


He diagnosed me with plexus neuritis. I asked about ALS and he said this does not fit the ALS picture because:
-I have pain, also in my upper arm (that when the pain was really bad and intense in December, that my arm felt very sensitive to the touch, it hurt like he**). I even have a post about that when that happened (viewtopic.php?f=4&t=21329)
-I have normal reflexes.
-and that ALS starts in distal limb (but I am not so sure of this??)
Clinical weakness and atrophy in my shoulder. He had my stretch my arms out on each side and he pressed down and I needed to press up. My right arm stayed up but my left arm went down. I almost fainted when that happened. Then he said he sees less muscle in my left sholder than my right and he wrote down "amyotrophic shoulder". NICE WORDING!!!!!!!


Then he told me he saw the twitching and also the EMG of my upper arm showed damage and "spontaneous activity" - he told me of individual nerve fibers - so I expect to see "fibrillation" in his report....I am guessing. By this point, confirmed weakness, atrophy, twitching, and then abnormal EMG with word of "amyottrophic" - I was just beside myself. He assured me (or tried to) though this was not the presentation of ALS which of course I feel mixed about. I mean, my exams have EVERYTHING we all fear - but just because of pain, normal reflexes and that ALS does not start with weak shoulders?? I am not sold.
He EMGed my upper left arm, like right in the center, he said where the C5 nerve supplies. This is where abnormalities were found. Then he stuck it in the bicep and that was normal. All other strength tests were normal, including lower body.
I am to start a cortisone therapy. 100mg for 5 days, then 50mg for 3 days, then 25 for 3 days, then 12.5 for 3 days ....then 12.5 every other day. This should help with all of my symptoms. Also to start physiotherapy, to help strengthen my shoulder back up.
I am just now learning more about this plexus neuritis. I have some questions based on all of this:
Does anyone else reading this have experience with it, or similar exam results or experience with oral cortisone therapy?
Can ALS start in the shoulder area?
Can you still have normal reflexes at this stage and it be ALS?
I know there were some cases where ALS patients did have pain early on....but is that thought of more of a coincidence or very rare right? and would the pain be extreme like mine was in December and then last so long?
Also, I still have pain, not as intense, and what I learned so far with this plexus neuritis that after the initial extreme pain, the pain leaves but weakness stays. But I still have pain.
I swear if I don't get any improvement soon with cortisone and physio, I don't know what I'll do!


