Thank you for your time & input.
Talked to my doctor in late October about my right leg giving out & spasming on occassion. She got me into a neurologist within a week since she wasn't happy with what she saw.
Neurologist mentioned I had lost 1.5 inches of muscle mass in my right thigh & my reflexes in that leg were over active. He said the leg was clyinically weak. However, the EMG was normal which surprised him. He ordered a full abdominal & pelvic ultrasound as well as an MRI. He said he thought we caught "it" early but he never said what it was.
I now have visible twitches in my right thigh, calf & foot (other people can see them). They come & go at random times in the day, they do not go away if I change the position of my leg.
This all happened so fast that I didn't ask many questions when I saw the neurologist. Now that I've started to read about the symptoms, I see they could be something very minor through to something like ALS.
I am trying not to drive myself crazy using search engines. Is there any way to determine how likely the various possible outcomes are?
Thank you!
I am sorry to hear about your condition. It is very difficult to comment whether your have ALS or not. To confirm that a doctor has to find signs of both upper (muscle weakness, decreased motor control, inability to perform fine movements, increased spinal reflexes, and positive Babinski sign—great toe going up) and lower motor (muscle weakness, abnormal EMG etc) neuron signs in one limb. Symptoms of many of these diseases do mimic ALS. ALS like symptoms can be due to fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, severe anemia, spinal nerve compression high up in the cervical spine, ankylosing spondylitis, osteoarthritic changes of the vertebrae, calcium deficiency, low Vit D, electrolyte disturbance, peripheral neuropathy due to diabetes or hypothyroidism or due to bad posture. Lyme and lupus are the other possibilities.
In your case since the EMG was normal, other conditions should be looked into. Focal inflammation of the muscle or muscle myositis can also be a cause. Involvement of a single nerve or mononeuropathy due to diabetes, vasculitis, infection (leprosy), trauma, or entrapment can also be a cause. Please discuss with your treating doctor. Take care!