At the moment I am struggling to force myself to take the decision to schedule an EMG. Unfortunately, though, I'm afraid of a false
positive result and the fact that, in case it is ALS, there is absolutely nothing to be done about it anyway, so actually I'm not sure if I really wanted to know if I have it or not... I mean, after having made the the big mistake of looking up "twitching" in the internet, I now know
what a great bliss simple ignorance can be !
I really do not know whether I should go for the EMG or not.
I mean with ALS this is totally different from the situation in other serious diseases where there
is a chance (and be it ever so slim) for treatment if it is detected early on.
For example: A few years ago I went through a cancer scare eposide with ominous persistent abdominal pain.
Back then I did not hesitate much and scheduled for a gastroscopy despite the fact that I feared the possible bad outcome like hell. *BUT*, and this is the great difference from ALS, I knew I would have a chance to fight the disease and the earlier it was detected the
better my chances would be. So I forced myself to take the test (which, of course came out negative)
But if the diagnosis you fear is
ALS then the outlook is that bleak
and devastating, hopeless, that
I'm really not sure If it would be a good thing to know definitely if you had it or not.
Another thing to take into account is the danger of a false positive
diagnosis: This is a common problem
if you persue too much (medical) testing: There is always the
possibility that you find "something" if you're only looking for hard enough. So maybe, even though you are totally fine and healthy, the EMG could still be inconclusive or they could find some mild signs, suggesting "possible ALS" or something like that. So I do not know how good the
sensitivity of EMG testing is with respect of such "false positive"
results. But, for example let's assume the "false positive rate"
of EMG's is, say, 5 percent.
Now if, on the other hand, the probability that bodywide twitching
is from ALS rather than BFS, would be much less than 5 percent then
it would not make sense rationally
to undergo the test. (the danger of
a false positive EMG would be greater than the danger of having ALS)
(unfortunately I do not know the real numbers so this is a hypotethical example only to illustrate the principal dangers with false positive or "over- diagnosis")
On the other hand, of course, there would be the *GREAT* benefit of mental relief *IF* the EMG comes out totally clean ...
So in summary: To EMG or not to EMG ? I do not know the anser
Anyone help me to make up my mind ???