Strange symptoms, possible wrong diagnosis?

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Zeuzz

New member
Joined
Nov 15, 2022
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2
Reason
Learn about ALS
Diagnosis
00/0000
Country
AU
State
VI
City
Melbourne
Hi

I’m a 38 year old caucasian male from Australia, over the last 7 months my life has been turned upside down..

it started with waking up one morning with a pain in my groin.. I couldn’t pinpoint it exactly though it was around my right testicle/spermatic cord.

After a week or so I had incredibly sharp feeling in my urethra after I urinated.. like pins stabbing though it.

I started feeling extremely fatigued, in a way I had never experienced in my life.

I had std test after std test for months.. blood tests.. everything.

I developed pain in my anus within a matter of weeks and had to have surgery on a fissure.

I have never had any bowel/bladder issues in my life - I know ALS/MND doesn’t normally show these kind of symptoms.

Over the course of the next 4 months the pain remained and increased and slowly the pain edged towards my right hip.

I started to experienced what I now know as fasciculations in my perineum area.

I would go for short walks 600-800 meters in which afterwards it felt as though my legs were incredibly fatigued.

I started feeling burning areas and wide spread fasciculations in my legs.

I did roughly the same amount of walking for 2 weeks and my legs just wouldn’t stop feeling extremely fatigued and painful and this kept increasing until woke one morning and my legs pretty much didn’t work.

I was admitted to hospital for the next 6 weeks and placed in the neurology ward in which time I had every test done - MRI of brain and spine / Blood tests / urine tests / Lumbar puncture / EMG / Ultrasounds etc.

I had severe hyperreflexia (mostly in my legs) to the point I had multiple neurologists help me stand and I needed support to remain still and upright, weakness where I struggled with lifting my arms, extremely dilated pupils, a skin change on my arms where it felt extremely dry, was wide awake without feeling tired for the next 3 days, no bowel movement for the next week, breathing was shallow, and as you can imagine a lot of anxiety from the situation.



Test after test, week after week and they would eliminate more sinister things which was good..

After 6 weeks I was moved to a rehabilitation center and pretty much had to learn to use my leg muscles again.

The diagnosis being made as FND.



My EMG I believe was clean



Though since I have been back at home for the last month.. I have noticed a lot of change in on-going symptoms.

-mucus always sitting in the back of my throat

-extremely emotional to the point I will find myself crying and feeling absolutely helpless many times a day

-my muscles shake and have a ripple affect when they are flexed

-fasciculations throughout my legs mostly but also all around my body which were not very present in hospital but are now almost constant while I am laying / sitting etc

-muscle loss especially in hands and arms

-skin feels incredibly loose

-heartbeat which feels like it radiates through my body much more pronounced than prior to all of this (I felt this day one when I woke up)

-dry mouth, dry eyes

-urgency to have to go to the bathroom with diarrhea very often

-pain in my right lower abdomen

-waves of feeling semi okay to incredibly unwell at the drop of a hat

-complete loss of appetite

-frozen feet which sweat, palms always sweating and swinging body temperatures

-clenching of my teeth

-I thought I had a tremor while in hospital and when I first came home but I now believe that could be muscle weakness.



My main reason for posting here is FND is a bit of a ‘we don’t overly know’ category.. and I feel my symptoms have changed slightly, increased in some areas.

With the presence of hyperreflexia being so pronounced and possibly being due to motor neuron damage, am I wrong in assuming I should be looking for another complete neurological examination along with a second EMG since my hyperreflexia has settled to the point I can slowly walk?
I hope this all lays within the rules and I appreciate the time in which anyone reading this has taken.
 
FND properly diagnosed ( as it sounds like you were with a hospital stay, multiple tests and multiple doctors) is a real and debilitating illness. It is hard to recover from and symptoms can wax and wane

what you are describing does not sound like ALS. If you decide to go back for more examinations you shouldn’t ask if you have ALS. You should list your symptoms and say that you are concerned it may be something besides FND

here is an article on fnd. Read the links too The Road to Functional Neurological Disorder
 
Thank you for your reply Nikki J.

I just read through the article and is definitely insightful.

I do have a question concerning EMG’s which I did read in the posting guidelines also.
It was noted that an EMG can’t be done too early. I respect and understand that.
I was curious if certain levels of hyperreflexia or a possible sudden onset can distort an accurate test?

Yes I’ll definitely be bringing up symptoms and saying I’m not so sure it is FND.. as I’ve always felt it wasn’t.
 
Honestly, your symptoms are so far away from being ALS that I would leave worrying about ALS behind. However, as Niiki said, FND is a real thing and can cause everything you have described. It's difficult to treat because of the transient nature of the disease. Did you have a very stressful incident happen? Do you suffer from migraines? Either of those can bring on FND in some individuals.

In any case, I'm sorry you're going through all of this. My friend has been battling FND ever since her daughter moved out 12 years ago.

I truly wish you well on your road to recovery. Please, listen to the doctors and follow their advice. Good luck.
 
You have been through a lot.
I can assure you that we have some of the best MND specialists in Melbourne and they would all tell you that this sounds nothing like ALS, not even a tiny bit.
As Nikki said, it sounds like you have been diagnosed and to be honest, it sounds like they nailed it with FND.
I'm not sure why you don't believe it is, but honestly, getting on google and looking for other far worse and terminal diseases and focusing on deciding you have them is not going to help anything.

Always work with your doctors, not the internet. Since you believe it isn't FND, make an appointment, sit your diagnosing doctor down and ask them to explain how you fit this diagnosis and what else it could be if not FND. Have a list of questions with you. Some of our doctors will even allow you to email the questions before you come so they have an idea in advance.
I wouldn't bring up ALS.
I truly wish you the best as FND is no easy disease to deal with.
 
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