Follow-up Neuro Appt.: All Normal!

Just back from neurologist. Was having a follow-up, but since still experiencing some pains, tremor, what-not in my left arm, he went ahead and did an EMG of the arm.It was normal. So, that's CT, 2 MRI's, EEG and now EMG...all GOOD!He said I had benign fasciculation and that I should keep caffeine and cheese(?) levels low. Oh well. I guess getting used to having some odd benign "feelings" is better than any of the feared outcomes! Just gotta get used to the idea that "I'm OK!" Anyone know how long THAT takes?

CHEESE!!!!! But I love cheese Ed !!!!!!! D*mn it man, whats up with cheese???? Congrats friend on the clean this and that. Always makes you frustrated that we feel all this garbage but the test never show a d*mn thing. But I will take a benign condition and negative test results over the alternative any day ) Take care EdRobynn )

Right on! SO pleased to hear and thank you for sharing. Just curious to know how many needle sticks into your arm.

I think 6 or 7 needle sticks. When the muscle was at rest, just a nice straight line, vs when he had me move it around/tense, etc. There were some other "touches" that were done, not with a needle, more like a "dull tuning fork" around my wrist/forearm, area. The needle was only in my bicep (I think as that's the area I tend to experience the most pain).He placed some electrode-like things on my palms for some of the poking and then placed some "rings" on my pinky for a few and on my index finger for a few.Oh, and my left arm is still noticeably HYPOreflexive (not HYPER) compared to my right, though he feels it's not troubling (to HIM, anyway!)I am disappointed (with myself!) that I am not jumping for joy about my results.I KNOW I should be I DO NOT want to be (in my head) going, "But it's still happening, maybe he tested wrong, blah blah blah."I do not LIKE that guy and I don't want to be that guy!

Cmon, its great news, if you ever had a doubt, you can now cast those doubts aside, no ALS!! Very good. I am excited for you, and you should be too. Pop open a bottle of champange and celebrate, but don't hurt your arm doing so, please laugh here. ) Sincerely JoggingCub

ED, why cheese?? Did he say why no cheese??

Thanks, Running Bear And Robynn!IDK about the cheese. I don't even eat that much to start with.Does anyone know if my EMG procedure sounds "right" (whatever THAT means). Should he have checked another side or another limb or anything? I guess I should have asked while I was there.

This is a common question when someone does not get a full EMG. A lot of neuros will go for the area that you are the most symptomatic, and if its clean, then they see no need to do more. When I went for mine, my neuro only did my legs because thats where the majority of my symptoms were. I asked him how many needle sticks I had to have and he said depends if my legs told him anything or not, they didnt so he stopped after 8 sticks in all.With ALS, where ever the most damage has occured first is going to be were symptoms show first. If your arm is were your symptoms are worse, and if it was due to ALS then your emg would have shown dirty. It didnt so your neuro saw no reason to move on. Does this make sense I hope )

Yes! That makes the BEST kind of sense--- the kind that actually makes me feel better! Thank you for that!

Well good, glad to hear it, because that was my intention ) Take care Ed, Robynn )

Fast forward a few hours. Gone is my usual humor I try to bring to this.What the h3ll is wrong with me?!? By all accounts, I should doing the happy dance, but I am somehow just about as anxious as I was when this whole thing started in mid-December. And this is AFTER all these good test results, AFTER learning that what's going on with me is so unlikely to be serious as to be ridiculous, and AFTER all the helpful info and support I have found here.So, after a good EMG, what am I doing? Sitting here looking at the muscle in between my thumb and forefinger b/c my left hand is bothering me, and I am "sure" the left hand is diminished (of course it is-- I'M RIGHT handed. What a jackass...).I'm finding myself questioning the thoroughness of the tests today, the Dr.'s abilities, and feeling extremely anxious. Makes NO SENSE whatsoever to me. If I was talking to me, I'd grab me by the shoulders and shake--hard. Why is it shard to accept all of the good findings while easily embracing the (highly unlikely) bad things.I am sad and fed up with myself at the same time and I can't even crack wise about it.

Hi Ed- I'm sitting here feeling prickly all over and have just about had it. I'm looking up doctors on my insurance plan to see who I may not have already tried. I feel pathetic too. I know I have anxiety issues but I am on meds for that and I am still tempted to wean off of those to see if any of this cr.p gets better. Like you, the initial rush of good test results wore off fast for me but we just have to try and stay positive. Jenn

That's the evil anxiety taking hold of you. I do the same thing, although after almost 6 years of twitching, my anxiety convinces me I have different diseases now. If you step back and review your case pretending it is someone elses, then the only conclusion is that you are insane to think there is even an iota of a chance you have a nasty disease.

It is what anxiety does Ed, but that being said, once your anxiety threshold has been crossed so to speak, your entire nervous system becomes over stimulated. Once this has occured, all bets are off when it comes to symptoms that your body can produce, your nervous system just begins to miss fire. Also, when your nervous system has been over stimulated..you also begin to FEEL more anxious because things are stuck in high gear so to speak. So some of your anxiety is not totally your fault. Once you start to feel more anxious, you then get more symptoms, or the symptoms you are already having can become more intense, then thats when you start to worry the docs or tests have missed something, then more anxiety and apprehension follows. Welcome to the ever sucky world of health anxiey/BFS/. It is truly a demon from h*ll.Please, please, do not do this to your self. You can trust your doctor, and your clean tests and clinical exam, they all scream you have nothing sinister, you can trust that, and you can trust us. You are fine, you are going to be fine, you are not dealing with a nasty Ed, I promise you that.We are here when you need usYour friend Robynn ) P.S. Read this more than once, make it stick )

You're stressing about the big " what if". I have gone through this scenario with someone else on communitys so here goes. 30,000 people have ALS in the US and 1500 diagnosed annually. The vast majority of those are knocked off by neuros while walking in the room ( this isn't my opinion, its fact, ask a neuro or google if you doubt it). Lets exaggerate and say 50% of als people sneak buy the physical exam and demand an EMG( which is far from reality). Now lets say, because they are a little harder to sneak past( like extremely hard) exaggerating again at 20%. Your at 150 people a year( it's probably more like 20 people but lets just say) .Now, there are 307 million people in the US( give or take a few) so your odds are 1:204,600,000 that this is you, even with our gross exaggerations. Now, 11,000,000 - 18,000,000 people have or have had at some time a conversion disorder(stress related symptom type illness), 300,000 - 400,000 have MS, 15,000,000 have Fibromyalgia and a whopping 20-30 million have anxiety severe enough to affect their everyday lives and cause physical symptoms ( watch TV ads for SSRI's, they wouldn't advertise if there was no market). So, how close is that "what if" looking now. I know it's hard to rationalize when dealing with fear and anxiety but dude come on. You are wasting time worrying about something that your about as likely to have as I am winning the lottery....…Twice! Rejoice man, you're okay.