Status
Not open for further replies.

Fruity

New member
Joined
Sep 21, 2013
Messages
1
Reason
Learn about ALS
Country
US
State
CA
City
Murietta
Hi there,

I should start by giving you a general outline of myself. I'm 20 years old and a university student. I'm also Asian. I live a normal, moderately active lifestyle.
I have never felt physical symptoms of anxiety.

5 weeks ago, I felt numbness in my arm.
Now, this was only concerning to me because I rarely feel numbness in my arm. And when I do, I'm usually applying some pressure on it and it's placed in an awkward or uncomfortable position. The numbness left.
The next day, I felt the numbness/tingling in my cheek. Outside of a dental clinic, I have never felt facial numbness/tingling before.
I became anxious.

So my first week, I began feeling "pins and needles" all over different points in my body. My feet, cheek, knees, thighs, hands, arm... you name it. It felt it. The sensation migrated and each "pins and needles" sensation only lasts for half a second.
I went to the doctors-- naturally, she said it was anxiety.
The sensations stopped for about a day.

On my second week, the pins and needles sensation had subsided greatly. I was thankful but now I started getting a buzzing feeling primarily in my left side. It affected my left hand and feet the most. Sometimes my cheek.
This persisted throughout my second week. It was on/off.
Again, all of our family friends that were physicians said anxiety was the culprit.
I felt happy about it but I questioned this since I never had any physical symptoms of anxiety.

On my third week, I felt internal vibrations when I got in bed and tried to rest. This was incredibly scary to me. It was like someone shaking my bed. I could see everything shake.
The shaking was especially violent that night but I still get the internal quaking feeling now. It's not as bad anymore.
My physician gave me some herbal stress pills and sleeping pills.

I got a lot of blood work done as well as a urine sample.
My blood pressure and blood samples were fantastic with the exception of very low vitamin D levels. I'm taking vitamin D supplements every day now.
Nothing else concerning.

The internal quaking can only be felt by me. My parents can never feel any shaking with their hands. Neither can my physician. The sensations usually happen in my chest, abdomen, and lower back area. Sometimes the back of my scalp?

That same week, I was watching TV while eating a sandwich and noticed the room was strange. I felt really faint. I have passed out before so I know what the sensation is like. I thought I was going to pass out while sitting down... 10 seconds later, the sensation passed. I guess I was lightheaded? I was shaking internally a lot at that moment too.

My physician, again, said it was most likely an anxiety attack and I was shaking out of fear.

I had an MRI of my brain done. All normal. My physician told me to do it to calm my anxieties since I had researched Multiple Sclerosis at that point. I also saw ALS but didn't think anything of it.

I also went to see a neuro-ophthalmologist after seeing an ophthalmologist because I have a mysterious issue with my left eye: my vision is blurry in my left eye but not my right.
Basically, my eyes look perfect and they can't figure out why my vision is 20/20 in the right and 20/30 in the left.
The neuro wasn't even sure if all my "internal tremors" and "buzzing" sensations were related to my eye. So he said I was kind of a mystery but he wanted to follow up on me.
But he gave me a lot of comfort when he cleared me on having MS and said I definitely didn't have that or glaucoma.
He also told me there would be no point to seeing a neuro because they would probably send me away since I "appear" to be physically okay.
I'm glad that he's willing to continue seeing me.

So I thought, great! Now I shouldn't have these symptoms because I have no reason to be anxious. :)

Wrong.

Weeks four and five: buzzing in my left hand and feet still persist. Occasionally "crawling" sensation around my chin and left cheek. Internal quaking that cannot be felt by anyone but me still happens often.
But this time, I started getting twitches.
Everywhere.
Different frequencies.
I can feel twitching in my arm, my calf, feet, thigh, buttocks, side of my ribs. It's crazy.
It always migrates.
But the internal crawling sensation in my lower back and legs and feet are there almost 24/7 for the last two weeks.

I have also noticed in the last 4 weeks that I started trembling. My muscles shake when I exert any force.
It's not that I'm not fully capable of applying the same force that I used to be able to, but that I tremble now when I use my muscles.
Not sure if this is classified as "muscle weakness" yet.
No noticeable atrophy yet either.

I just saw my doctor today. She said nothing about ALS. She sent me for more blood work to check for autoimmune issues and vitamin B12/magnesium deficiencies. She's thinking maybe it's an autoimmune issue and it might be attacking my eye as well. Or a vitamin deficiency. She finally agrees it's not all anxiety. Anxiety/stress may heighten some of my symptoms but definitely isn't causing all of the damage.

I'm very lucky to have a wonderful, caring mother. I was crying to her last night because I was so frightened. I have never had severe medical issues but now all of these things have been happening. Involuntary things happening to my body. It's so frustrating. I was unable to sleep for 40 hours because of the twitching and shaking in my body. The twitching happened every time I would almost doze off to sleep. The occasional lightheaded feeling is also scary. Especially when I'm alone in the house.

The scariest thing is once when I was lying down in bed and the buzzing in my feet climbed up my legs. Up my knees. I felt twitches in my thigh. Then vibrations in my lower back, abdomen, and chest. Internal shaking up to the back of my head. Some crawling sensation in my cheek, like I have bugs crawling under my skin. It's so terrifying to me since nobody knows what's wrong or what to expect.

Are these initial ALS symptoms? :\

I'm scared that I might just wake up one day and be unable to jump around or suddenly trip over something.
I'm sorry for being so frightened.

Current symptoms in the last 2-3 days and summary:
- Bubbling/crawling/buzzing sensation in feet and legs (almost all day)
- Light buzzing in handss
- Light buzzing in left cheek
- Internal tremor all over body (almost all day)
- Subtle internal shaking (mostly abdomen, chest, lower back)
- Trembling when I use my arms and legs (no weakness yet, still capable of doing everything like walking on tippy toes, running up stairs, opening jars, hopping on one foot)
- Twitches (come and go but migrate... mostly in my thigh and calf area but I have felt it multiple times even in my buttocks, feet, arms, everywhere...)
- Cheeks quiver when I smile
- Hard to sleep/lack of sleep
**I do have moments where all my symptoms seem to just disappear but it's very rare now
** Currently waiting to undergo more blood work to see if it's an autoimmune issue or vitamin deficiency-- doctor made no mention of EMG
** Passed basic physical neuo exam (finger pulling/etc)
** No atrophy or very apparent weakness... just constant trembling/shaking of muscles when they are used

Thank you for taking the time to read my post. I made it quite lengthy because I didn't want to be too vague.
I would greatly appreciate any words of wisdom or personal experience... or even comfort.

Thank you again.
 
Hi! I think you can rest assured about ALS- you don't have it in my opinion. None of your symptoms sound like ALS. You are also very young to have ALS.
 
No defiantly not ALS. Maybe the Exorcist? Seriously maybe a different bedroom to sleep in. Something your allergic or sensitive to?

"Cheeks quiver when I smile." Sounds cute.

Get away from the ALS forums. Let your doc tors diagnose you.
 
I am amazed you managed to see that many doctors in 5 weeks!

In all seriousness, you literally have zero symptoms of ALS. I have no idea how the idea you did even occurred to you in the first place. It is like you had a series of headaches and then came to a forum for broken legs and asked if you had "early broken leg" symptoms because you were feeling some kind of pain, and you had heard broken legs were painful. That is how unlike ALS symptoms everything you listed is.

You have a doc who is following up with you, let her do her job. Here's to hoping it is something that is easy to treat!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top