mustle wastage and twitches ....fear of impending death .

[pepsi]

Good morning i feel like my life is being ruled by these unnerving symptoms. Im 39 years old and always been healthy. 2 years ago i had a simple ache in my upper arm it resulted in musle loss...i could feel a dent dr said lets do an xray ( found nothing)..she said if it still aches come back. But it didnt so ive ignored it. Now its returned. And between this time i have developed wide spread twitching and involuntry movememts in fingers and toes. ....for me i believe i have a disease. I believe i will die of this . Its a downward spiral. Yesturday i opened up an account to save for my funeral i cant see a dr as i believe they will confirm my fears . These symptoms go together. If i had one without the other...but no i have both. Thanks for reading. X

[Serenity1990]

There are only a very limited number of possible causes of fasciculations. The really nasty one (which reading between the lines I suspect you're worying about) doesn't start with fasciculations (they come later), and if you'd had that for two years you wouldn't be well enough to type this now. Aside from which it would have been glaringly obvious to your doctor that something very serious was wrong. So you can forget all about that.

The others are all relatively harmless complaints. The most common of which is BFS, which commonly comes secondary to (you guessed it) anxiety.

But then looking at your previous threads you've been here before and you know this!

[pepsi]

Thankyou for your reply. I went to the drs about my arm a year ago. Isnt a degenerative disease something that takes years to progress. ? My dent in my arm is horrible be ok if it didnt ache. The twitches are some days ok others inside and unvisable other times clear to the eye. The pain caused by my arm travels to my hand. Id say it was a tendon thing if these twitches hadnt gone hand in hand with this dent.

[Serenity1990]

No. The one that Dr. Google likes to come up with for twitching incapacitates every muscle in your bidy one by one very quickly, making most patients severely disabled within a few months and dead within 2-3 years. You've been having symptoms for two years and got the all clear from the doctor a year ago: clearly this isn't you.

[pepsi]

It wasnt the all clear as such it was an xray which was looking for broken bones. She said if it still aches come back....i didnt go as it stopped ....the twitches then started. The ache has returned and the muscle in my arm ached it feels like a dent it is a dent. Maybe its ms or parkinsons like my dad had....x

---------- Post added at 20:23 ---------- Previous post was at 20:21 ----------

Ps i read that the first signs of als ( on the als forum ) is twitching and not much else to start with. In some patients its a later symtom but to others its the start. They are all confirmed cases of als .

[Fishmanpa]

i read that the first signs of als ( on the als forum )

Why the heck are you going to ALS forums?! That's like saying you're afraid of fire and holding your hand over the flame! I'm afraid all you're doing is feeding the dragon.

Positive thoughts

[Serenity1990]

[/COLOR]Ps i read that the first signs of als ( on the als forum ) is twitching and not much else to start with. In some patients its a later symtom but to others its the start. They are all confirmed cases of als .

In ALS the twitching comes AFTER clinical weakness. It's always localised, i.e. you can't lift a kettle with your right arm all of a sudden, then you start noticing twitches in that arm as the neurones basically die off, then you lose the use of it altogether (this is then repeated for other limbs over time).

Twitching without obvious clinical weakness isn't ALS. Twitching here and there all over your body isn't ALS.

If you had had ALS for two years you'd be incredibly ill, certainly in a wheelchair if not six feet under by now. And I think you know that, hence why you're on here. What are you doing to treat that anxiety? :)

[pepsi]

I went on als forum by accident i didnt post. People are on there that fear als as well as having the disease. Im not saying its als it might be MS ....my arm pain is unexplainable as is the dent muscle loss . Somethings caused my arm to lose its strenth. Ur aches if i hold my arm out straight or above my head. The twitches are linked im sure of it. And my anxieties havent been treated.

[Serenity1990]

Twitches aren't even an MS symptom. Even if they were, like all MS synptoms they'd be localised; yours aren't.

I'm a little concerned about this dent. It sounds quite worrisome to you, yet your doctor doesn't seem too worried by the sounds of things. Did your doctor confirm there was any abnormality?

[pepsi]

My dr looked at it and pressed it he said i see what you mean lets xray it to check its not broken....it wasnt he said if its not aching or bothering you dont come back. ...so i didnt he said if it starts to hurt come back we will do bloods to check for anything sinister at that time i didnt have twitching.

---------- Post added at 22:02 ---------- Previous post was at 21:57 ----------

Ps my left arm where my arm dent is...i get alot of twitches in that arm fingers upper arm. In my mind thats the neurones dying...i cant hold my arm out straight for long it aches too if i hold it above my head or hold the dogs lead in that hand.

[Fishmanpa]

Pepsi,

Clearly, reassurance and logic isn't helping and rarely does for any length of time if at all. The fact you opened a savings account for your own funeral at your age is not only sad but quite troubling and a sign that your anxiety issues have really gotten out of hand. You're much too young to allow this to control your life as it's doing.

Please look into help with your anxiety. Therapy, meds, CBT... do something to treat the real illness.

Good luck and positive thoughts

[Moscowolympics]

Pepsi

I've been suffering from muscle twitches for the last six months or so and went on a downward spiral in a similar way to you, fearing exactly what you fear. Don't read those forums. You mustn't. They'll do you absolutely no good whatsoever.

Don't post on them either as, from what I saw (again, I wish someone told me not to go on those forums), it only antagonises those who have that hellish, relentless illness.

As mentioned earlier, it is extremely - EXTREMELY - unlikely that the twitches are indicative of anything serious. That's what I remind myself day after day and yes, I still have the odd re-lapse, but I now manage to get myself back on course.

On Anxiety Centre, there is a series of archived Skype calls that focus specifically on muscle twitching. It is a common symptom of anxiety. Many people suffer from it or have done in the past. My twitching comes and goes; some days I don't suffer from it, other days my calves and thumbs can't stop moving voluntarily. Just typing this is bringing twitches back around my body! Indeed, when I read about twitching the other day that only induced them. It shows how devious an anxious mind can be.

Trust your doctor, your friends and your family. If there were anything seriously wrong by now, it would have been picked up by someone. As mentioned earlier as well, two years is a long time as far as that illness is concerned. You haven't got what you fear. I'm very certain of that. Even six months of twitching is probably long enough to dismiss that.

Example: I went to the gym today, ran 1.5km, did 30 abdominal crunches, bicep and tricep curls and then rowed 1k. Nothing particularly special. However, if there were something wrong with me, I wouldn't have managed those.

But doing that also kept my mind occupied. That's particularly important for me - I look for positive distractions. It's when I'm on my own, with lots of free time and bored, that my mind begins to wander into more darker places.

Sorry - run away with myself here. Do trust those around you and try and listen to others and those close to you. Keep your mind occupied. Don't look at those forums! :winks:

[wnsos]

Do you have any pictures of the dent? Did the dr reference it or did he give you the xrays for your peace of mind? I only ask because three months ago, I saw my veins as black and felt a large lump in my arm that turned out to be the muscle. I bruised it up something rotten thanks to poking and prodding at it. A doctor looked at both.

I echo the others here in saying that if it was something serious like ALS, you'd be much worse by now. Try to hold on to that. I know it's hard, we all do, but logic is the dragon slayer.

[pepsi]

Thankyou for your kind words of help and encoragement i suppose the dent has been there 12 months or so the twitches a year. If i just had these twitches i could think well i have 0 other symptoms no weakness or muscle loss so ok lets just roll with these twitches as annoying as they are. BUT i have this dent this pain in my arm its not visable but if you touch it yes you can feel the dip in the tissue if it didnt hurt...it didnt bother me but its flared up again . Thats how come im anxious. Im 40 next year so i thought id start saving as id got myself into a downward spiral of ...muscle weakness & dent & twitches =:a horrid disease. I wish i was more rational everyone says you are full of common sence and to the untrained eye you would not think i harbour these faults. I never commented on als forum those people there are the poor souls that have a terrible disease. I just ended up there reading their symptoms. Nobody has said what thhe dent might be...nobody else has said they too have a dent that aches like me ...so i just get worked up. Yes when im alone or not much going on. I hate feeding this dragon so why do i ..im not sure i dont wish there was something wrong i dont go looking for illness but this unknown sequence of symptoms worries me to the core. The xray was to check for broken bones...whichbi knew it wasnt. Im not sure they would have spotted anything else . Blood tests would do that i suppose. X

[Serenity1990]

I dug out this thread. Have a read, feel better, get on with life. :)

http://www.aboutbfs.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=10455

[pepsi]

Thankyou for your message and taking the time to help and post about these troublesom dents. Its a strange one & not common..but they are as you say probably not related x i appriciate your article and yes i should get on with life ...i just hope i dont spiral again. Thankyou

---------- Post added at 18:22 ---------- Previous post was at 18:14 ----------

Thankyou for your message and taking the time to help and post about these troublesom dents. Its a strange one & not common..but they are as you say probably not related x i appriciate your article and yes i should get on with life ...i just hope i dont spiral again. Thankyou

---------- Post added at 18:46 ---------- Previous post was at 18:22 ----------

Thankyou for your message and taking the time to help and post about these troublesom dents. Its a strange one & not common..but they are as you say probably not related x i appriciate your article and yes i should get on with life ...i just hope i dont spiral again. Thankyou