on.

While it doesn't sound like how ALS presents itself, you should definitely keep working with your doctor to make sure you are doing everything you can to optimize your health.

 

[Ness253]

I have been up front with my PCP on how much I drank. He always would say, lose weight and stop drinking and walks out of the room.

I know Dr Google always leads people here. I am going to a new PCP soon. Just waiting to switch over my insurance now.

 

[wishmobbing]

Congratulations to two month sober! I wanted to shout "Go to another doctor" if this is how he treats an addict. So very happy you decided to go to new PCP soon.

 

[Bestfriends14]

I second what Shiftkicker said. 100% sudden cessation of alcohol use can cause many detrimental side effects, of which some are as you have described. I do hope you are being followed by an addictions specialist because of the side effects quitting heavy drinking can cause.

Your doctor sounds like a jerk, so I hope you can find a kind, caring one who knows how to treat patients. As mentioned, nothing you have stated is indicative of ALS onset, which is great. Congrats on quitting drinking. Take one day at a time and be proud of yourself for stopping.

 

[lgelb]

The "shutting down" /butterfly thing should be evaluated by your new PCP. They might want to image your spine to make sure there is no problem with your spinal cord. I would also expect some bloodwork to assess your baseline post-drinking.

Not just B vitamins but many other deficiencies/imbalances can arise with binge drinking, and take at least months to resolve with a good diet. You also acknowledge being out of shape, which affects circulation, breathing, and sleep -- which in turn affect the issues you mention. So I hope fitness is on your list. The intention tremor that you describe can also be mediated by muscle tone and nutrition.

As your weight/shape change, you might also want to make sure your mattress and pillow are as supportive as they should be. Pillows that have latex and/or kapok stuffing that you can add/remove as your weight changes can be helpful.

Props on mastering alcohol, which will be of great benefit for your physical and mental health. Enjoy your son and longer life expectancy.

Best,
Laurie

 

[Ness253]

Thanks for the well wishes.

I should say that my left arm today is incredibly weak. It shakes if I do some simple task. Only my left hand. I work in an office and something as little as putting a folded piece of paper in an envelope can be grueling. Again I can get it done, I just feel my arm getting weaker and weaker. I can lift heavy with the left hand, and it doesn't feel like much of an issue. its when im doing the fine tuning things like opening the lid off a juice, or even putting a key in the door. Again, I can accomplish this task, just really tough. Also My hands start shaking afterwards too(action tremor).

I am really health anxious. Again I have been avoiding this issue for years. Starting to think it was a dumb mistake =(

 

[lgelb]

What I'm saying is, a tremor or weird feeling isn't necessarily being "incredibly weak." Many people have difficulty with fine motor function when they have overuse injuries or fragmented sleep. If the former, PT can help. If the latter, there are many approaches. A good PCP is step one.

 

[Ness253]

When I say I feel incredibly weak, I mean that my hands like give out. For instance, I was trying to take a picture on my phone with my left hand, I could hold the phone but I could not press the button to take the picture. I was like shaking and weak trying to stretch my finger to the button. I just wish my doctors would have listened to me when i complained about this years ago. =(

 

[Bestfriends14]

If this was ALS and you had started with symptoms years ago, being unable to do things in one area would have progressed to other areas. As well, being that you started your issues 5-6 years ago, if this were ALS, there would be a higher than 75% chance that you would no longer be alive. Please, stop trying to find reasons to convince folks you have ALS when it is very apparent that your symptoms do not correlate. There really is not a point in arguing these issues because what you describe does not present as ALS does, and it is also apparent that your docs don't think so, either. I do wish you the best and hope you find answers soon. Since several people have answered your initial question, I am not sure how much more of a benefit we can be to you.

Good luck

 

[Ness253]

My apologies. I will be going to gp soon to clarify. I am not trying to upset anyone. My apologies if it came off as that.

Thank you for your comments.

 

[Bestfriends14]

No, you didn't upset anyone. I was just mentioning that I'm not sure how our answers could be beneficial over and above what we've already mentioned. Do come back and report once you get a diagnosis of whatever you have going on; it helps other posters to see what is and is not ALS.

 

[KimT]

If you were a serious gamer you might have carpel tunnel syndrome. I agree with the others in that you might need a new GP.
Best wishes.

 

[Ness253]

Thanks guys for the reassurances. Will definitely update when i do get a diagnosis.

Cheers to sobriety. Don’t miss it one bit.

 

[Ness253]

Update. I did not have clinical weakness. But she did detect an action tremor in my left hand when doing the finger to nose finger to hand test. This was just PCP.

Getting referred to neurologist which she said is 6 months out. Hopefully symptoms don’t worsen by then