Hello all.
I'll briefly introduce myself. 31, male, iraq veteran who has had a concussion or two back in high school. (I include the last two details because supposedly it elevates my risk for ALS).
I won't rehash my story in detail since I've already done that on the general anxiety forum and received some pretty reasurring answers from there. Needless to say there are a few questions that I wanted to ask in a less GA and more BFS specific forum.
First, a brief background of my worries (summarized briefly)
A.suffering from a several month bout of fatigue and slight exercise intolerance, and feeling of weakness above both knee caps
B. Inevitable "muscle weakness" search in google brings up you know what
C. Became concerned about weakness in left hand, also started noticing twitching first in left arm (very occasional), than the next day all over body but mainly in legs (60% left calf) but occasional in left arm, and very occasional in right arm, left chest, right back, and maybe one or two small ones in face (rarest of all). That lasted for a day, now the twitching seems to have died down except the sporatic one or two, and when I'm laying in bed (before and after sleep).
D. Now I'm just trying to survive until I see my GP on Tuesday, than hopefully neuro not long after that. Have trouble eating, trouble focusing, and losing weight over worry. Have quit googling ALS, spending lots of time on this site and GA forum for my research. I've atleast convinced myself my trouble swallowing and slurred speech was all in my head, but now I"m on to limb worries.
Ok, that's my background, now to my SPECIFIC concerns:
1. Some of you will find this ironic. I'm actually concerned about my twitching with the ABSENCE of certain other symptoms. Many people on here complain of tingling, numbness, and pain along with their twitching. All of these things are suggestive that the cause is something OTHER than ALS since people with ALS generally don't experience these things. The fact that I have the twitching WITHOUT the "anti-suggestive" symptoms worries me more about ALS. I could almost go for some hand tingling right now just to put my mind at ease.
2. I seem to be able to usually activate the twitch on my left calf (one of the most persistent ones) by tapping on the muscle lightly. This scares me relentlessly since this is how I understand neuros find ALS twitches.
3. Some of my twitches (again, the damned left calf) are visible but I can't feel them. Again, makes me think ALS twitch (pretty much the summary of 1,2, and 3.)
4. I have objective weakness in my left hand. I recently took a physical capacity exam for an employer and though they were not very disclosing about results, I happened to see that my grip strength on my left hand was rated 80-80-75 versus the right hand 90-90-85 (3 repetitions). Also, when I pinch a mustard/shampoo bottle with my left thumb/forefinger and right thumb/forefinger, I seem to struggle harder, have more coordination issues, and make an objectively smaller dent than with my right thumb and forefinger pinching the same bottle in the same manner. This is currently my largest worry because it seems to be objective sign of weakness and not just perceived (although there is plenty of that too with feeling of left hand feeling tired, strained at times, and sometimes sore). Also, the left fingers feel slightly stiffer when I type and flex my fingers open and closed repeatedly as a test.
Whether left hand/grip/pinch weakness is pre-existent or evidence of early ALS onset is the question driving me absolutely crazy right now. Hopefully some of you can shed some light on some similar experiences to my above 4 points so I can atleast relax until I see my GP on Tuesday? Thank you so much.
BTW: I am right handed, thankfully. If it was my dominant hand with objective weakness, I would probably need a tranquilizer right now. That one seems to be doing well, in fact it is comparing the two that is freaking me out the most in regards to my left hand.