Symptoms of ALS?

I am 45 years old.  I have been having strange symptoms for 4 years now.  I have been seeing a neurologists since then.  I have so many symptoms, that I think their confused.  I hope you can help me.  In 2004, I had left sided numbness and tingling.  At that time they thought I was having TIA's.  After that with an MRI they found that the bones in my neck were deteriorating.  They did surgery.  I have migraines(?) for the last 2 years on my right side.  Then I was having right shoulder pain, right rib pain and bilateral hip pain.  Now I have muscle tension at the base of my skull, shoulders, chest, and back.  I am now having problems with breathing with all this tension.  On sat and wed. I also had the left sided tingling and weakness again with my left leg giving out time to time.  Last night my whole body felt numb and I was having difficulty breathing.  Are these symptoms of als?

[Abhijeet Deshmukh, MD]

Hello.

If you think of the symptoms individually, they do hint towards ALS. But I am still not convinced.

Have you got an MRI of the entire spine ? Deteriorating bones may be the degenerative disease. Is it the bones or the discs ?

Have you gone through the usual investigations of EMG, NCV etc. ?

Regards

[Wildcatman]

Just curious doctor, but I am failing to see any symptom in this initial post that indicates ALS...Tingling and muscle tension are generally not thought to be indicative of ALS are they?  It has always been my understanding that MND would present more with weakness and wasting and no real sensory symptoms.  I would think that breathing difficulty related to ALS (bulbar) would have to be associated also with dystharia and dyphagia.  Is that not correct?

Thanks

[concernedandscared]

I have been trying to get my neurologist to get an MRI of the entire spine.  To this day he has not done that.  Today, I went for a brain MRI to r/o TIA's.  I will see my neurologist on MON.  I do have the hyper gag reflex also, to the answer for Wildcatman.  I always feel like Im choking and going to vomit.  My neurologist did tell me that my muscles and bones are deteriorating but he doesn't know why.

[Abhijeet Deshmukh, MD]

Hello.

You are correct. That is why I am not convinced. Tingling is not a known symptom. It is primarily a motor neuron problem. But there are patients who have complained of tingling while they have other symptoms of ALS, like shortness of breath, mainly due to a low oxygen level.

In such cases, you have to keep a possibility and then rule it out, to be safe.

Regards

[Abhijeet Deshmukh, MD]

Hello.

How was your appointment with the Neurologist ? Did he ask for a whole spine MRI ?

Please keep me posted.

Regards