I just need to know. opinions please.

[Dooges]

I’m one of the many that worry about these neurological type diseases. I’m still worried about MND because of the way my left shoulder and left leg feel right now. The shoulder feels funny with a weak feeling down into my bicep. The leg just feels different to the to the other and I’m not sure if it gets fatigued sooner than the right one does. I can still do my dumbbell weights at home and push ups etc with the left arm becoming harder to lift towards the end of my set. I am right handed so you would think this would explain itself to me. Sadly my fears remain. To be honest to myself I’m doing this as apart of a strength test for myself and not for the actual benefits that weight training can give you. I’m also constantly checking my motor skills and finer movements in my hands checking for any degeneration of movement or ability. Does any of this sound familiar to anyone.

I went to the physio yesterday about my shoulder and the feeling of slight weakness in my arm (bicep). He told me that my left shoulder was sitting slightly forward putting strain or pressure on the tendons shoulder. This was due to my posture. Slightly hunched forward. I would need to strengthen my back muscles to bring my shoulders back into alignment and to help support the front muscles. I have to admit that when at the gym I do tend to concentrate on my arms, shoulders and chest etc than my back muscles… I’d had a previously been carrying another muscle/tendon related shoulder injury as well, so his explanation is totally plausible right? But this feeling in my bicep is new.
So last night with this fresh in my mind I walked with my shoulders back and was constantly stretching out and back my left shoulder. To the point where it started to hurt. It seemed to help the feeling in my bicep and the stretching felt good.

So I wake up this morning and the shoulder stills feels weird but the bicep feeling has lessened.. But because of my fears about having MND the sensations in the shoulder and the slight perceived weakness, in my mind it still could be something more sinister. The thing is I know weakness is a symptom of MND and I’m fixated on that even though it is highly improbable that I have a disease of this type. As my day goes on at work I can sense the feeling in my bicep return. Could it be my desk ergonomics?

So let me ask you, , can we get fixated on certain parts of the body, in my case the left arm and leg and have the normal feelings that your average person would not even worry about, and take these feelings for being different in the other arm/leg.? Thus start to worry that something must be seriously wrong.
Hope this makes sense and look forward to your replies.

Brad

[justbananas]

yes yes - you are making the sensations by focussing so much on these feelings. i strength train and my left side is grossly weaker than my right. my trainer explained it had to do with my posture, underuse, etc.. and is giving me ways to make them more symmetrical. you should see a trainer if you can .. or have your physio help you and LISTEN to them. your fixation on the assymetry in your body (which is very, very normal) is causing weird sensations and perceived weakness even more so than the usual difference in strength between limbs. your weakness is not clinical, but your mental awareness of the symptoms and what you're looking for is causing stress and physical irritation. what might also help you is massage. try to get someone who can work on your head, neck and arms. it's amazing how much tension is built up there - and weights often make it worse.. but releasing some of the tension will work wonders. try to strengthen your core (abs and back) more because it seems you are neglecting these areas which is a big no-no in strength training. they are what hold you up in the first place and neglecting this area will continue the assymetry and pain. what you are doing is very typical HA and i promise you, your arms and legs are fine - make small goals to stop analyzing them so much, and do the weights for the betterment of your body instead. well .. try

[justbananas]

also are you leaving proper time between lifting sessions to heal? at least 48 hours between lifting? otherwise if you overexercise your limbs, yes they will feel weak because your muscles will have been torn and not repaired.. unless you know a ton about training and have a specific plan that allows for less down time between sessions as i know some people who do this .. but nonetheless it sounds to me like you are just administering at-home torture tests to check for diseases and forgetting the basic rules of training. make sure you're doing ALL muscles because if you're building up only one set, you're going to topple over.. or start looking really weird

[viremarthius]

Think about Cause and Effect. When you lift weights (I used to be a sort of expert on the subject), you actually tear your mucsles slightly. This causes: Stifness, soreness, weakness etc. One arm will ALWAYS be stronger than the other. Ask any bodybuilder and they will tell you the same. Your anxiety is just increasing your sesitivities to your body and everything will seem magnified. I used to worry about this to, then I started doing cardio i nstead of lifting. I never noticed the weakness because there was nothing triggering it (lifting weights). Now I just worry about my leg muscles, because I'm Captain health Anxiety have had this before, but I can assure you, it's from exercising. Hope this helps, you're fine my man.

[hay2513]

Hi Dooges
I Had All This Worry Last Year, About Ms And Mnd. I Had Weakness Of Legs, Twitching Allsort. They Gave Me A Mri Of Brain And Emg To Check For Mnd To Put My Mind A Rest. When All The Results Came Back All The Systoms Slowly Disappeared, I Have Read You Thread And You Sound So Like Me But Please Get Yourself A Neuroglist To Stop You Worring, They Know Straight Awat And Can Put Your Mind At Ease. You Will Be Fine
Hay2513

[Dooges]

Thanks guys for the replies,
WEll over the last few days I have managed to work myself up into a right state. Focusing on the feelings in my arm and leg that I mentioned in my initial post. I did a bad bad thing this morning and googled a few things relating to ALS/MND .. BAD BAD BAD thing to do. I did it even though I was scared to do it as to what I might find. .... Yep you guessed it, I found some scary stuff that totally freked me out.
SO I marched myself off to the Dr's feeling like i wouldn't be on this planet for much longer.
I told him what I was feeling, and given my history of symtoms he sent me off for a x-ray of my neck and CT scan of my brain..
Now if I wasn't freaked out before this, I was feeling like I was somewhere between jupiter and staturn.
SO I had the tests done 2 hours later.. Pretty quick huh, I suppose thats why we pay so much tax in Australia to get benefits like this.. Free too.
Then there was the nervous wait for the results. Usually your suupose to not look at them until your Dr has seen them first but I rang to try and get another appointment this arvo ( afternoon ) but he was leaving at 4pm. He new that it would be murder for me to wait for the results until monday so he told me to go ahead and have a look myself.
I was shaking. I was thinking funerals, finances the fact that my wife and I had not had the opportunity to have kids yet my whole world was crumbling.
Thast when I read it, read it agian, and again, and again. Just to make sure.
Neck X-ray = Normal.
CT Brain Scan = Normal

I didn't cry, I couldn't do anything. Just sat there motionless. For a good 5 minutes.
Then I rang my wife and told her the news. I had previously been keeping her up to date with what I was going through so she was worried sick at work also.
So what now? I go back to the Dr on Monday morning to review the results and what to do about the next step.
I'm seeing a psychiatrist at the moment, 4 visits so far. This will get relayed to him for diagnoses I suspect, if not I will tell him anyways.
Any advice or suggestions about how I or the Dr will progress from here?
Thanks
Brad