Another to add to the told ya so pile (negative EMG)

[Hijikata]

Now I was no darkside or Seymour but I had worried a bit about ALS over the last ten months with what started as twitching, grew to perceived weakness, which grew to Bulbar symptoms - a classic anxiety induced progression. The fear never really overwhelmed me but I thought **** it I’m finally just gonna be done with it and I went to a neurologist and got the EMG which of course came back fine, but was pretty painful, especially in the quad and thenar. And honestly, if you want to get the test and you don’t have a very obvious symptoms of ALS or a neurologist who is actually worried about something they found in the clinical, for the love of god don’t get the test, it is very uncomfortable, often painful, and overall just not a good time lol.

[pulisa]

All credit to you for coming on here and telling us about your experiences, Hijikata. It takes strength and discipline to confront HA head on and certainly having unnecessary tests can be expensive, can lead to incidental findings which create more panic and yet prove harmless and can be very painful as you say!

Very glad you got the all clear and wishing you well! Great to have such a decisive and powerful post on here!

[Hijikata]

Talking about incidental findings, although there was a legitimate reason for testing (im a teacher who gets genuinely sick a lot - cold/flu etc) and they incidentally decided to run a cancer marker test for lymphoma which came back positive, stressed me out and I obviously don’t have lymphoma and it was just an incidental finding. Sometimes the tests just aren’t worth it and we know the reassurance they give don’t last at all lol

[Murphy93]

Hi Hijikata

I am so glad and relieved to read that you got a clean emg that’s brilliant news !!

Thanks so much for coming on here to let us know it gives us worries something to smile about!

Particular myself as I am now 17 months deep into twitching and a fear of als . I am doing my best to not hassle the doctor And waste nhs time getting an emg as I hopefully don’t need it and I didn’t hear how uncomfortable they can be!

What a relief you must be feeling today :)

[Hijikata]

Mate, after 17 months you are fine. I showed him one of my hotspots, he tested it, was completely normal, he said didn’t have to test any other hotspots and just needed to test a little bit of each limb that I imagined was a little bit weak. During the test he even said my muscles are quite big lol best part of the test was the compliment but it is very, very uncomfortable and I would not recommend it to anyone who didn’t really need it, which is probably why neurologists don’t hand them out willy Billy like every other test. I’m sure the twitches won’t got away but they are just another part of life

[Murphy93]

Thanks for the replay! And assurance too .

It’s comforting to know the hotspots came back all good too! It’s crazy how a common anxiety symptom can lead down such a dark path

It’s almost taken over my life completely for the past 17months - now just need to drum it into my head that i am fine !!

Gosh it really doesn’t sound like a pleasant experience at all !!

[venusbluejeans]

This is just a courtesy reply to let you know that your post was moved from its original place to a sub-forum that is more relevant to your Thread

This is nothing personal - it just enables us to keep posts about the same problems in the relevant forums.

I have moved this to the success forum as I think it deserves it.... thank you for coming back and letting us know...

[AntsyVee]

Thank you for posting. It's always nice to hear how things turn out...especially in cases like yours where they're all negative! I hope others with HA read your story.

[pulisa]

Could this thread not remain on the HA board? It will get overlooked on here and the OP has excellent advice to give to sufferers stuck in a destructive and unhelpful cycle?