muscle twitching and hand pain

[soworried146]

Hi there -

I am writing in hope of some clarification and comfort.  About 3 months ago, I noticed a muscle twitch right above my left knee.  By the next day, the twitching seemed to spread all over - my calf, butt, stomach, arms, eye, etc.  Most of the twitches, except the one above the knee, were pretty random.  The one above the knee was constant whenever I was lying down, sitting down, or standing still.  (The only excepting to this was for about 2 days when the knee twitch stopped and an eye twitch took over).  At the same time, my thigh above that knee felt very sore and tight, like I had kinked up a muscle.  I am moderately active and it kept hurting for about three weeks.  Then, after a good work-out (my first one involving weights since the pain started), the pain stopped (at the time, I did cardio, used weight machines and did deep stretches).  Meanwhile, the twitches continued.  Someone suggested that I try magnesium.  I started taking about 750 mg/day and it seems to have helped a lot - the twitches are down from over 100x per day to probably just 10 or so.  And the knee twitch happens rarely now.

I saw my doctor early on.  He said that I was stressed (I recently started a new, very demanding job), and told me to go do yoga.  While that reassured me that my balance was okay and that my muscles were strong, it did not help with the twitching.  So, I made an appointment with a different doctor.  That doctor said that my thyroid seems a bit underactive (my TSH was around 4.0, which the lab does not call underactive, but the doctor does).  She said that over-active thyroid is more likely to cause twitching than underactive, but that it is possible the thyroid caused the problem.  So now I am on a small dose of synthroid.

Here's the problem - since the beginning of the twitching and my huge mistake to surf the internet, I have been terrified of ALS.  After my leg muscle felt better and has shown no signs of weakness, I was not as worried.  I was especially not as worried when the magnesium seemed to reduce the twitches from an insane amount to a relatively non-noticable amount.  But now, for about the past two weeks, my hand has been hurting.  Specifically, the base of my thumb hurts and feels sore.  It also feels as though I cannot stretch my thumb as far from my other fingers as on my other hand.  The muscle between my thumb and index finger shows no sign of wasting; it's actually more plump than on the other hand.  Also, when I pick heavy things up (like a carton of juice), sometimes I get a sharp pain in my wrist, and this pain sometimes extends into my hand.  Last, my pinky feels quite stiff in the morning and, although it feels better through the day, does not feel all better.

Other random strange things include - about three weeks ago, I was cleaning under my couch and when I tried to grab something, I felt a zing through my middle right finger.  Last, sometimes, right after the back of my left thigh twitches, my left foot feels like it is falling asleep.  

So, here's my question - how scared should I be of ALS?  If it was something like that, would the place that originated the twitching have stopped twitching and stopped being sore?  Is the hand pain I am feeling consistent with ALS?  Is the stiff pinky?  

I'm so scared I can hardly function.  All I want is to be healthy so I can be with my kids and take care of them.

Thanks.