question about decreased arm swing

[lydia]

Hello again,

I have been having a sore left elbow for the last few weeks, with the soreness increasing alot in the last few days. My left side is supposedly my "bad" side with left side weakness & incoordination. Today I went for a walk (for exercise) and noticed that my left hand/thumb kept "catching" on the front/side of my thigh. How odd. So I then paid attention to the right arm and noticed that it swings forward when the right leg is back, and when right leg comes forward, right arm swings back. The right hand never touches the leg. Well, not so with the left arm. It was just sort of hanging there, and it was the thigh moving forward that was hitting/catching the just-plain-dangling left thumb/hand. So does this mean I have the infamous decreased/absent arm swing? Or could it be that since my elbow was sore to begin with, the soreness in turn impacted the swinging? When I got back to the house, I reached for the door with my left arm and OUCH the elbow really hurt, worse than ever. Why would just walking make it hurt worse? It doesn't have to do much, and apparently wasn't even doing what it was supposed to be doing (swinging!) Does just dangling strain the elbow?

Further, as you may remember, I have initial differential of PD vs MND vs Mystery Muscular Disorder. Reduced or absent arm swing seems to be strongly associated with PD...does anyone know about it with MND? Does anyone here suffer from this? Does it go away all at once or is it intermittent? I can't find anything about it, other than it's name ("reduced/decreased/absent arm swing") on the internet...no description of impact on rest of arm, how it shows up, that sort of thing. I apologize if this is not a MND question, but.....I just want to know and I don't find the PD forums particularly helpful.

 

[olly]

hi lydia

not too sure about the loss of arm swing with mnd,but my uncle who has parkinsons does not have any swing,they just hang down.
my left lower leg that has loss of contraction swings back alot more than it should.
hope this helps a little.
take good care.
caroline:-D

 

[lost]

not too sure about the loss of arm swing with mnd,but my uncle who has parkinsons does not have any swing,they just hang down.
my left lower leg that has loss of contraction swings back alot more than it should.
hope this helps a little.
take good care.
caroline:-D

Hello Olly, did you start with lower leg problems (swing) or the all leg weakness started at ones and do you have changed sensations in your leg (like weightless of your leg) ?

 

[rose]

I think my arms swing fine ~ haven't noticed, but my arms hurt a lot of the time. Especially the elbow and near the elbow going down my forearm. Last spring I started noticing that I was banging my elbows into things all the time, going through a doorway became a challenge LOL. Still don't know why it was happening, but even at the height of my klutziness, I'd never realize until after the fact that I was on a collision course with something, so it wasn't like I could analyze why I was bumping them. Anyway, I didn't know if they hurt because I was continually running them into something, or if they just hurt.

The banging into stuff doesn't happen so much anymore, but my arms and elbows still hurt. Particularly in the morning when I first wake up my arms are at their worst. I think it is my tendons tightening up while I sleep, and as I don't move around much when I sleep, they're not getting stretched out (?)

I've been working on this crochet project as a Christmas gift for my daughter, and the pain in them is worse, and I think its due to lack of movement., either that or the specific repetitive movement my fingers make during the process.

Things that help make me more comfortable are, the heating pad, muscle relaxers (but they really knock me out!) and the support band that is used for tennis elbow. I think it would help me more if I'd wear it more, but what with the summertime it gets so sweaty under the strap.

Have you tried muscle relaxers for the pain?

Speaking of oddities, today when I cross my left leg over my right (at the knee"girl style") my foot cramps a little and the toes clamp together over against the big toe. The longer I leave my leg crossed, the tighter they are against my toe. very strange

 

[vmd]

I experience some of these oddities as well. For example, I will reach for the television to push a button with my arms extended and I experience a cramp on the sole of my foot. It seems that the muscular sytem is connected and movement in one area can impact another area. I also have episodes of toes clumping together as if paralyzed until I consciously make an effort to move them. Obviously, the contractions hurt until I stretch the muscles.

 

[olly]

are'nt those foot and toe cramps stinkers,i stand on my foot till it goes numb with submission.
that teaches the little blighters:twisted:
take care .
caroline

 

[BethU]

Last spring I started noticing that I was banging my elbows into things all the time, going through a doorway became a challenge LOL. Still don't know why it was happening, but even at the height of my klutziness, I'd never realize until after the fact that I was on a collision course with something, so it wasn't like I could analyze why I was bumping them.

Everytime I think I have finally accounted for every strange symptom that could possibly be connected to ALS, somebody comes up with another that I identify with ...

Rose, I don't bang my elbows on door jambs, I just bounce off the door jamb. There are days when I seem to not be able to hit the target ... that big empty space in the wall where the door goes ... and miss it by about 6 inches, sending me lurching into the opposite side of the door.

BethU

 

[hopingforthebest]

arms, atrophy and lack of use

My husbands symptoms started in his arms and neck. Weakness etc. That was in 2006
He now has no use of both arms, hands and arms are atrophied and thinner than mine.
He cannot control the swing of them at all, they dangle by his side. He has full use of legs (still strong). Neck is really weak and sometimes hard to keep up. His speech is fine. Appetite has been great since he stopped working in May.

We are thankful every single day for what he does have and continue to believe a cure for this disease is soon!

His big issue is the breathing! Because the diaphram is the large muscle that controls his breathing and now that is affected, he is on bipap 15 to 20 hours a day. He never smoked, never drank (just didn't care for it, not because of religious beliefs, just didn't find a need for it) He exercised 5 days a week, rode his bike 7 days a week! It stinks!

His nurse told him just this week that "most" of her ALS patients die from conditions not related to the ALS but other issues ALONG WITH the ALS. ie: diabetes, COPD, etc.

I was so uneducated about ALS, that I just assumed because his legs were good, he was in good shape. The tragedy is that the limbs, etc. symptoms of ALS are not what takes their life. The breathing issue is the big thing.

Sorry, thanks for letting me vent!