Rebecca1982
New member
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2023
- Messages
- 2
- Reason
- Learn about ALS
- Diagnosis
- 00/0000
- Country
- US
- State
- WA
- City
- Seattle
Hi All,
Firstly a massive thank you for your time and patience on this forum. It is an enormous service and a completely selfless one at that.
About a month ago, seemingly out of nowhere, while chewing a piece of bread, my tongue became noticeably fatigued. I could continue to chew but it just felt tired, like it had had a real workout! This continued to happen quite frequently when eating and progressed not to just a fatigue feeling but even a mild ache while chewing, always felt in my tongue but also in my jaw sometimes. This then progressed to having these same feelings sometimes while talking a while and not only when eating. Admittedly, I became a bit obsessed with what was going on with my tongue and found myself inspecting it regularly. It now feels odd when speaking sometimes and some words seem particularly hard to wrap my tongue around. My family tells me they do not hear any difference in my speech but it can feel strange to me at times.
Some days are definitely worse than others but good old google tells me that bulbar symptoms can initially come and go so not helping my fears there.
I went to see my pcp who checked for electrolyte imbalances etc but my blood work came up fine. She’s given me some exercises to do in case this is TMJ and told me to report back in 2 weeks but my mind is going to dark places.
Aside from this, my swallowing seems ok though I occasionally can’t get my food down in one swallow. I feel like this has been the case for me though for at least the last 6 months or so. I do get the odd lip twitch as well as what feels like random muscle twitch in my tongue itself though have only caught one in the mirror. It’s true that I’ve likely stressed my tongue out with my self inspections so I may be exacerbating things here.
Anyway is that how bulbar may start in terms of the chewing fatigue possibly with accompanying achiness from time to time? I’d like to know so I can push to see a neurologist sooner if that makes sense.
Very grateful for your thoughts and time.
Firstly a massive thank you for your time and patience on this forum. It is an enormous service and a completely selfless one at that.
About a month ago, seemingly out of nowhere, while chewing a piece of bread, my tongue became noticeably fatigued. I could continue to chew but it just felt tired, like it had had a real workout! This continued to happen quite frequently when eating and progressed not to just a fatigue feeling but even a mild ache while chewing, always felt in my tongue but also in my jaw sometimes. This then progressed to having these same feelings sometimes while talking a while and not only when eating. Admittedly, I became a bit obsessed with what was going on with my tongue and found myself inspecting it regularly. It now feels odd when speaking sometimes and some words seem particularly hard to wrap my tongue around. My family tells me they do not hear any difference in my speech but it can feel strange to me at times.
Some days are definitely worse than others but good old google tells me that bulbar symptoms can initially come and go so not helping my fears there.
I went to see my pcp who checked for electrolyte imbalances etc but my blood work came up fine. She’s given me some exercises to do in case this is TMJ and told me to report back in 2 weeks but my mind is going to dark places.
Aside from this, my swallowing seems ok though I occasionally can’t get my food down in one swallow. I feel like this has been the case for me though for at least the last 6 months or so. I do get the odd lip twitch as well as what feels like random muscle twitch in my tongue itself though have only caught one in the mirror. It’s true that I’ve likely stressed my tongue out with my self inspections so I may be exacerbating things here.
Anyway is that how bulbar may start in terms of the chewing fatigue possibly with accompanying achiness from time to time? I’d like to know so I can push to see a neurologist sooner if that makes sense.
Very grateful for your thoughts and time.