Hello Everyone,
Thank you for taking the time to read this. I am a 44 yr old wife and mother of 3. It all started Feb 2020. I was walking with a friend after doing the keto diet for 2 months and I noticed the ball of my left foot felt different. It had kind of a loss of sensation or numbness. I didn’t think anything of it until it didn’t go away.
Fast forward to the summer of 2020 and I asked my friend who is an orthopedic surgeon what he thought. He said it was probably nothing, but if my vision changed I should see a doctor. Well, my vision changed so I went to see my GP in Nov 2020. I told him about the numb spot and then the vision issues. He ran blood tests and it came back showing I had low testosterone. He told me to supplement with DHEA and didn’t think I needed an MRI right now, but I could go to the eye doc and see if I had optic neuritis which is a sign of MS. I went to see the optometrist and she simply said my vision was declining a bit due to age.
I still thought I felt off balance and continued to have a numb spot but never fell or had anything happen that would require hospitalization. I started to do the auto immune protocol lightly and stopped the keto diet in an effort to fix the situation. Then, in June of 2021 I noticed that my right index finger tip was numb or had a loss of sensation. Again, I consulted with Dr Google and pretty much saw that this was not good especially coupled with the foot issue bc they are on different parts of the spine which means it’s probably not just a pinched nerve. So recently I went back to my GP for more blood tests. Blood work looks fine and testosterone has improved. He was unable to see any clinical weakness , but didn’t have anything to check nerves or reflexes. He said he would refer me to a Neurologist but wasn’t sure if they would do anything yet because there is no obvious signs of weakness yet. He said I could go if I wanted to.
Well, since that visit I have had cramps in my calves and today after walking for an hour I noticed that all of my muscles twitch. This has been happening for some time but I just now linked it to my other symptoms. All this time I just thought it was my muscles getting stronger or something.
Here is my question, why go to neuro now? If this is indeed ALS..things will only get worse and I will most likely experience drop foot or failure soon and since it is terminal there is nothing they can do. In addition, it will be easier for them to diagnose if I’m at that stage. Shouldn’t I wait till that happens? I have read the post about symptoms where it says numbness without clinical weakness means nothing, but then I read articles like "The Life-Threatening Disease Women Aren't Supposed to Get" which make me question whether numbness means nothing. I just don’t want to spend a ton of money on testing when if I do have this I will have to spend it on a lot of disability aides.
I am sorry if this post makes someone mad, and I don’t believe this is anxiety bc these are real symptoms that my body has displayed. For now I have gone to see a chiropractor which I have never done before as kind of a step before Neuro. Thoughts?
One more thing..I have been taking a probiotic, vitamin B12, vitamin C, and Vitamin D regularly. Also, I have not been sick in years. Not even with the stomach bug or the flu in probably 13 yrs. Just a very minor cold here and there.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. I am a 44 yr old wife and mother of 3. It all started Feb 2020. I was walking with a friend after doing the keto diet for 2 months and I noticed the ball of my left foot felt different. It had kind of a loss of sensation or numbness. I didn’t think anything of it until it didn’t go away.
Fast forward to the summer of 2020 and I asked my friend who is an orthopedic surgeon what he thought. He said it was probably nothing, but if my vision changed I should see a doctor. Well, my vision changed so I went to see my GP in Nov 2020. I told him about the numb spot and then the vision issues. He ran blood tests and it came back showing I had low testosterone. He told me to supplement with DHEA and didn’t think I needed an MRI right now, but I could go to the eye doc and see if I had optic neuritis which is a sign of MS. I went to see the optometrist and she simply said my vision was declining a bit due to age.
I still thought I felt off balance and continued to have a numb spot but never fell or had anything happen that would require hospitalization. I started to do the auto immune protocol lightly and stopped the keto diet in an effort to fix the situation. Then, in June of 2021 I noticed that my right index finger tip was numb or had a loss of sensation. Again, I consulted with Dr Google and pretty much saw that this was not good especially coupled with the foot issue bc they are on different parts of the spine which means it’s probably not just a pinched nerve. So recently I went back to my GP for more blood tests. Blood work looks fine and testosterone has improved. He was unable to see any clinical weakness , but didn’t have anything to check nerves or reflexes. He said he would refer me to a Neurologist but wasn’t sure if they would do anything yet because there is no obvious signs of weakness yet. He said I could go if I wanted to.
Well, since that visit I have had cramps in my calves and today after walking for an hour I noticed that all of my muscles twitch. This has been happening for some time but I just now linked it to my other symptoms. All this time I just thought it was my muscles getting stronger or something.
Here is my question, why go to neuro now? If this is indeed ALS..things will only get worse and I will most likely experience drop foot or failure soon and since it is terminal there is nothing they can do. In addition, it will be easier for them to diagnose if I’m at that stage. Shouldn’t I wait till that happens? I have read the post about symptoms where it says numbness without clinical weakness means nothing, but then I read articles like "The Life-Threatening Disease Women Aren't Supposed to Get" which make me question whether numbness means nothing. I just don’t want to spend a ton of money on testing when if I do have this I will have to spend it on a lot of disability aides.
I am sorry if this post makes someone mad, and I don’t believe this is anxiety bc these are real symptoms that my body has displayed. For now I have gone to see a chiropractor which I have never done before as kind of a step before Neuro. Thoughts?
One more thing..I have been taking a probiotic, vitamin B12, vitamin C, and Vitamin D regularly. Also, I have not been sick in years. Not even with the stomach bug or the flu in probably 13 yrs. Just a very minor cold here and there.
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