So many bad signs of ALS

[j2]

I have an intense fear of ALS for many years. Yesterday my left thumb got very weak, to the point that I was dropping things and even doing simple things like turning small knobs was impossible. For months I have felt like my forearms were thinning like muscle wasting and now this. My thumb is a little stronger this morning but definately weak. I don't know what to do. I kept my wife awake half the night and she has had it with me. I feel like I am jumping out of my skin. Someone please help before I google myself to the ER.

[LisaLisa]

NO GOOGLING!!

I know you are anxious but googling makes it worse and DOES NOT SUPPLY THE ANSWER to any of this.

Your anxiety is fooling you into thinking you need to take some action because its spiralling a bit today.

Please go out and do something really physicall like running or anything that really exherts you. Get rid of all that adrenaline then ...start today again.
You are foccussing on normal bodily dysfunction/ function and misinterpreting it to ALS. I bet there are hundreds and hundreds of biological and chemical reasons why you dont have ALS but i dont know them and neither do you. You are being extremely biased in your thoughts about your 'symptoms' and what they are and what you believe they can ONLY by caused by. Its the narrowminded and almost arrogant health anxiety trait that we all have!!

Your thoughts are dark and grim becuase you are full of adrenaline and anxiety....please go do the run thing


Lisa
xxxxxx

[PokerFace]

Please stop Googling, you'll never get rid of/learn to cope with health anxiety if you keep typing stuff into Google cuz it always comes up with the worst!

On topic, I have no idea what ALS is? I guess it's some degenerative disease like MND? If so, how's your left thumb today? If it was a disease like that things would just get worse and worse not up and down and if your forearms were wasting away for months it would be really bad by now I think. I don't know much about these diseases but I've read quite a few posts about them on here, maybe have a read through of the ones at the bottom and see if they help any til someone more knowledgeable than me replies. :)

Oh, I watched a programme the other day, 3 people had to go see a real doctor and then go to doctor google (a man infront of a computer lol) with the same symptoms. The real doctor diagnosed them correctly with allergies and stuff and doctor google diagnosed them with asthma, diabetes and something else, can't quite remember! But just goes to show how inaccurate doctor google really is! :) xx

[j2]

Thanks guys for trying to bring me out of this. I was so glad when pokerface mentioned that things like als/mnd don't have good days and bad because my thumb is a little strong today than it was last night. It is still weak but not as weak. I just can't shake this fear though. I wish I knew why my forearms feel generally weak and my thumb has no strength. I just can't take the load anymore. After the first of the year I will have some health insurance and maybe then I can't find some peace of mind. I wish there was a simple, cheap test for ALS/MND/MS or even a brain tumor. I would take them all as I keep thinking I have one or more of these.

[crazyhayz]

J2... u sound just like me a few days ago... (and u remember how bad i was, make sure u read my past recent posts and read how bad my weakness etc was!!)

However, I joined an MND/ALS forum where people from all over the world are truly suffering with ALS/MND.... I knew from writing my first post that I didnt have it. And guess what...... ive turned a huge corner coz my weakness has completely stopped since I read the responses i had from people who are ACTUALLY SUFFERING and dying from this cruel disease...

I would advise joining this forum, and descirbe ur symptoms in the 'Do I Have ALS' section, and ask these people whether or not u have it. I could tell simply by posts from others about the severity and type of symptoms u get if u have it, that i DO NOT have it, and funny coz my symptomshave gone now. No more stretching!! :) :) :)

I know 100%, that if u are having weakness IT DOES NOT come and go, once it starts, its there, end of, it doesnt go away. and u also get it worse and worse over time , and if this has been going on for months, then ud be having serious symptoms that were affecting u beeing able to hold things, lift things, maybe even swallow or speak properly.... u DO NOT HAVE MND. Ur symptoms are down to constant high adrenalin levels in ur body, and severe tension that u dont even know is there! just like me!

People get different symptoms with anxiety, and i get the same as u, weakness and (what we think are) neuro type symptoms..

I would lay my life on it that u dont have it. Read the website. Just type in ALS forum and it should be the first oneor second one on google.

good luck :) x

[tashbarnes87]

I dont mean to be rude but i would not advise joining a ALS FORUM this will scare you & if you so much as read that you have one symptom you will be in a panic. I have been there ( and luckily got over ) a massive ALS fear & you say you have been worried for a few years, if you had ALS you would be so very disabled by now, can i ask are you young? ALS tends to affect older people & as the pp said. Once the weakness starts there is no stopping it, that weak thumb would in days/week turn in to weak arms, not a feeling of weakness, an actual weakness- cant lift the cup to your mouth weakness.

Hugs xxx

[j2]

Thanks Tash for the info. I am hoping you are correct about the progression thing. As for joining an ALS forum, there is no way my fragile state could handle that. Thanks again and good luck.

[itoldyouiwasill]

Whilst I'm glad that joining the ALS forum worked out for you I would hazard a guess that for the vast majority of people this course of action would cause far more harm than good. I have to say as well that if I'm honest I find it somewhat distasteful that we would stoop to questioning terminally ill people about their signs and symptoms just to gain a fleeting ressurance that our neurotic based obsession is just that indeed.

From my experience with health anxiety it is pretty easy to eradicate a specific illness or disease worry or fixation (I am going to patent my MS worry cure,lol) but it then of course just moves onto another disease or illness....the trick is stopping that and learning that we do not have to worry about and monitor our health 24/7.

I can tell anybody on here with 100% certainty that a 'cure' for health anxiety will never be found on a medical based internet site or forum, the simple reason for this is that we have fallen for the faulty belief that our worries and concerns and obsessions are based on our health and can be solved on a medical level...the bottom line is that this is a total fallacy and the truth is that our issues actually reside in our inner psyche and are centered on a whole host of issues to do with control, life satisfaction and a pinch of good old ego narcissism....once we become aware of and then address the real issue we can see recovery coming in leaps and bounds.

[crazyhayz]

just to clarify i put my post under the DO I HAVE ALS SECTION where ANYONE can post their symptoms and people who have the disease are more than happy to answer them if they so wish.

and thats fine if it doesnt work for you but it certainly did for me.

[itoldyouiwasill]

I understand that and am glad that helped you.

I do find it weird that an ALS forum has a folder dedicated to telling people if they have ALS or not....I would have thought a GP and neurologist would be the best diagnostic route. As I said I know that this worked for you but from my experience of dealing with hundreds of health anxiety sufferers delving into such a forum would only increase the worry and anxiety as the information provided would not be able to be processed logically or rationally anyway.

Anyway, the only point I wanted to press was that with health anxiety concentrating on beating individual disease fixations will never work as you are constantly putting out a fire only for another to start....to continue the analogy you must cut off the oxygen supply totally.

[j2]

I don't know the answer, I am just glad so many people care and don't judge. I don't know what I would do without this site during my times of extreme anxiety. I will never meet any of you but I feel like you get it when no one else does. Thank