Signs of ALS: Panic and Pain?

I'm so mad at myself. I'm back to being a lunatic and am having panic attacks related to als. I've been having joint pain for about 6 months, wrists, elbows, fingers really stiff when I wake up. U never knew joint pain was a sign of als. I read this today. Is this true? Still no weakness, daily twitching still. In freaked out!!!

Holy crap Violet! Suppose you may find as well that sneezing is a sign of ALS. Internet is really unlimited field of veird knowledge.ALS people of course may have pains in joints because their joints do not work. But sorry to remind this again, CLINICAL PICTURE of ALS to differentiate it from any other neuromuscular disorders is rapid loss of muscle strength in one or several extremities accompanied with very speicifc change in reflexes and on EMG. Not pain in the joints. not tremors and even in vast majority of cases not fasciculations.As I said before, morning stiffness in fingers, wrist and elbow is quite standard and prominent sign of chronic nerve trauma and inflammation due to repeated load. If you read about carpal tunnel syndrome, you'd find many reports related to mostly diary milkers whos standard complain for professional disease was that hands are bloody stiff in the morning but during the day they feel better. Morning stiffness is also a symptome of rheumathoid artritis but I suppose you had seen rheumathologist and that was excluded (if I did not mess up some personal stories). But really it is not a distinctive symprom of neurodegenartive diseases as ALS. It only may accompany some clear paralysys which is definitely not your case.

I know... I have a lot of sympathy to you however I may talk a bit in a harsh way. But it is so clear that you are sad, stressed, etc. and it is a condition when you need external help to get out of the circle. I do not know how I may help you - just reaassure again that you do not have ALS because your symptomes match absolutely 100% another condition...

From what I gather MND is not sensory, I have read an article in the web saying that if pain is present, it points far from an MND diagnosis.

Thank you both for replies. It is so hard. I read on here and feel reassured. But then I read countless stories on als forums about twitching being first symptom. Aldo typed in joint pain today and als popped up. I know I should stop reading but like most people on here, I just want answers. I want to know what is correct. Are emg's always right like I read here? Or can you have many clean ones before it finally shows up like I read elsewhere. Can twitching come first? Even on mayo and web md websites it lists twitching as a possible first symptom. I also read here that you woukd know if you had it, there is no guessing, but then I read that it can be a slow gradual thing that is often missed because of the slight symptoms. All I know is I'm terrified, nothing is helping, not Xanax, not zoloft, not the Internet, not my dr., I just want answers.

Joint pain is a symptom of candida overgrowth, a side effect of leaky gut syndrome (LGS). The gut is tied to the immune system, nervous system, and everything in between. If you want answers consider seeing an alternative medicine doc who has experience with LGS so you can at least rule that out. And if you do have it, well it pretty much will explain every crappy symptom you are having and it is treatable.

Violet, noticeable twitching before weakness is possible in about 4 % percent of all cases of ALS. But there was also a study inolving such rare ALS patients and just twitchers demonstrating that people with preceding anxiety and sterss disorder patterns rather twicht and that is all. It does not mean that person with anxiety syndrome is therefore protected from ALS - but it means that prolonged twitches in the presense of severe and obvious stress without weakness ARE NOT poibting to ALS and do not involve subsequent risk of having ALS.Should one persone would do countless EMG, there is always a chance that he or she would have a picture like you said - fisrt 'countless' EMG, then paralysis. But practically you see here for example absolutely different picture. Practically no one of our fellows even with 6 or 8 clean EMG did not got ALS but all of them got severe obsessive disorders... From the stories I read in my owm bad times I practically found that people ususally had misinterpreted EMG (suspicious signs were underestimated) - but those stories were rather of several years old, and now EMGs are in vast majority interpreted statistically by software which significantly decrease chances for missing any suspicious signals.What answers do you want? What is going on with you? We do not know, as we are not doctors and we are remote persons. have you visited a surgeon? have you excluded carpal tunnes syndrome which mingt be one of the suggested dxs with your symptomes of pain and morning stifness? have you seen rheumathologist and excluded arthritis? Are you compliant with taking xanax and zoloft (never miss a pill, adhere to dosage, etc.)? Dont you also take simultaneously some meds decreasing efficiency of antidepresnts or SSRI? You should also know that neither xanax, nor zoloft are not only anxiolitic and antidepressant, and no one of those meds is a magic pill wich may make you forget about your fears. If you feel like ALS is everywhere and there is no certain answer in your world (and it looks like you need this one 100% certain answer whcih no one can give you because chances are still chances) - then you need a specialist to talk about fears making deep roots in you. You'd my be surprised a lot regarding what are REAL needs which are manifested as constant fears of having ALS.However would be possible descriptions of ALS, it always ends up with clear symptomes. And prodromal period does not last for long. And paralysis comes and this is the only definite diagnosis. That symptome can not be missed, but do you want to spend your life waiting for that one certain symptome? Especially in case of disease which for now can not be neither prevented nor treated? What is the point then to be worried with possible or impossible "slight symptomes' if they can not warn you to take any actions? it is about like to be worry about every wrinkle on your face because it is a clear symptome of old age coming and imminent death from aging (which also can not be cured not reverted). Tell yourself then that we all will die sooner or later, that is the only definite answer we can be sure about, and that is our curse and our blessing - we never know the final day.I have a friend who is a psychiatrist herself, and she has real spinal troubles leading her to two surgeries and partial loss of leg function (she walks and even does not limp significantly, thanks to long term rehabilitation courses, but her leg is partly clinically weak by EMG etc.) Right yesterday she complains in her blog that she has unclear bouts of weakness and therefore she does not know what to do. When I asked her why she did not come to neuros, she said: "I am not sure if my weakness is not perceived. I need some definite loss to go to neurosurgeon, otherwise with any vague symptomes it would be just pointless". Remember she has REAL impairment, and she still need more practical impairment to go to neurologist for possible diagnosis. And as a practical psychiatrist she knows well that stress can make alot of grey zome symptomes.I wish I could say as a profet: VIOLET! I AN SPEAKING BY HIGHER POWER AND YOU DO NOT HAVE ALS AND NEVER WILL!!!!But I an just a human being. I have cramps. I have perseived weakness in my hands. I have a hell of morning tingles in them. I make my living earnings really by hands and I am constantly afraid that one day they can say - hey yulia too much load bye bye. I am the same as you - the only difference is that after several years of speaking therapy I managed to make choices like I did - never ever wait for the doom day because it will come once. Well, then I will do all what is necessary - cry, go throug 5 stages of grief, take meds if possible, write a will, etc. But before that definite day I would hope for better and live my life and do my daily walks and try to optimise my diet and my schedule - in other words I will live a full life as much as possible.You are the only person to make such or similar decision for yourself.We can not help in that.With a great sympathyYulia

Do yourself a favor and stop reading those sites. Sometimes ignorance is bliss, at least in our case. By the way, I have finger joint pain that comes and goes.You'll be fine. Take care!J.

Violet, first of all, stop searching the internet because dr. Google will give you what you are looking for.As for wanting answers: I've been there too but I made the decision to stop searching for answers. It has no use and it only feeds your negative thoughts. As Yulia said, we don't know when our time will come, we DO know one day we'll have to go. So our choice is to live that time in anxiety or enjoying life to the fullest. I've chosen the second option, and yes I still have flare ups, I do have (morning) stiffness, joint pain, tingling etc..... but that's the way it is. Blessings, Fjordian

I have to chime in here as well. I have sporadic joint pain (in the same place, my left thumb/wrist) that comes and goes.Do you realize how common joint pain is? Especially as you age.So, I googled joint pain and &LS did NOT come up (at least on the first page). I even googled joint pain and muscle twitching and &LS still didn't come up (peripheral neuropathy, fibromyalgia, etc. came up). I didn't dig deep into this, like continue past page 1, and I don't need to. You could google joint pain and probably awful, awful things come up. But, realistically - think of all the people you might know with joint pain. Would you ever think they have a neurodegenerative disease? It's so silly. And someone here pointed out that most neuros would take pain as a sign away from &LS instead of towards it.You can find anything you want to with Dr. Google, trust me. I've done it. I'm the typical cyberchondriac that consults Dr. Google all the freakin' time and I am trying to stop (except for the example above). If there are 10 diagnoses related to your symptom, you are going to focus on the one that is very bad.And, yes I think there are people with &LS who twitched before weakness - like Gracely said - a very, very small percentage. And if they did, I would venture to say, weakness followed very quickly afterwards.If you're concerned about joint pain - go see a rheumatologist. Not a neurologist. That doesn't even make sense.Mitra

I just wanted to point out another thing, VioletsMom.Muscle twitching is not just a) benign with no underlying reason or b) &LS. There are lots and lots and lots of reasons that people's muscles twitch. You could google perimenopause/hormones and muscle twitching, you'll find tons of posts there from various support groups. Or you could google fibromyalgia and muscle twitching and you'll find lots of and lots of hits, etc.So much of our problem is we're focused on just one horrible disease, and not the multiple other conditions that can cause this.If it makes you feel better - just google muscle twitching and anxiety, and then you'll get a heck of a lot of hits on google.But, honestly, you ought to just stay off of google.Mitra