What do you guys think?

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Kevjoseph

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Disclaimer: I’ve been reading this forum for a few months now and I really appreciate all that you guys do and I’m always praying for everyone. I’m not looking for any diagnoses, just some general knowledge on what you guys think. I know I have anxiety m, but I also know I can’t diagnose myself so any advice will help.

June 2020
: hospitalized with stroke like symptoms, mainly weakness on one side of my body. MRI came back clear, but this was the start of my life being turned around

July 2020 - October 2020: started seeing neurologist. hospitalized multiple times because of many reasons, ranging from intense panic attacks to chest pain to intense headache. Over time a lot of new symptoms started to appear. Most notably (not a complete list) include: Muscle spasms all over body especially face, neck, and thighs, Pressure in head and neck, chest pain, weird feelings in my throat and face (felt droopy), over fatigue, weakness, etc. A huge symptom was also gastro problems. I went through long periods where I couldn’t hold food down, didn’t have an appetite for weeks at a time, etc.

October - December 2020: symptoms started to get better, most started to die down once I got put on many different medications. However, the muscle spasms seemed to increase and become more frequent. In October I had a stress test that came back slightly abnormal, then I had a second stress test with an ekg and everything was normal.

January 2021: had endoscopy and colonoscopy, which only revealed gastritis

January - April 2021: my symptoms started getting better. It was weeks of hardly anything but persistent muscle spasms then weeks of really bad symptoms, including weird feelings in my legs and arms, mainly legs.

April 2021: Got appendicitis out of no where and had to get my appendix removed.

June 2021: First emg and everything came back normal.

June 2021: December 2021: It’s still just really persistent muscle spasms. But there were a few times when it would increase and become painful. This is the only time since my symptoms started in June 2020 when I felt somewhat normal. The muscle spasms were persistent and I occasionally got weird feelings in my legs and arms (felt kind of like spin splints) but it was bearable.

January - February 2022: I’ve been going through it big time. Many new symptoms and increase in the established symptoms. New symptoms include: Ankle pain and knee pain that occurs randomly, Back pain and spasms, face spasm, feeling like there is a rock in the back of my head and neck (comes and goes), chest spasms near heart, cold body (mainly feet and hands), sternocleidomastoid spasm (like near my throat), constant shin split feeling, there was a period where I think the feelings in the back of my head and neck made it feel like I had difficult keeping my head up, feeling like something is stuck in my throat, my fingers randomly gets really stiff, shaky pincer grasp: whenever I put something in between my dumb and index fingers it shakes uncontrollably, and I’ve been having pain in May spine/lower back that radiates to my hips and legs. Finally, I wake up every morning with a feeling in my arms and legs. Not sure it’s weakness or pain: but it feels like I just did a 3 hour workout even though all I did was slept. I also been feeling nauseas a lot and vomiting a lot, especially in the morning. I’ve also been stuttering a lot, but I was in speech therapy growing up and I stutter and mispronounce words very now and then but I can’t tell if it has increased these last few weeks. Been taking Tylenol like crazy.

*I also get this really weird feeling when I walk a somewhat long distance where my my body, sometimes arms but mainly legs, feel like they’re burning and they become very itchy and it’s extremely uncomfortable, to the point where I even feel like committing. I’ve had this happen a few times before everything started and a few times after everything started but it’s everyday now. May be linked to decrease in exercise? Not sure.*

Current medication: buspirone has 5mg 2x/day, gabapentin 300 mg 3x/day, baclofen 10 mg 4x/day, propranolol 10 mg 2x/day, vitamin d, vitamin b12, sleep apnea machine

Current diagnosis: bilateral CTS, cervical radiculopathy, muscle contraction headaches, history of head trauma and generalized anxiety disorder, sleep apnea, gastritis

Current stats: I’m 22 (symptoms started at 21), 6’1 280 black male. Prior to the onset of symptoms to years ago I was relatively healthy and working out frequently.

*Also, I’m not too too sure what muscle weakness vs muscle fatigue vs muscle pain. I’m tempted to say my feelings in my arms and legs is muscle fatigue because I can still do everything and it’s not more difficult to do so, it’s just a weird feeling in those areas.*
 
" I’m not looking for any diagnoses, just some general knowledge on what you guys think. I know I have anxiety m, but I also know I can’t diagnose myself so any advice will help. "

Current diagnosis:
bilateral CTS, cervical radiculopathy, muscle contraction headaches, history of head trauma and generalized anxiety disorder, sleep apnea, gastritis. Maybe key words... "generalized anxiety disorder"

So.... ?

Maybe other can sift through your thread and come up with something. Most likely...
"continue working with your doctors."

PS. I am very familiar with odds ( a casino player) being just 22 years old the odds of you not
having ALS are greatly in your favor. It is a factor. Bet on it.
 
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I'm so sorry for all you have been going through.
Please don't start posting here however, you are going down a rabbit hole, and asking the terminally ill to join you is just not on.
I hope your doctors can help you, this is not the place for you to post at all. (and this is good news)
 
Your current diagnoses explain every issue you mention, and I would make sure your CPAP settings are adequately addressing your apnea since sleep is pretty much the foundation of it all. Obesity is also going to make everything you describe worse, so I hope you are working with your PCP on a weight loss program. It could really help.

The meds you are on have their own down sides. If you lose weight and address your stress (maybe your GAD therapy needs to be kicked up a notch), I suspect you could reduce/come off some meds in consultation with your docs, and that would be a good thing.

There is no reason to think about ALS.

Best,
Laurie
 
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