fears about possible als?

[mocata]

ohh hi so like last monday morning/ just over a week ago i noticed a tightness on the left side of my chest. i've been a hypochondriac for so long and worried it's a heart problem when a cramp developed in my right leg the next night, so i went to the a&e. they gave a general blood test, one for heart conditions and one for embolism, but said it is nothing to worry about. however as time has gone on i've started to worry about als! i've got a gp appointment for friday. soo will just list some symptoms, what would u make of it??:

- the main thing which sparked this is i noticed a depression under the collarbone where the pain was. this side i think used to be my stronger side with more tissue around the neck muscles, but now it's equal to the right (or even smaller? hard to say)
i worry about atrophy, just seems to cry of anomalousness : (
- my upper arms and my legs feel like they are vibrating, i notice this in bed especially
- right calf is still cramped. i feel mi legs are aching/ slightly weaker, especially when climbing stairs etc, slightly off balance? likewise my arms feel kinda sensitive to exertion
- my left arm seems slightly thinner/more sinewy than the right but i'm not sure if it's always been this way. sometimes a muscle twitches.
- nasal voice seems connected to some tightness in the chest (though the ache is gone), a couple of syllables i'm not sure if i'm annunciating well. this condition of the voice is kinda consistent
- not sure if im taking whole breaths

i wouldn't rule out stress (over health lol! maybe assignments), but it is just unfamiliar for me, all these

.

i'm only 18, and female, i know i wouldn't be the first... but it's rare though isn't it? ofc als is so unpleasant but best we don't worry too much. thank u so much for any comments, or if you have had a similar experience please let me know. also u can ask any questions abt similar stuff you're worrying over : )) oh or if anything here needs clarifying

p.s. oh man does anyone feel so weird abt writing their symptoms, like everything is potential foreshadowing? idk if posting this will make me feel better loll. but it's a lovely community of support here im grateful for it

[Hypo84]

You don't have ALS. I could put my house on it.

Treat your HA. You are young and should enjoy life, and not fret about some rare diseases.

[mocata]

really? your certainty is reassuring! oh
im worried it seems substantial somehow, ive never had a variation of symptoms before -- but maybe it's just one symptom more widespread. i'd appreciate even more input from others! maybe someone who has had the same, even though i appreciate this reply so much on a deep level
when i was speaking i experienced muscular tinnitus and feared it's a fasciculation lol! but this can be other stuff

[Fishmanpa]

Please read THIS as often as you need to.

Positive thoughts

[mocata]

i think i read it but in parts i felt like i was the exception it's describing and also i'm kinda scared to read criteria for most things even on this website, thank you so much though

[mocata]

everybody pls feel free to add xx

[mocata]

oh i am having a small fasciculation in my left wrist :0

[Fishmanpa]

everybody pls feel free to add xx

Clinical Weakness—ALS is about failing, not feeling.

ALS is about failure—falling down, being unable to stand on your toes, being unable to button your shirt, being unable to lift your hand, etc. It is not about these things becoming more difficult. It is about these things being impossible… no matter how hard you try. If you can do normal things, but it is more difficult, you do not have ALS. If you used to be able to do 100 curls and now one arm can only do 50; that is not ALS. If you used to run 2 miles and now you can only run 1; that is not ALS. If you used to run 2 miles and now you can’t lift up one of your feet, you may have clinical weakness.

It really does happen that something stops working all of a sudden. It is generally one muscle so it will not be a whole limb but the movement done by that muscle is suddenly gone. An example is a calf raise. It won't happen. Think of it like your wifi signal. You are surfing the net, then signal is lost and you can't do anything online no matter how hard you try or how long you wait for a page to load. This is what happens to a muscle in beginning ALS it has lost the signal from the nervous system that tells it to work

You're 18 and don't have ALS.

Positive thoughts

[whome]

everybody pls feel free to add xx

I had a period of ALS health anxiety some years back as well. I had twitches all over my body and perceived weakness. No true clinical weakness though. I also noticed many dents and what I thought were abnormalities in my muscles. This is because I studied them so closely and was basically seeing normal things that I perceived as abnormal. Don’t give ALS another thought. Fishmanpa’s post says it best.


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[Careful1]

Everytime I try to edit a post lately, it deletes itself 🤔 but anyways....

Do you know how rare ALS is? There are fewer then 20,000 cases per year in the US. Even more rare is being diagnosed with it at the age of 18. The average age of diagnosis is 55 and its 20 percent more common in men then women...

I know ALS is scary, the sister of a lady I used to work with had it. After I met her I looked it up to learn a little about it and ended up falling into the ALS hole but once I finally found a way out of it I realized I made myself sick with worry when in reality my chances of getting hit by lighting were greater then ever being diagnosed with ALS.

(((hugs)))