saltandpepper
Member
If you've seen any of my posts over the past few weeks, you would see I've been worried about what everyone here is worried about! My twitching started in my thumb 6 weeks ago, Googled it and subsequently freaked out, where it then spread to my entire body within a week and finally to my face/throat/tongue about 3 weeks ago. Anyways, I've been through periods of on and off anxiety (probably more on than off) and have had lots trouble sleeping at night: both of these factors I'm sure did not make ANYTHING better. Oh, and did I mention I'm 8 months pregnant? so, not great timing for all of this to say the least. I will say, the times I felt the best was after spending a numerous amount of time on this board - posting, reading replies, searching for others who have gone through the same thing, etc....this site has talked me off the full meltdown ledge many times! Words cannot express my gratitude to everyone. The thing I was most concerned with throughout this was bulbar...mainly bc I was getting a twitching feeling in the tongue and ALL over my face...very disconcerting.Anyways, I went to the neuro a week ago and had a clean clinical which eased my mind for a few days but knowing that the only thing that would fully put my mind at ease would be a clean clinical PLUS a clean EMG (even though that part is debatable - I should have been fine with the clean clinical but anxiety is a b*tch) so I decided to request one. Once the appointment was scheduled, I went it to full-on anxious mode and felt like everything was getting so much worse: was feeling fatigued after chewing/talking a lot, if I choked - which happened once or twice - I freaked, felt like food wasn't going down as easily, felt like speech was more difficult to get out, my tongue looked worse than it did the week prior, ETC.....FULL ON ANXIETY which reached it's apex last night most likely b/c I was convinced I would receive a death sentence today....not a fun feeling.Which brings me to my EMG this morning - - no evidence of ALS whatsoever! MAJOR WHEW!!!!!!! The doc tested many different areas in my leg, arm and tongue (though he was reluctant about the tongue as he thought should be very reassured that I don't have it by now! He said it would be fairly very obvious by looking/talking to me if I had Bulbar onset but understood that I needed to get that area tested to ease my mind). Anyways, he did see some muscle irritability in a few muscles (nothing concerning but good to know I'm not 100% crazy) and said it was BFS (asked me if I wanted some materials on it but I was like "Oh, I know all about it!" - he even mentioned the mayo clinic study where people who twitch have not gone on to get ALS!). He suggested I take Magnesium supplements (my blood work said I was on the lower side of normal), cut out all Caffeine and try drinking gatorade(!) for electrolyte replenishment to help with it. So with the clean clinical and EMG, I am going to now get back to living my life and focusing on enjoying the remainder of my pregnancy - god knows I've wasted a month with this already and that's quite enough. Thanks to all of you (and more) who have helped me to get through this - you guys have truly been my saving grace, you have no idea what this support meant to me over the past few weeks. My neuro mentioned that he sees many people like me who have twitching all over who next proceed to Google it and end up in his office - I only pray that those people find this site and realize that BFS is a VERY REAL but BENIGN condition. Stay well everyone!Emily
) Good for you Enjoy your pregnancy and have a good time with the baby and hopefuly everything clears-up after baby is born (my wife had Gestational diabetes but as soon as baby was born gone, or bodies play some strange tricks on us).