Worried about ALS or MS

[Jacksoja]

Hi, my brother is 26 years old. He is in good shape and is a fire fighter. He recently just got over strep throat and then started to have muscle cramps in his arms and legs. He says it feels like he has worked out extremely hard, but he hasn't. He has twitching in his arms and legs as well. This occures about every 20 to 30 seconds. He is very tired all the time and can not walk up the stairs without being tired. He has high blood pressure but no other major medical problems. He just got his heart checked and everything came back fine with it. This has been going on for 2 weeks now. He went to the doctor and had his CPK level checked and it came back high at 437. I know normal is below 200. Everything else is fine. He can walk, talk, and see just fine and he has no problems picking anything up. There is no history of any kind of muscle disorders in our family.

He is very scared that he might have ALS,MS, or MD. I can't stand seeing him like this. Can someone respond and let me know what they think is going on.

[crackerjack4u2]

I'm sorry to hear your brother has been going through all this for so long.  It is hard to determine the exact cause without further testing, but here are some possibilities.  
If he is 100% sure the strep has been resolved-has he been recultured to determine this? then

Some things that could have occurred because of the strep throat are rheumatic fever, kidney disease, endocarditis, and my daughter went straight from strep to mono and had similar symptoms that he is describing.  Also it is possible that he could have had fibromyalgia or lupus whose onset was triggered by the strep throat.   You did not mention him running any temperature, so I'm guessing he has not been.  Is that correct?  

The possibility with any infection is for it to settle in and affect other areas, muscles, nerves, heart, kidneys, brain etc and this could be what has happened with him.  

The twitching, muscle aches, fatigue, and elevated CPK could actually be caused by the antibiotics he took, the symptoms can occur weeks after taking some antibiotics/medications.  

What antibiotics/medications was he given for his strep throat, I figuring Penicillin V, unless he is allergic to Penicillin?  

There is a disorder that is said to only occur at night when sleeping that causes the jerking/twitching every 20-40 seconds called Periodic Limb Movement Disorder, and causes the person to be very tired when awake, which sounds similar to what he is experiencing except he is having the jerking while awake or asleep.  They treat this condition with Anti Parkinson medications or hypnotics to help the person sleep.

I'm sorry I couldn't help narrow the cause down for you better.  Good Luck an Please keep us Posted on what he finds out.  

[jennyfi1234]

Is he seeing a neurologist? This is not something I am familiar with, but I would think perhaps a neurologist is the way to go.