Nervously awaiting EMG results

[reanne2489]

Hi all,

I just wanted to vent my fears...

I had my EMG test on Wednesday...I am still awaiting the results because I live in Beijing and everything needs translating. There were only technicians doing the test so they couldn't say anything about the data they were collecting.

I was so nervous because I had no idea the test would be so painful, and the noises the machine made after the needles were inserted into my calve muscle groups and told to flex sounded like earthquakes.

I think I am most nervous because most people on this forum, whilst many have hotspots, seem to have generalised body wide twitching. As I've begun to control my anxiety, these body wide twitches have calmed down massively, but my left calf is absolutely constant when at rest...my left thigh and foot is also much more constant recently. My right calf, thigh and foot do also twitch a little, but the ratio would be like Left 100 : 20 Right.

Also, even though the physio wasn't worried about the size difference in my left to right leg, it has only been just over a month of consistent twitching, so perhaps its not obvious enough yet to count as muscle wasting.

I know I have no UMN signs of ALS due to fine strength, reflexes, babinski etc...but I know some people start with fasics and take months to show weakness...

I'm just so nervous because most people here have been able to ascribe their twitching to a disc problem in their back, or trapped nerve etc...but my lumbar MRI showed nothing. I had thought it might be Fibromyalgia due to sometimes getting aches and pains radiating down my arms and legs, but that isn't frequent.

Also the pain I was getting in the muscles has stopped since i eased back on exercise when i tightened my left calf muscle, which again makes me nervous, as the pain I had hoped was attributed to BFS...rather than the painless continuous twitching of ALS.

I just hate this, I fear the worst so much because from the moment I awake to the moment I sleep my left leg won't quit. There is no respite. There is no trigger. It is constant...

[LKP1231]

Sounds like complete BFS. Try not to worry.

[RIno468]

I would honestly start game planning on what you are mentally going to do when the EMG comes back clean.

Your symptoms dont sound like ALS at all.

Taken at face value yes, but the whole picture of your symptoms - no.

Think about how you are going to deal with a clean EMG and how you can start to move on from something insidious affecting you.

[Yuliasir]

Nope, vice versa, most people here DO NOT have enough data on MRI/Xray to say they have disk issues (as most of them are far too young to have them). So most of us do not know to what they can attribute the twitches (except overall hyperexcitability of the nervous system).

As for your case, I read just yesterday an article (I am a medical translator so doing a lot of various translations in several areas of medicine), which clearly says that in people with even slight foot posture issues prolonged loads and workouts cause inflammation of musces and ligaments, knee pain, tightness and stiffness in the tighs and lower leg... and the only way to correct that is to wear proper insoles. Not the rain sandlas of course. So your leg troubles seem to be really attributed to improper footwear and high physical loads due to standing and walking in it. Diagnosis requires ultrasound of the knee zone and I doubt any of our fellows complainig for knee pain and tightness around the knee (and taking that for weakness sings) ever had such diagnostics Being a young athlet also 'helps' to get this problem.

So I hope your EMG results would be rather normal, maybe with minor issues due to trauma.

[dolphin8808]

How was your EMG? Are you feeling better?

[reanne2489]

Hey.

After over a week and a half of waiting on an accurate translation of the chinese report. There was some sensory issue, but everything else was normal.

I'm hoping I won't need to go back for another one, as ofcourse, we all get paranoid, as it was my left calf that was tested alone [it is the area of constant twitching] and it was only after 4/5 solid weeks of twitching, so naturally we worry if it's too early.

I was prescribed muscle relaxants as I've got a lot of aches and pains atm so im hoping that helps. Thank you for asking!

[Yuliasir]

4 weeks is quite Ok. I got my own in 4 weeks and it was 3 years ago. still here sensory nerves are definitely not motor, and it is easily understandable they are so irritated if you had several weeks of pain at the moment of EMG.

try your prescribed drugs, proper shoes, maybe massage , do your pelvic excercises, and things might get better.