BFS in a nutshell

[Krissy]

reposted under own topic

[Krissy]

Hi there I am new to the forum. All of this info has really helped me alot so far. I am having the same random twiching, buzzing, waves, and itchy feelings as you all. I am also very very anxious, and these things just started for me about a month ago. the larger twiches came first then about 5 days ago i noticed the smaller buzzing, wavey ones. i was doing some muscle strength test at home to sum up how weak my muscles were, because i am also terrified of als.
when i stand on the ball of my foot on my right leg i can stand there for about 1 minute before i get to "weak", but with my left, when i stand on the ball of my foot i can only stand on it for at most 30 seconds before my calves get too weak and my ankle shakes.
is this muscles weakness in my left leg???
i read that by the time you notice the twiches you would already have profound muscle weakness if it were als. is only being able to stand on the ball of my foot on my left leg for 30 seconds just me being paranoid, or is this "true musscle weaknes"?

help please

[Lene]

Some neurologists have started that BFS is caused by irritated nerve endings or irritated muscle linings.

This is SUCH an important explanation!! It all has to do with this.

Can you PLEASE EXPLAIN this more?? This is the center of the problem.

What causes the irritated nerve endings?

And what exactly is an irritated nerve ending?

[tym2chill]

Krissy
if you had ALS you would not be able to stand on your toes- 30 seconds is a long time- your fine.
David S

[Chick]

The base of my left thumb began twitching two weeks ago this Thursday. When it hadn't stopped, after that weekend, I made an appointment with my PCP (last Friday). After a glance, my doc said, "What did you think you had, MS?" I said, "No, I thought it was the onset of Parkinson's." My doc diagnosed the twitching as BSF. I told my doc that I'd also made an appointment to see a neurologist; he agreed that it would be a good idea (more so to put my mind at ease). Yesterday, I saw the neurologist (the NYU Medical Center's dept. head).

After running me through the requisite "walk a line, tongue extension, fold your arms & close your eyes and strength tests" he diagnosed my twitches as BFS. He didn't say anything about scheduling an EMG so I'm guessing he didn't think it was necessary. The neuro also wrote me a 2mg/dose Klonopin script (I've had a moderate anxiety disorder for going on 11 years). But now I'm driving myself nuts with thoughts of ALS sneaking up on me even though the neuro told me that 99.9% of the time BFS sufferers have nothing to worry about (unless I start experiencing muscle weakness/atrophy).

This morning, my left forearm started bubbling; then my left kneecap; then thye bak of my left thigh. Great. Now it looks like I've got a long "waiting for the shoe to drop" life ahead of me. How do I get through this?

[bktisbury]

i too have been dx'd with benign fasiculations and given klonopin but i also have had new symptoms such as a twtiching index finger etc that is driving me nut- i had an eeg and an emg-- both normal-- but now i think i had the emg too early and am going to go see a doc at johns hopkins because i just dont trust anyone and can not get past the other shoe dropping aspect of this. i have had twitching in my calf for months but all over twitching since the end of april ....

[jetchison]

This is a great article to read. I am 62 and noticed fasciculations in my calves about 2 years ago after exercising. They were quite tame back then and didn't think anything of them. Since April 2008 things have changed. I noticed my calves were tingling and fasciculations had increased. I went to my doctor who mentioned the ALS words and he sent me to a Neurologist. He thought I had either BFS or ALS. He sent me to a second Neurologist who conducted an EMG and concluded it was highly unlikely that what I had was ALS. He did not conclude that it was BFS however. I definitely have been going through the ALS anxiety thing. I have been to an Acupuncturist, Naturopath, and several Physical Therapists with no change in the Fasciculations. I have attempted to change my diet and eliminate caffeine as much as possible. Unfortunately nothing has helped it seems. Over the last several months my fasciculations have been constant in both calves (I can count 80-120 per minute in one calf and this is continuous), and tingling felt in arms, upper legs and even tongue on occasion. The frustrating part of all this is that the fasciculations seem to increase with exercise. I love to ride my bicycle and try to ride 2500-4000 miles per year for recreation. I hate to have to limit exercise is that is a part of my life I find great enjoyment in. If anyone has any suggestions or miracle vitamins or drugs your suggestions would be welcome. To make a short story long this is extremely frustrating. Your article was very informative so thank you.

[ImOK]

jetchison: Even though there aren't any miracle supplements to get you out of BFS/BCFS/PNHE there are a lot of supplements that help people. If you search the forum for this information you will find some. Considering your age I was wondering if you have had a complete blood chemistry done lately? Sometimes as we get on in years we may lose the ability to metabolize some nutrients. You would want to make sure that your Mg and especially your vitamins D and B6&12 are metabolizing as all of these deficiencies are known to cause fasciculations. Whatever you do don't stop moving - it will make you depressed, raise your cholesterol, and in general make you feel like you are a sick person which most probably you are not! Try doing a quick warm up beforehand and a good cool down afterward with deep breathing and calm stretching exercises instead of cutting your activities. Good luck.

[nervousguy1]

Best post ever..

[john33]

My favorite post of all time!!!!

[NotMyself]

Quick question - who is the source for the Q @ A? Specifically, where did you guys derive that symptom-list from?