Tomorrow I go to see the neurologist and get the final diagnosis. It will be four weeks to the day since my preliminary diagnosis of "highly probable ALS" based on emg, nerve conduction study and clinical observation. They've been doing blood work and mri to rule out other possibilities.
I suppose there is a small chance it will turn out to be Lyme Disease but I doubt it. Everything I've read indicates I have a classic case of limb onset ALS. My final diagnosis will come more than three years after my symptoms began and will follow my third emg, third mri, several misdiagnoses and unnecessary surgery on my cervical spine.
I don't know whether to me mad or happy about the misdiagnoses. On the one hand I got to live a couple of years without the dread spectre of ALS hanging over me- and it isn't like cancer where they might be able to "cure" it if they "caught it in time". OTOH had I learned earlier I might have been able to slow it down with diet and lifestyle changes, and I might have lived the last two years very differently. Ah well, it is water under the bridge.
I want to say how good it is to have found this support forum, where I can share with people who understand my situation. I hope it will make me better able to handle the news I expect to get tomorrow. Thanks for being there.
Dave
I suppose there is a small chance it will turn out to be Lyme Disease but I doubt it. Everything I've read indicates I have a classic case of limb onset ALS. My final diagnosis will come more than three years after my symptoms began and will follow my third emg, third mri, several misdiagnoses and unnecessary surgery on my cervical spine.
I don't know whether to me mad or happy about the misdiagnoses. On the one hand I got to live a couple of years without the dread spectre of ALS hanging over me- and it isn't like cancer where they might be able to "cure" it if they "caught it in time". OTOH had I learned earlier I might have been able to slow it down with diet and lifestyle changes, and I might have lived the last two years very differently. Ah well, it is water under the bridge.
I want to say how good it is to have found this support forum, where I can share with people who understand my situation. I hope it will make me better able to handle the news I expect to get tomorrow. Thanks for being there.
Dave