Hi--although you cannot formally diagnose someone over the internet, I would appreciate some indication as to whether I have the early signs of ALS and what I should do. Where I live it could take 6 months to see a neurologist and the thought of having ALS is absolutely anxiety provoking to me to the point I feel I can no longer cope. Any information/insight will be most helpful---please! I cannot cope for 6 months worrying about this.
1.5 years ago I had a series of "bizarre", fluctuating symptoms over 4 months which involved some tingling in my bilateral extremeties (at different times, different limbs), scalp. It would come and go in waves; some sense of numbness on my face, heart palpatations, feeling like I had a lump in my throat, etc. In hindsight, I figured it was due to my extreme fear of flying as I had just taken a trip. All symptoms resolved within 4 months completely. Now, starting September 12 I started to have a bitter taste in my mouth, which comes and goes and doesn't seem to be as bad now, but is still present. About 2 weeks after that, I started having that "almost falling asleep" feeling in my left arm and left lower leg which came and went. Then it turned into what felt like mini, fast, twitches that you couldn't see. Most recently it turned into just fine twitches (kind of like after exercise) and have almost completely resolved. No actual weekness or functional impairments. 2 weeks ago I had a feeling of swelling under my jaw (which I've had before and goes away), but then it turned into a feeling of a lump in my throat (which would happen a couple times of day). Then, with the lump came the feeling that I wasn't swallowing properly. I can still swallow, it just didn't feel like a normal swallow. Now the lump feeling is gone, but I still have it happen where a couple or few times a day I feel like I'm not swallowing totally normal. This feeling does not happen when ingesting food or drink. I do not choke.
So...to recap...In the last 2 months I've had fluctuating symptoms of bitter taste, tingling/twitches down left arm and left lower leg and now some minor difficulty swallowing (if you can call it that). I am an anxious person although I have not been formally diagnosed with general anxiety disorder (yet).
Do I have ALS?