Ok, had the appt with the neuro and had an EMG:
Clinical, EMG and SEP test (some sort of nerve sensory test?) were all clean
He diagnosed me with medium-severe depression with an extreme case of anxiety, with psychosomatic disorder. He likes that I started taking amitriptlíne.
Some interesting things - then I have a couple questions for anyone who can provide thoughts:
1) He admitted and said to my husband, "Once someone gets the idea that they could have this awful disease, it is very hard for them to get it out of their head."
2) He said that one woman has visited his office 132 times, convinced that she has ***, only to be told she does not. He is a private neuro, so all visits/tests are self pay. So I feel very deeply for this woman...
3) He said *** starts with lameness. If there is nothing lame, then there is no ***.
4) He recommended me to see a physiotherapist who works in his building, and they work close together. This physiotherapist specializes in treating people who are psychosomatic and believe they have bad diseases. From my understanding, he is going to look at all of my symptoms that I am afraid of, explain them to me and help them feel better. I start seeing him next week, and am pretty hopeful about it.
5) About the SEP test - apparently the average score is "20" and I was at "18" in both arms, which means my score was even better than normal. I don't really know what was measured or what these scores mean, but I'll take it!
About the EMG particularly:
I could tell he was hesitant to give the EMG. When he gave me the EMG, he seemed....unsure...I guess is the word. He put the needle in two places in my left arm (the one which is weak and shaking), one in my forearm and one in the middle of my upper arm.
Forearm: When he stuck the needle in, the waves calmed down and then showed a fast, steady pattern. He said that I was not relaxing all the way and I needed to really relax my arm and hand. Once I did, the line smoothed out/flatlined, but only for a little bit. He had me move the hand, and then he was not so sure about the placement of the needle, so he moved it kind of to a different place. And then apparently, this new spot was what he wanted and said it was healthy.
Upper arm: The only weird thing I noticed was when he told me to move my arm, I did, just a little and the waves went crazy, and then he told me “less” – to lessen the force, he told me to do this like 4 times until I almost had my arm totally still, and it was in this stage that he got the waves he wanted and said it was healthy. I feel like I wasn’t even making any force.
In both cases, he told me that my waves were good enough for a “picture book” – meaning, healthy enough to use as examples in a neuro book. Also, there was a woman in the room overlooking everything and was smiling and giving me thumbs up as she saw the waves on the screen. He said he did not even see any twitches.
Questions - maybe stupid questions:
From the descriptions above about the needle pricks, does anything seem strange to anyone? My last neuro/EMG was much different.
I am pretty surprised that nothing showed up indicating I have neck/back problems, like some other BFSers expierenced. I was for sure it would, since I have pain in my neck and shoulder, and a weak, very shaky arm. It does twitch all around in my arm, so either it was not twitching in those 5 minutes, or it was but the EMG didn’t pick it up or he didn’t read the EMG right. ??
Were the two places in my arm which were pricked enough to determine that there is nothing pathological going on in my entire shoulder and arm? I wonder, if it’s just my tricep that is affected/getting weak, not my bicep, but he pricked my bicep, then was something missed?
I don’t have an explanation for my weak, twitchy and very shaky arm. I wake up to it moving/vibrating on its own. I feel the weakness in it, even while resting, if that makes sense to anyone. Is it safe to say whatever is happening in my arm, that it’s not related to ***? I am hoping this physiotherapist can help me.
