by jebmd on February 18th, 2014, 9:17 pm
Hi there,
Been there, done that! And I'm more than twice your age which means more to worry about! I found it the most helpful to simply go through the proper steps to determine the origin of the "twitching". Antidepressant (Venalafaxine in your case, Celexa in mine) made my symptoms worse and so I quit taking it. My twitching began after a very bad viral infection and instead of resting I continued to work. I had my family doctor test my strength and reflexes all OK. Of course being a doc myself, I had done much strength testing on my legs but I cannot do my arms myself so she did it. Bloodwork showed anemia, B12 deficiency, Vit D deficiency all corrected now. I got an MRI of the brain and spinal cord to rule out MS (normal) and insisted on an EMG to rule out ALS-also normal. I will be having another one in 4 weeks on my other arm and leg although the neurologist is doing it to humour me. I suggest that you read the post by Dr. Will in the "Experiences with BFS forum"-I found it calmed me down a lot while I was going through the testing. You have twitches all over, following an infection, you're 21 and you have no clinical weakness plus some sensory sensations “buzzing”-unlikely to be ALS. If you need more reassurance, then get the testing done. I have found that since the normal EMG on Dec 18, my twitches died down significantly. They increased again in January because it was a very stressful month and have now died down again to barely noticeable. The best thing you can do is get the FACTS-then you can deal with them appropriately. I have been living with this since the end of September and have noticed no loss of function-the only thing that helped was to really know what I was dealing with and to deal with my anxiety by seeing a therapist. I have a stressful job, a kid in university who is having her own set of mental breakdowns (seems better now thank goodness), another kid who struggles in school and needs HOURS of help to cope and a husband who's job has been even more stressful than usual lately!!! A perfect recipe for BFS if ever there was one. I have changed my attitude and try to enjoy what I can and not worry about what I can't control. You can control your diagnostic investigations, so do so if you think it will ease your mind. It is the only thing that helped me.
J