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eecosyetm

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Mar 11, 2015
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Reason
Learn about ALS
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00/0000
Country
US
State
OH
City
Columbus
Hello all,

First time posting and kind a nervous... but here it goes.
I want to know more about first symptoms, specifically upper limb onset (hands, fingers, ect.) Though, it is my first time posting, I am very familiar with the terminology and definitions used in this community. (Ie. knowing the difference between weakness and fatigue) I have a few questions and would love to hear form individuals personal experience.

Thanks you so much for your time!

1. What age did you have your first symptoms?
2. What were your first symptoms
3. How did you realize you were having issues?
4. Did issues start on your dominate side or non-dominate side?
5. When did you go and seek medical help and when where you diagnosed?

I will tell a little about me before I ask you to share. I am a younger male with some weakness and dexterity issues in my non dominate left hand. I realize that that the non dominate hand is not as strong and has less dexterity, but my pinky and ring finger seems to be worst then normal. I am going through the proper channels and trying to figure it out. Just wanted to hear some personal experience and understand what it means to have upper limb onset. Once again, thank you for your time.
 
As you wrote,

("I am very familiar with the terminology and definitions used in this community.")

Are you a med student?

The reason I ask is that your bio says, "I am interested in learning about ALS/MND" and your questions are more like a survey than proportional to your own concerns. Stating your symptoms and then asking if they are ALS related is the usual norm. I hope one of your proper channels is an appointment with a neurologist.

(If you read some of the previous Threads in this sub-Forum you'll see we have had several with pinky ring finger symptoms. There might be something to this pinky ring finger thing.)
 
As Al mentioned, the norm is to state your symptoms, rather than ask others to relist theirs. Please understand that many, if not most, of our PALS have a very difficult time typing. Some do it using their eyes, which is slow and tedious. If they tried to retell their own stories for everyone who visits this forum, well, there's just no way.

Feel free to read through stickies and previous threads, and good luck.
 
The reason I think that the hand symptom scares us DIHALS so much is that we fear this trivial bother is that we're afraid it might progress into something more sinister. I don't think we're trying to offend anyone here but we need something to sooth our fears and anxiety before our appointments with the Neuros (which usually takes weeks). For all I know it's probably just a pinched nerve but nothing short of a definitive test like an EMG will let me/and many others move on from this at this point.
 
Last Resort, I assume that most folks posting to the DIHALS forum don't realize how much effort it takes our PALS to respond to them, which is why I explained the problem with asking people to rehash their individual historys. It's not our intention to be short, but we do sometimes have trouble understanding why so many people assume ALS when, as you say, their symptoms might mean nothing more than a pinched nerve. Unfortunately, when we do tell people that their symptoms don't sound like anything we've experienced, all to often the DIHALSers argue with us or, as you have done, come up with new symptoms. Given that we're living with this monster 24 hours a day, there is only so much energy we can put into reassuring the same person over and over (not referring to you, ecco, as this is your first post).
 
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