When should i be alarmed of my growing symptoms.

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I am a 36 year old former carpenter who no longer has the ability to have a normal day w/o my medication of 120 mg of ms-cotin. I am unable to walk, sit up, and do much less of anything else with out it. also it helps to kill the pain that the muscle cramps continue to make my life a living hell.
Also i have loss of sensation on my face, arms, legs, and ofcourse my hands. I am also having difficulty w/ swallowing and keeping my balance at times. Spascisisty of muscles are beginning to show.
If i was to stop taking my pain meds, my legs would not be able to get me any further than thirty feet, untill they would completly give out at some point.
Also my hands and arms will cramp up after a few minutes of holding a book.
At this time, i have not had to many episodes of twitching of muscles yet, in fact in my case the twitches have been rare.
One other thing that i have noticed is that the tone of muscles are greatlty deminished and that there are areas of loss.
There is no doubt that something has gone wrong with me and that as i look back at what i was able to do a year ago, i now can not wash the truck any more nor can can i do much less of any physical activity anymore.
One last symtom that i have just developed over the last few months, is that it has become harder to catch my breath now if i was to climb the stairs, or walk to the mailbox.
One last thing is that i have csf fluid consistantly leaking from my nose and that i am also having headaches from time to time, probally because of the increaced intercranial pressure that has been going on.
My main question is, from what i have just told you, do i have any of the characteristics of ALS, and if so when should i be alarmed, because i know it has only been a year since this all started, and that it could be anything right?
Thank you for your reply when it comes.

[Quixotic1]

Who is treating you with high-dose narcotics, but is not helping you find out why your function is dropping?  You need neurological help immediately!  

A note of clarification about testing the CSF:  The belief that CSF can be reliably tested for by testing for glucose has been dispelled.  In testing CSF rhinorrhea in people with CONFIRMED CSF leak it has been shown that a positive test is wrong about 30% of the time and a negative test is wrong about 40% of the time.  The "gold standard" (only reliable test) is currently felt to be analysis for the enzyme transferrin-beta2.

Best of luck, Quix

[Sherrizim]

I agree with patsy10, if you aren't seeing a neurologist, you should be!

I don't know anything about ALS, so I can't help there.

What is your current diagnosis?  And when did the CSF leak from your nose start relative to your other symptoms?  Did you experience any head trauma before it started?

A note about the glucose test: If it's negative, that pretty much rules out CSF.  False positives are high, though, since nasal mucus secretions also contain glucose.

I hope the best for you in the future.

[patsy10]

Also, loss of sensation is not part of ALS either.

[patsy10]

Have you seen a physician for this???  If not, you should immediately. Some of it sounds like ALS but increased intracranial pressure is not consistent with ALS.  How do you know there is spinal fluid leaking from your nose?  Did you have the glucose strip done to the fluid?  This is not consistent with ALS either.  I sure hope you have seen a neurologist.