Derrick
New member
- Joined
- Feb 10, 2023
- Messages
- 5
- Reason
- Learn about ALS
- Diagnosis
- 00/0000
- Country
- US
I will sum things us rather quickly because I know I’m not the first to post about this. I would just like feedback from this wonderful community about what it is I may be going through. For a heads up, my initial symptoms may not seem ALS related, but it will make more sense as I get into the details.I’m a 27 year old African American male. Thankyou so much.
Things started to go wrong for me around April 2021. One day while at work, I turned my head to speak with one of my supervisors, and something went wrong. When I turned my head back to what I was doing, I felt nothing but pain in my neck and my upper back. It’s as if it was connected.
I thought the pain would pass in a day or two but it never did. The pain went on for months and during that time it seemed to evolve. My entire back and neck was constantly in a dull ache. It became tiring to stand for too long, or to walk for too long without the ache forcing me to take a seat or to lie down. It would become too tiring to keep a straight posture for too long. For example, driving became tiring because it seemed to cause my back too much strength to keep my head up.
I let things go on like this until the next year 2022. I figured it would pass and I would eventually get back to normal. But things progressed. Starting around April 2022, something would not allow me to sleep on my sides or my back some nights. To describe it the best way I can, it just felt like an immense amount of pressure would build up in my back and neck, and. it would spread to the back of my head. I would wake up with a crazy headache in the back of my head. I could not sleep longer than say an hour or so without whatever it was FORCING me to get up. I literally felt like I was going to die.
At this point my mom said I have to go to the doctor. So to speed things up, I eventually had an MRI domes of my upper back and neck done. They said they saw NOTHING. While doing a physical exam though, they noticed my reflexes in both my knees were brisk. The doctor tapped both and both my legs would just jump. He then noticed my reflexes were brisk throughout my body, both arms, and both legs. I didnt know what this meant so when I googled, it the first thing to come up was ALS. I’m like okay.
Then, while going down the stairs at work one day, both of my legs were shaking like crazy. I couldn’t take one step with either leg without them kinda locking up and shaking. I literally felt like a 90 year old man. From that day on, walking down stairs and hills has become difficult because of this shaking. Now both of my legs hurt almost all the time and they shake when I lift them up. They just feel heavy and tired most days now. I figured this is just weakness. Some days are better than others.
About a month later that’s when I began to have twitches all over my body. It was horrible. One day at work, my left shoulder was twitching uncontrollably. Every place on my body from the neck down would just twitch and throb. I went to my primary and told her about my concerns with the twitching and reflexes and she sent me to a neurologist. They did an MRI of my lower back and brain, and NOTHING.
Now my most current symptoms are also in my face. For the past year, there would be times I would be laughing or smiling, and when my face goes back to a normal position, both of my cheeks would feel so heavy and tight. I didn’t think much of it. Now I cannot seem to hold a smile without my lips and mouth shaking. Even if I go to pucker my lips slowly, my lips are quivering. So in questioning if this may be Bulbar symptoms of ALS.
I had an emg done last month on my arms and legs, and go for the results I’m about 2 weeks. Thankyou again for taking the time to read all of this craziness, and I apologize if it seems all over the place, but this is what’s going on. The reason I am question if it’s ALS is because of the brisk reflexes, the fact that nothing is showing on my MRIs or bloodwork, and because I seem to have upper and lower motor neuron symptoms.
Things started to go wrong for me around April 2021. One day while at work, I turned my head to speak with one of my supervisors, and something went wrong. When I turned my head back to what I was doing, I felt nothing but pain in my neck and my upper back. It’s as if it was connected.
I thought the pain would pass in a day or two but it never did. The pain went on for months and during that time it seemed to evolve. My entire back and neck was constantly in a dull ache. It became tiring to stand for too long, or to walk for too long without the ache forcing me to take a seat or to lie down. It would become too tiring to keep a straight posture for too long. For example, driving became tiring because it seemed to cause my back too much strength to keep my head up.
I let things go on like this until the next year 2022. I figured it would pass and I would eventually get back to normal. But things progressed. Starting around April 2022, something would not allow me to sleep on my sides or my back some nights. To describe it the best way I can, it just felt like an immense amount of pressure would build up in my back and neck, and. it would spread to the back of my head. I would wake up with a crazy headache in the back of my head. I could not sleep longer than say an hour or so without whatever it was FORCING me to get up. I literally felt like I was going to die.
At this point my mom said I have to go to the doctor. So to speed things up, I eventually had an MRI domes of my upper back and neck done. They said they saw NOTHING. While doing a physical exam though, they noticed my reflexes in both my knees were brisk. The doctor tapped both and both my legs would just jump. He then noticed my reflexes were brisk throughout my body, both arms, and both legs. I didnt know what this meant so when I googled, it the first thing to come up was ALS. I’m like okay.
Then, while going down the stairs at work one day, both of my legs were shaking like crazy. I couldn’t take one step with either leg without them kinda locking up and shaking. I literally felt like a 90 year old man. From that day on, walking down stairs and hills has become difficult because of this shaking. Now both of my legs hurt almost all the time and they shake when I lift them up. They just feel heavy and tired most days now. I figured this is just weakness. Some days are better than others.
About a month later that’s when I began to have twitches all over my body. It was horrible. One day at work, my left shoulder was twitching uncontrollably. Every place on my body from the neck down would just twitch and throb. I went to my primary and told her about my concerns with the twitching and reflexes and she sent me to a neurologist. They did an MRI of my lower back and brain, and NOTHING.
Now my most current symptoms are also in my face. For the past year, there would be times I would be laughing or smiling, and when my face goes back to a normal position, both of my cheeks would feel so heavy and tight. I didn’t think much of it. Now I cannot seem to hold a smile without my lips and mouth shaking. Even if I go to pucker my lips slowly, my lips are quivering. So in questioning if this may be Bulbar symptoms of ALS.
I had an emg done last month on my arms and legs, and go for the results I’m about 2 weeks. Thankyou again for taking the time to read all of this craziness, and I apologize if it seems all over the place, but this is what’s going on. The reason I am question if it’s ALS is because of the brisk reflexes, the fact that nothing is showing on my MRIs or bloodwork, and because I seem to have upper and lower motor neuron symptoms.
