Originally Posted by
Dentalmaniac
I sure do hope that he was practicing CYA. If not, I would say he’s definitely made me much more anxious than I was going in :( he did not mention bfs at all which I thought he would bring up :(
---------- Post added at 04:52 ---------- Previous post was at 03:15 ----------
I really appreciate everyone being so patient and so reassuring to me on this forum. Thought I would list out my symptoms and their progression here:
1. Jan of this year while brooming in my mom’s house felt like my left arm got extremely tired. I rested and it got better. I usually don’t do any physical work.
2. Feb of this year, heard about three people; two distant acquaintances, one family friend who’ve been diagnosed by ALS
3. Feb my left elbow twitched for a day or so and so I googled and saw for some the first symptom of ALS may be a twitch. Didn’t think much of it as soon after my right elbow twitched a couple of times and that was that
4. Mid march, my daughter saw me walking towards her from a far and she asked me if I was limping. I said, no nothing hurts maybe you feel that way because I was walking fast and my feet were hurting in new shoes so maybe I was walking weird.
5. Also in march, I climbed up four flight of stairs at work and felt my left leg got really tired fast, so from that day on I started climbing stairs at work more regularly for a few weeks and seemed like my leg would not tire as fast as that first day. Maybe now I wasn’t climbing as fast.
6. End of march a couple of nights in a row I woke up because the back of my shoulder would twitch. That morning I was telling myself not too google but I ended up doing it and bam….there it was ALS. Thought to myself sure now I’m going to twitch all over and sure enough within a couple of hours I had a few twitches here and there and everything is history
7. For the last two and a half months now I’ve been twitching everywhere.
8. I read some more (a lot more) about ALS and started doing strength tests. Sure enough my left arm seemed much weeker than my right (I’m right handed). Decided to do everything from now on with my left hand. I think I’ve built more strength in it as it feels stronger than it was when I started doing strength tests
9. A month ago, my husband pointed out that he could see my chin underneath my lip twitching. I looked at the mirror and sure enough there it was. This was a twitch I had not even felt. Did more googling on ALS and sure enough found bulbar onset.
10. Next comes on slurring. For the last one week, I’ve felt like I can’t say certain words fast enough. I feel like my gums are tight. Almost as if I’ve gotten work done on my teeth
So went to the doctor today hoping he would reassure me and he says well, because your twitching is so non specific as in happens randomly everywhere I can’t say it’s because of a pinched nerve, so in this case we’ll have to do tests to rule things out….goes on to ask me if I’ve googled. I say no (not sure why). Asks me if I feel week or pain in my legs, I say no (even though thinking in my head, I do feel pain in my legs when I get up after a while). He does a few strength tests on my arms and tells me wooo you’re strong when I squeezed his fingers and then makes a comment that strength in my arms seems equal. He recommended brain MRI and that’s his way of ruling things out and he mentioned also I will recommend you see a neurologist. At that point my husband pointed out don’t you want to test her electrolytes and he said yes, we can do some blood tests to see if there’s any deficiency. Needless to say, I’m thinking the doctor’s thinking what I’m fearing all along!!!! Fishmanpa thanks for your reassurance that you think he’s catering to my health anxiety and being a good doctor. I’m hoping beyond hope that is the case!