I have been a lurker on this site for a while, and just wanted to thank everyone for the advice and encouragement. My story is like many others – I’m 33, otherwise healthy, maybe with just a little hypochondriac tendency, and when I started twitching about a year ago, I convinced myself I was going to die horribly with ALS. Thanks in part to the site, I finally got the courage to go see my doctor and confront my fears. After running some initial tests (all fine) and finding my muscle strength and reflexes to be normal, he told me he suspected BFS and urged me to try taking a magnesium supplement at the level of 1200 mg/day before seeing a neurologist. The magnesium (I take a magnesium/calcium/zinc supplement) has helped, as has the lessening of anxiety. I still have some twitchy days, but it’s much better.
Anyway, besides offering my thanks, I wanted to share what else alleviates my worst symptom, which in my case is a “big,” fast twitch in my left quadriceps muscle. I can ignore it during the day (and all the other little twitches, which I get all over my legs, especially the calf), but at night it drives me crazy. I’m a light sleeper as it is, so the evil twitch was really doing a number on me. When it comes on, I take 2 ibuprofen (I usually have some concurrent leg pain), and warm up my heavy microwavable gel heating pad. It doesn’t have to be hot. I wrap the pad totally around my leg and secure it with an Ace bandage (yes, it’s cumbersome). I find that if I lie on my left side with a pillow between my legs and the heating pad on the muscle, this soothes the twitch enough that I can get back to sleep. It still sucks to wake up at 2 AM with the twitch, but it eases my mind to know that I can take some helpful action.
Also, I find that intense exercise brings it on, so I’m more careful in how I exercise. For example, I lift weights and do a Spinning class a couple of times a week. I've learned the hard way not to do a lower body workout on the same day that I do a Spinning class – the overexertion seems to cause a leg-muscle meltdown for me. And, come spring, I’ll have to figure out a way to ease back into road biking – maybe I’ll do fewer miles than I ordinarily would.
Again, thanks for the information and support provided by this site. I hope everybody has a twitch-free holiday season!