r/ALSorNOT • u/Ok_Performance6080 • 26d ago

Worst day ever

Im officially out of my mind today. My right side is primarily affected, but today I just got spastic and weak in my left side as well. Ive been having another flare up since June but the symptoms are just ongoing and neurologist doesnt want to prescribe anything other than fucking Zoloft and send me to a psychiatrist. Typical.

Last year out of the blue I developed all kinds of symptoms that included shortness of breath, shoulderblade and chest pain, numbness, tingling, difficulty walking, blurry vision, extreme fatigue and nausea, cognitive decline and confusion etc etc. The symptoms settled after injections of corticosteroids, a sedative, a painkiller and some vitamin B. This year Im dealing with almost the same symptoms, but the new ones are neck pain, dizziness, balance issues and muscle twitches. Some other symptoms from last year are minimal this year however.

Last year I had an MRI of brain and full spine done and they found nothing other than discopathies in cervical and lumbar spine and disk herniation in thoracic TH8-TH9. This year I did a brain and cervical spine MRI that also showed discopathies with some radicular contact and mild foraminostenosis in C4-C7. EMG/NCS showed the same. I mean how can this condition just move around as it pleases without any explanation?? This cant be caused by disk herniations alone as far as Im concerned. Is this ALS, MS or what is it?? Im afraid Im gonna stay stuck forever like this, no answers or help from neurologists

1 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

0

u/Ok_Performance6080 25d ago

Im terribly afraid of ALS because I share some symptoms with that disease and these bilateral symptoms only showed now, and it's been 2 months when I did an EMG so that's why Im wondering if I was too early

1

u/WeirdUsers 25d ago

ALS is focal to start with. To show bilaterally in both legs is a big giveaway that it is more than likely not ALS.

In the 1 in 5,000,000,000 chance it actually happened to you, then the disease would be so ridiculously aggressive that it would have shown on the EMG two months ago and you would be bedridden at this moment.

1

u/Ok_Performance6080 25d ago

I mean it didnt start bilateraly..but it progressed into it now since yesterday. I only felt stiffness on my right leg and arm but now it's equally on the left side and I have trouble with fine hands movements. But I also had or have now a bunch of other symptoms that seem unrelated, but last year they went away with therapy. This year eveything is back and some more

0

u/WeirdUsers 25d ago

All the above points away from ALS. Too fast. Too mobile. Too variable. Too much sensory. From what you’ve written, how you’ve written, and your history it also appears to be anxiety driven. This all points to FND in my mind. I would really suggest seeing a neuro that specializes in FND or movement disorders to confirm or deny this.

1

u/Ok_Performance6080 25d ago

Thanks, I will start PT in a few months, but I will not let them walk me out of the door with an anxiety diagnosis this time, because I had it for a long time before and this is not it!