Question about ALS
Hello, I have a question about ALS: I have been experiencing muscle twitches for 3.5 months, some days I have none, while on others there are more. What is consistent is that it feels like small, short, painless electric shocks in both calves (with slightly more on the right side). Two months ago, an EMG was performed on the calf muscles with no abnormalities detected. Additionally, my feet often itch and sometimes burn (I also have slight visible but hardly noticeable fasciculations there). Recently, I noticed difficulty in my heel walk during a foot muscle exercise, coupled with the twitches and the 'strange feeling in the calf', it caused me considerable panic. The neurologist recently confirmed the weakness during a test and performed another EMG with potential measurements. He found no abnormalities (except for reduced NLG in/to the foot or toe). He mentioned that further investigations should follow but doesn't understand why I am in such panic/fear, as he does not see any symptoms that would warrant suspicion of ALS. My tongue has been burning for 3 days now and twitches/trembles slightly on the sides when I stick it out. I also occasionally experience a sharp pain in the back of my tongue, like a muscle pain. There are no impairments in movement, etc. Unfortunately, panic and fear of ALS have a strong hold on me. Now my question: If I have muscle weakness in the lower calf/shin (the cause of which is still to be determined - lumbar spine was ruled out by MRI), wouldn't it be atypical for ALS for me to now have problems with my tongue (I don't know if they are even problems, maybe it twitches because of the fear of death that I have been feeling for several weeks, but these pains do surprise me), right? Normally, wouldn't other muscles or adjacent muscle groups be affected first? Thank you very much for your assessment.
