sgtg
New member
- Joined
- Dec 7, 2011
- Messages
- 6
- Reason
- Learn about ALS
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- Uni
- State
- UT - Utah
- City
- OGDEN
Hello all - I've been browsing your forum for the last few days now and I am more than impressed by the volunteering of information especially personal experiences. I want to say god bless you all and thank you for helping those in a time of worry and need.
I guess I will start out with a little about myself. I'm 30 years old (31 next month), a former U.S. Marine and currently an Air Force engineer. I've been relatively physically active my entire life without much of an issue, I have been a bit sedentary up until the last month or so, only going to the gym once a week or less...
As of recently I'm starting to notice symptoms of what could be ALS, or possibly a LMN disease in general combined with a lot of other misc things some of which admittingly are a manifestation of some level of anxiety.
I am right hand dominant and did unofficially break my hand a few years back (4-5) and it did not heal correctly which has left my right hand feeling a bit off but I have gotten use to it.
I've been doing a lot of work on my car and over time (this fall/winter) I noticed that I was dropping things into the engine bay more and more especially when it got a little bit cold outside (living in Utah). Not usually a big deal I would just pick it up and move on. I then kind of realized I was dropping pills (supplements etc.) quite a bit when I took them out of the jar, didn't think anything of it and just kept on doing what I do. This is progressing into the fall of this year.
Toward the end of October I started ramping up my trips to the gym trying to get back into shape. I started with mostly cardio on the treadmill and noticed that my calves kept cramping up badly regardless of how fast I was running on the treadmill. I've tried stretching, new shoes, warming up first etc without much luck. Historically I've been able to jump onto a treadmill and run a 7:30 mile, now I'm lucky to finish under 10 minutes, not because of being out of breath but because of muscle fatigue, namely cramping on the front and back side of my calves.
Looking at my leg muscles, my right calf is about 1" bigger than my left but both look normal. I do have some larger varicose veins on the inside of my right leg and I think my blood flow down that side is slightly restricted and pools accordingly, never has been a big deal but the tone in both of my calves is a bit increased and I definitely have noticed a little bit of weakness in both legs. My bones in my feet and knees also ached.
The last 3 weeks I've mixed up my routine between free weights and cardio and I've developed eye twitching bilaterally that has not gone away even after a change in contact strength and eye drops. In fact the twitching/cramps etc has gotten much worse. I now am getting twitches, jumps etc across my body. I have also developed some mild back pain up toward the top center of my back.
My last workout was 11/29 which was a bicep/tricept workout, it did not go very well I was definitely weaker and noticed quite a bit of bone pain especially in my hands. A few days after the workout my soreness did not subside and I had significant bilateral Ulnar bone pain, stiffness and pain in all of my finger joints/wrist flexion/outside of my hand. It has been a week now and I've made no recovery, my finger dexterity has gotten considerably worse, I have issues turning locks with either hand, moreso the right than the left at this point and any pressure put on my fingers makes them ache/want to buckle, it's almost like my finger muscles have deteriorated. I am still dropping things regularly which is really starting to alarm me. My fine motor movement in both hands is definitely strained at this point and I'm having a hard time believing it was from my workout. I would say I went 75% that day and for all of this to manifest afterward would be out of the ordinary for me.
What confuses me though and from what I have read this has been a bilateral occurence with my right wrist/hand being slightly weaker than my left. I have also developed shakes since then predominately in my right arm. My muscle soreness in the upper part of my forearm still has NOT went away despite large amounts of protein intake in the last few days. There is some weird sensations up my forearm when I try to make certain movements, not really weakness but just this general nerve/tense sensation, right at the base of my wrist/hand and also up the middle of my calf and back of my leg, pressing on those locations it's definitely over sensitive.. I get the same feeling in my wrist/forearm when my wife tries to hold my hand now, it's definitely affecting how hard I can squeeze her hand, there is some weakness but not a ton, just the effort to squeeze can't be realized almost.
My eyes are still twitching today and my hands have not gotten any better, my dexterity seems to keep getting worse in both hands and my individual finger joints are still driving me nuts..
Looking back at my past, I've had a constant feeling of something in my throat/always clearing my throat especially in the last 3 months. I have had GERD type symptoms for 6-7 months and actually had a upper ENDO without any remarkable findings but the sensation still comes and goes. Two years ago I had a MS workout after a vertigo incident, it was normal minus "minimal nonspecific bifrontal white matter lesions from prior injury or inflammatory process", I was told this was not consistent with MS.
I've noticed I tend to rock on my ankles into a supinated position when standing still on both feet and also sitting down in a car/chair/couch etc this has caused the threads in a pair of my shoes and my sandals to bust out on the outside edges and rip, I have had two pairs of shoes repaired in the last 5 months because of this. I don't know how normal this postural thing is but adding all of this up its pointing to some type of muscular dystrophy in my mind. I do not have any noticeable gait disturbances. I can feel that the front side of my shin/feet do not want to lift up occasionally, especially when I walk or run, even though I wear very light shoes.
More recently, I have recently developed post urinary drip and issues with containing escaping ejaculate. I had blood tests done yesterday and had a slightly increased level of creatinine in my urine. Which has SMELLED awful lately and has been extremely foamy and very yellow, even after drinking lots of water with rest/recovery and proper diet. It tells me it is loaded with protein...
None of this bothers me minus the lack of improvement in my finger dexterity and the continued twitches/postural shaking. My bone pain in my hand has subsided a bit and so has the joint pain but my fingers to NOT feel right at all.
I have gained NO weight since lifting and my strength gains have been marginal even after starting to take creatine which should definitely make me put on 3-4 lbs after a few weeks. I am also slightly HYPOTHYROID with a TSH less than 2 points over the upper tolerance which SHOULD help me gain weight, but this isn't the case...
I have certain postural shaking in my hands when I hold them at certain angles but I do have a desk job and spend 8 or more hours on the computer everyday. I mentioned back pain too which makes this even harder to nail down.
I'm trying really hard to tie this to muscle/ligament/bone stress or possibly RSI from being on a computer so much but it's not adding up with all of these other things that have been going on.
I've had some limited neurological tests done, including Babinski Sign (no response, could feel the urge/sensation), Hoffman's Sign (again no response at all). Reflexes appear to be normal, currently. Unsure of when these things manifest in the progression of the disease.
Sorry for the rambling but I thought the more information the better...
Does any of this point to ALS? Or am I worrying myself silly here?
God bless you all and again thank you very much for taking the time to address my concerns.
I guess I will start out with a little about myself. I'm 30 years old (31 next month), a former U.S. Marine and currently an Air Force engineer. I've been relatively physically active my entire life without much of an issue, I have been a bit sedentary up until the last month or so, only going to the gym once a week or less...
As of recently I'm starting to notice symptoms of what could be ALS, or possibly a LMN disease in general combined with a lot of other misc things some of which admittingly are a manifestation of some level of anxiety.
I am right hand dominant and did unofficially break my hand a few years back (4-5) and it did not heal correctly which has left my right hand feeling a bit off but I have gotten use to it.
I've been doing a lot of work on my car and over time (this fall/winter) I noticed that I was dropping things into the engine bay more and more especially when it got a little bit cold outside (living in Utah). Not usually a big deal I would just pick it up and move on. I then kind of realized I was dropping pills (supplements etc.) quite a bit when I took them out of the jar, didn't think anything of it and just kept on doing what I do. This is progressing into the fall of this year.
Toward the end of October I started ramping up my trips to the gym trying to get back into shape. I started with mostly cardio on the treadmill and noticed that my calves kept cramping up badly regardless of how fast I was running on the treadmill. I've tried stretching, new shoes, warming up first etc without much luck. Historically I've been able to jump onto a treadmill and run a 7:30 mile, now I'm lucky to finish under 10 minutes, not because of being out of breath but because of muscle fatigue, namely cramping on the front and back side of my calves.
Looking at my leg muscles, my right calf is about 1" bigger than my left but both look normal. I do have some larger varicose veins on the inside of my right leg and I think my blood flow down that side is slightly restricted and pools accordingly, never has been a big deal but the tone in both of my calves is a bit increased and I definitely have noticed a little bit of weakness in both legs. My bones in my feet and knees also ached.
The last 3 weeks I've mixed up my routine between free weights and cardio and I've developed eye twitching bilaterally that has not gone away even after a change in contact strength and eye drops. In fact the twitching/cramps etc has gotten much worse. I now am getting twitches, jumps etc across my body. I have also developed some mild back pain up toward the top center of my back.
My last workout was 11/29 which was a bicep/tricept workout, it did not go very well I was definitely weaker and noticed quite a bit of bone pain especially in my hands. A few days after the workout my soreness did not subside and I had significant bilateral Ulnar bone pain, stiffness and pain in all of my finger joints/wrist flexion/outside of my hand. It has been a week now and I've made no recovery, my finger dexterity has gotten considerably worse, I have issues turning locks with either hand, moreso the right than the left at this point and any pressure put on my fingers makes them ache/want to buckle, it's almost like my finger muscles have deteriorated. I am still dropping things regularly which is really starting to alarm me. My fine motor movement in both hands is definitely strained at this point and I'm having a hard time believing it was from my workout. I would say I went 75% that day and for all of this to manifest afterward would be out of the ordinary for me.
What confuses me though and from what I have read this has been a bilateral occurence with my right wrist/hand being slightly weaker than my left. I have also developed shakes since then predominately in my right arm. My muscle soreness in the upper part of my forearm still has NOT went away despite large amounts of protein intake in the last few days. There is some weird sensations up my forearm when I try to make certain movements, not really weakness but just this general nerve/tense sensation, right at the base of my wrist/hand and also up the middle of my calf and back of my leg, pressing on those locations it's definitely over sensitive.. I get the same feeling in my wrist/forearm when my wife tries to hold my hand now, it's definitely affecting how hard I can squeeze her hand, there is some weakness but not a ton, just the effort to squeeze can't be realized almost.
My eyes are still twitching today and my hands have not gotten any better, my dexterity seems to keep getting worse in both hands and my individual finger joints are still driving me nuts..
Looking back at my past, I've had a constant feeling of something in my throat/always clearing my throat especially in the last 3 months. I have had GERD type symptoms for 6-7 months and actually had a upper ENDO without any remarkable findings but the sensation still comes and goes. Two years ago I had a MS workout after a vertigo incident, it was normal minus "minimal nonspecific bifrontal white matter lesions from prior injury or inflammatory process", I was told this was not consistent with MS.
I've noticed I tend to rock on my ankles into a supinated position when standing still on both feet and also sitting down in a car/chair/couch etc this has caused the threads in a pair of my shoes and my sandals to bust out on the outside edges and rip, I have had two pairs of shoes repaired in the last 5 months because of this. I don't know how normal this postural thing is but adding all of this up its pointing to some type of muscular dystrophy in my mind. I do not have any noticeable gait disturbances. I can feel that the front side of my shin/feet do not want to lift up occasionally, especially when I walk or run, even though I wear very light shoes.
More recently, I have recently developed post urinary drip and issues with containing escaping ejaculate. I had blood tests done yesterday and had a slightly increased level of creatinine in my urine. Which has SMELLED awful lately and has been extremely foamy and very yellow, even after drinking lots of water with rest/recovery and proper diet. It tells me it is loaded with protein...
None of this bothers me minus the lack of improvement in my finger dexterity and the continued twitches/postural shaking. My bone pain in my hand has subsided a bit and so has the joint pain but my fingers to NOT feel right at all.
I have gained NO weight since lifting and my strength gains have been marginal even after starting to take creatine which should definitely make me put on 3-4 lbs after a few weeks. I am also slightly HYPOTHYROID with a TSH less than 2 points over the upper tolerance which SHOULD help me gain weight, but this isn't the case...
I have certain postural shaking in my hands when I hold them at certain angles but I do have a desk job and spend 8 or more hours on the computer everyday. I mentioned back pain too which makes this even harder to nail down.
I'm trying really hard to tie this to muscle/ligament/bone stress or possibly RSI from being on a computer so much but it's not adding up with all of these other things that have been going on.
I've had some limited neurological tests done, including Babinski Sign (no response, could feel the urge/sensation), Hoffman's Sign (again no response at all). Reflexes appear to be normal, currently. Unsure of when these things manifest in the progression of the disease.
Sorry for the rambling but I thought the more information the better...
Does any of this point to ALS? Or am I worrying myself silly here?
God bless you all and again thank you very much for taking the time to address my concerns.