jimbobby
New member
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2016
- Messages
- 7
- Reason
- Learn about ALS
- Country
- uk
- State
- london
- City
- london
Hi all and thank you in advance to anyone who reads this and can offer any advice. I am a 41 year old male and have recently started to have symptoms which I am scared may be ALS/ MND or something serious. I cant work or function properly at all and have huge anxiety as a result.
About 6 weeks ago I started having muscle twitches / fascilations in a few places mainly calfs and arms. After around 3 weeks it did not go away and I went to see a neurologist. He noticed that my left calf was smaller than my right and it was enough to be considered 'significant'. I have since measured them both and it is 1 inch thinner to around half an inch thinner nearer the bottom (I would be interested to know if this is normal or unusual too?). My left thigh is also slightly smaller too.
I do not know how long the calf has been like this. Possibly months possibly over a year? I wish I could find some old photos that showed it
We did a range of strength tests and all were fine. However I feel weaker on my left calf but its not enough to fail a neuro test I think. My left calf feels weaker. I am quite active and used to run a few k in the gym roughly 5 days a week . Now i think i can maybe do 1 or 2. My calf feels weak and tingly pretty much all day - i cant properly explain how it feels but it kind of feels a bit numb and achy all the time. I don't know whether any of this would be considered clinical weakness though. The fascilations are now mainly in my left calf although sometimes they appear in various places - all limbs, back, abdominals. They are much worse after exercise especially in calfs.
They did a blood tests, EMG and an MRI. Blood tests normal. EMG came back normal in all areas and they tested all limbs. MRI noted some minor issues none of which i fully understand technically but the neuro said they are not a big problem and do not explain the atrophy or twitching.
I was hoping he would simply say you don't have ALS/ MND but he said you don't have symtoms ' at this point' or words to that effect. His concern is still the atrophy in my calf. When i pushed him he said he didn't think it was MND but still a very low chance? I thought that an EMG after atrophy and twitching would almost definitely find something??
Based on the above can anyone offer any words of advice as to my symptoms. Is it consistent with ALS or are there any other conditions that it could be. Is there a risk I did the EMG too early?
They gave me an official verdict of BFS but i sensed it was only through lack of alternative and they asked me to keep an eye on my symptoms. Now i am just dreading any new symptom
Any help or advice would be gratefully received thank you so much
About 6 weeks ago I started having muscle twitches / fascilations in a few places mainly calfs and arms. After around 3 weeks it did not go away and I went to see a neurologist. He noticed that my left calf was smaller than my right and it was enough to be considered 'significant'. I have since measured them both and it is 1 inch thinner to around half an inch thinner nearer the bottom (I would be interested to know if this is normal or unusual too?). My left thigh is also slightly smaller too.
I do not know how long the calf has been like this. Possibly months possibly over a year? I wish I could find some old photos that showed it
We did a range of strength tests and all were fine. However I feel weaker on my left calf but its not enough to fail a neuro test I think. My left calf feels weaker. I am quite active and used to run a few k in the gym roughly 5 days a week . Now i think i can maybe do 1 or 2. My calf feels weak and tingly pretty much all day - i cant properly explain how it feels but it kind of feels a bit numb and achy all the time. I don't know whether any of this would be considered clinical weakness though. The fascilations are now mainly in my left calf although sometimes they appear in various places - all limbs, back, abdominals. They are much worse after exercise especially in calfs.
They did a blood tests, EMG and an MRI. Blood tests normal. EMG came back normal in all areas and they tested all limbs. MRI noted some minor issues none of which i fully understand technically but the neuro said they are not a big problem and do not explain the atrophy or twitching.
I was hoping he would simply say you don't have ALS/ MND but he said you don't have symtoms ' at this point' or words to that effect. His concern is still the atrophy in my calf. When i pushed him he said he didn't think it was MND but still a very low chance? I thought that an EMG after atrophy and twitching would almost definitely find something??
Based on the above can anyone offer any words of advice as to my symptoms. Is it consistent with ALS or are there any other conditions that it could be. Is there a risk I did the EMG too early?
They gave me an official verdict of BFS but i sensed it was only through lack of alternative and they asked me to keep an eye on my symptoms. Now i am just dreading any new symptom
Any help or advice would be gratefully received thank you so much