Terrified of ALS... EMG in 25 Days...

[umdelisl]

I am a 32 year old Mother of two beautiful boys, 9 months and 2.5 years old. In my 20’s, I never even wanted children, and now being a Mother is everything to me... The fear of not being there for my children is almost crippling some days, and I quite often tear up putting them to bed as I’m terrified of being diagnosed with ALS.

A couple of weeks before Christmas, I was woken up in my sleep by my left hamstring twitching. I thought it should have a simple enough solution, so I googled it. Of course ALS comes up, and the terror begins. My twitching has not subsided over the past 6 weeks, and has settled into pretty much constant fine twitching in both calves and the arches of my feet (as well as some sporadic twitching over the rest of my body). On the first visit to my family Doctor, she ran some tests to check for mineral imbalances and any bloodwork anomalies, and they all came back normal. She said she had numerous patients with muscle twitching, and none had ever gone on to develop ALS, but it was possible (cur panic!). I went home and struggled through another week of panic, and went back to see her. She decided to order an EMG, as she said it would be the only way to put my mind at rest, as I obviously have diagnosed myself with ALS after being on Dr. Google.

The EMG has been scheduled for Feb. 20th, and is still almost 4 weeks away. Over the past 6 weeks I feel like I’ve completely spiralled out of control. I’ve measured my calf size (my dominant is 2.5 cm less than my non-dominant, which my Doc said was within the normal range), I’ve attempted to check my patella reflexes which seem very brisk to hyper-reflexive, and I am constantly walking on my toes and heals, doing push-ups etc...

I’ve started to see a therapist, but I’m only 2 sessions in right now, and he hasn’t given me any coping methods yet.

To make matters worse, my feet have been starting to cramp which scares me even more, as that’s yet another early sign of ALS.

I don’t know how to survive the next 5 or so weeks until the test results come back. I can’t bring myself to go back to the Doctor, because I could tell by her tone she thinks I’m blowing this out of proportion, and if I wait it out, the muscle twitches will go away. My gut is telling me something serious is not right, and I am just so scared...

[Fishmanpa]

Please read this

Positive thoughts

[Dubmom]

I wasted SO much of my life in the ALS rabbit hole. If at all possible, get out of it now! If your doctor truly was concerned, she would have sent you for an EMG because she was concerned, not just to ease your mind. I have a child and my fears were & are rooted in leaving him behind, so I completely understand where your fears are coming from.

But please, for the sake of your children and the quality of your life, try to get out of this dark hole!! I hope your counseling helps you to move on from this soon! Do the work, it's worth it!!

[AndrewCanada]

I am a 32 year old Mother of two beautiful boys, 9 months and 2.5 years old. In my 20’s, I never even wanted children, and now being a Mother is everything to me... The fear of not being there for my children is almost crippling some days, and I quite often tear up putting them to bed as I’m terrified of being diagnosed with ALS.

A couple of weeks before Christmas, I was woken up in my sleep by my left hamstring twitching. I thought it should have a simple enough solution, so I googled it. Of course ALS comes up, and the terror begins. My twitching has not subsided over the past 6 weeks, and has settled into pretty much constant fine twitching in both calves and the arches of my feet (as well as some sporadic twitching over the rest of my body). On the first visit to my family Doctor, she ran some tests to check for mineral imbalances and any bloodwork anomalies, and they all came back normal. She said she had numerous patients with muscle twitching, and none had ever gone on to develop ALS, but it was possible (cur panic!). I went home and struggled through another week of panic, and went back to see her. She decided to order an EMG, as she said it would be the only way to put my mind at rest, as I obviously have diagnosed myself with ALS after being on Dr. Google.

The EMG has been scheduled for Feb. 20th, and is still almost 4 weeks away. Over the past 6 weeks I feel like I’ve completely spiralled out of control. I’ve measured my calf size (my dominant is 2.5 cm less than my non-dominant, which my Doc said was within the normal range), I’ve attempted to check my patella reflexes which seem very brisk to hyper-reflexive, and I am constantly walking on my toes and heals, doing push-ups etc...

I’ve started to see a therapist, but I’m only 2 sessions in right now, and he hasn’t given me any coping methods yet.

To make matters worse, my feet have been starting to cramp which scares me even more, as that’s yet another early sign of ALS.

I don’t know how to survive the next 5 or so weeks until the test results come back. I can’t bring myself to go back to the Doctor, because I could tell by her tone she thinks I’m blowing this out of proportion, and if I wait it out, the muscle twitches will go away. My gut is telling me something serious is not right, and I am just so scared...

I don't think I'd be much help in providing coping mechanisms considering I'm a severely untreated hypochondriac right now, but I will say that muscle twitching, and even weakness, are well-documented symptoms of anxiety. Sounds difficult to believe, but it's true.

The mind is going to construct the reality it believes. So if you think you have ALS, your mind will mimic the symptoms you are afraid of. My worries are based around the heart. My heart skipped twice in the past five minutes. My heart rate is over 100 just sitting here. I've had major medical workup for my heart that result in doctors telling me not to worry. Yet, I still worry. Even after going through mantras and getting reassurance. Health anxiety is INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT to treat because it literally causes physical symptoms. You aren't imagining these symptoms, they're just not caused by what you think (ALS). I wish sometimes I could give myself a similar pep talk re: my heart concerns.

Even if your mind isn't doing that, muscle twitching is exceedingly common. My eyes, left bicep, and left foot ALWAYS twitches.

[countrygirl]

Your dr isnt worried as she would expect to see other symptoms as the fasculations of als alwaus come with other symptoms. If it helps i have been twitching for 40 years the longest time a twitch has lasted ( top lip) was a full year. I almost always have somewhere or two or three places twitching. I can go months with just twitches once a day but then also many months with say my thigh or my eye twitching.

[BazB44]

by far this is the worst thing to be a hypochondriac over. Ive been a hypochondriac for 20 years, and 1.5 years ago I started worrying over this same thing. I still worry, I get better then worse then better then worse. Trust me, its a deeeeeeeep hole. I would give anything to rewind time and not google or look up symptoms of this stuff. You name the symptoms, ive had them.