twitching, fatigue and hand issues

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cannon_25

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Hi all, thank you all for your work, I found this to be a great resource and have read the sticky multiple times, it’s kept me from posting multiple times, but I was hoping whatever is happening to me would pass but it hasn’t. I have quite a few symptoms, some more concerning than others.

I'm recently turned 31. Male. So basically around the end of August I noticed my legs felt very heavy along with what I would describe as a vibrating like feeling all over my body, making it a lot more difficult to do exercise as I normally would. So I took some time off exercising to see if it would stop it. The next thing I started to notice was that basically the whole right of my body felt different (feeling I know), basically heavier, quite hard to describe. Then I noticed my ring and pinky feeling a bit stiff and achy on my right hand, which after a few days I felt similar but to a lesser extent in my left hand. It feels like it’s a stiffness that goes the whole way up my arms, like everything from fingers up to shoulder is tight. I work from home at a computer and I’ve been working a lot so I presumed it was an over use thing.

Next thing I started getting all over body twitches, and I mean everywhere, calfs, hamstrings, quads, glutes, stomach, arms, neck and even my face. I think these tend to coincide with any small amount of activity really, I stopped jogging, so when I get home from a thirty minute walk and sit down it feels like both legs are bubbling. Additionally, I started to get a pain on the outside of my right ankle, that goes down into my foot, baring in mind I have barely done any exercise in the past month so I’m not sure what brought it on. This has been going on for a month or so, now I’ve really started to notice a stiffness that seems to cover my whole right side of my body. I can still do things like left weights and press ups but my right side hurts after unlike my left and the pain and stiffness goes up my neck and onto my chest. Same with walking, my right ankle burns and leg feels sore and stiff in a way my left doesn’t.

So with weakness, I can still do everything up until a point, I stopped jogging because I seem to fatigue very easy now but I can walk, the only thing is my ankle issue makes me want to walk differently although I can walk normally with discomfort. I can walk on heels and toes but again I feel the discomfort on my right.

Same with opening things and doing things, I can grip tightly and open jars but feel the strain in my wrist going up my right arm, and whilst the strain started in my pinky and ring finger I feel it in my thumb now too, and to a smaller extent my left hand. My fingers feel stiff when I’m typing. I play guitar and again my right arm fatigues easy but I can do it up to a point.

Because of COVID my GP is doing everything without seeing me first, blood tests and ECG because of chest pain. But the issues with twitches, and strain doing normal things are worrying me, I wonder if these issue along with the right ankle being a prelude to weakness, I haven’t done any exercise to cause any issues in the ankle? Is it possible for the issues to manifesto the whole way up an arm before clinical weakness has shown itself (Fingers, wrist, forearm, bicep, shoulder,chest)?

I know functional weakness is the major issue but from reading it does seem like a lot of people report general fatigue etc. I’m wandering what the difference between spasticity and general stiffness is because my whole right side seems to be way tight than the left. I don’t know if I’m being paranoid because obviously I’ve never inspected my hands up until now but it does seem like there is an obvious line in the muscle below my thumb when I open out my hand, I worry that it’s atrophy. There is discomfort but I wouldn’t say clinical weakness, could this atrophy precede weakness?

Around 3 years ago I had a very horrible with benzodiazepine withdrawal, I lost 3 stone became so weak I was mostly bed bound and had all sorts of issues that would have passed for any number of diseases, it lasted around 8 months before I saw any improvement, but I presumed I was mostly past that, so I guess I couldn’t rule that out, but the issues with doing things I normally do and getting fatigued are concerning. Sorry for this essay I just wanted to give the best picture.
 
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It doesn't sound like ALS to me. "General fatigue" is not a presenting symptom, nor the range of manifestations and timing you describe. My money is on something systemic, if anything, so I'm glad you're being followed by a GP. It's also worth re-evaluating where and how you sleep.

Best,
Laurie
 
thank you for your response, I apologise but what do you mean by systemic? I did injure my shoulder in August surfing, it felt like something popped out but popped back in quickly after but it was painful. I'm not sure if that would impact my wrist and hand symptoms a couple of months later?
 
It is possible, if there was a nerve or muscle injury. Your GP can advise if you should get an X-ray or see a shoulder specialist.

"Systemic" would be something that affects more than one part of the body, like a virus or rheumatoid arthritis.
 
I got some blood tests back finally and it showed I have low vitamin D. Not really surprising as I work from home in an apartment so I don't get to see much sun. Does anyone know would this cause twitching, I have seen lots reports of fatigue, low mood and muscle/joint aches which I have but not so much about the twitching.
 
Certainly some of our worried twitchers had deficient vitamin d and nothing else so I think yes. However twitching is so common and meaningless really without clinical weakness.
 
Vitamin D deficiencies are worth addressing because susceptibility to and complications from diseases such as MS and Covid-19 have been connected. That said, don't overdo it as too much is as bad as too little.
 
Yea I'm going to start supplementing. Sorry one more thing, does facial twitches mean anything, I've noticed I'm starting to get a lot of twitches on my cheeks, side of my nose and lips, as well as the eye twitches that have been going on for a while.
 
I just have a question about ankle/foot issues, does pain precede weakness. The issues with my ankle haven't improved, I can still walk on heels/toes but if I walk/run for any period of time the pain increases on the right ankle and my calf has got increasingly tight and I have twitches in the area that the pain is in just beside the achilles tendon. Sorry dealing with the doctors is painfully slow and I am trying to get through various tests.
 
Again no. Dying motor neurons don’t hurt.
 
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