Anxious Feeling and Muscle Twitching

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TwilightBlade

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Hi everybody,I hate this anxious feeling, my right thigh muscle has been twitching for 3 weeks now, it's not as constant as it was, but it still twitches every day for a couple of hrs, I haven't gone to work this morning because of my anxiety. I thought it may have stopped last night, but it's just started again now. I've got the odd thumper one around my body. My doctor said she will refer me back to a neuro after all my bloods have come in, I was hoping it would have stopped and wouldn't be necessary. I've never had an EMG. Last year when I saw a neuro it was for body wide twitches and other neuro symptoms. I'm just so scared because This has been so localised for 3 weeks now. I feel like I'm just existing and not living and I have a 2 year old to look after :(
 
Wolvesbite my left thigh and knee twitched from August through to October! Only just started to calm down.I could also hit anywhere on that leg and set the twitches off and the twitches would happen whether relaxed or tense. I twitched elsewhere and had been for 7 months before but not like this. It's what sent me to the neuro. Twice I went and twice he's said no EMG you are fine.I'm 100% you are too. Xxxx
 
wolvesbite,i understand how worried you must be..i was the same when my twitching started it was localised in my left knee and it twitched 24/7 for over 2 weeks,i was out of my mind with worry,and also had a 3year old and 4month old to look after :( it then moved to my left thumb for another 2 weeks,then it started everywhere...i have read that bfs starts in one muscle[could be for weeks or months]i still worry and have days when im so anxious,but i only have little flutters here and there now..its the aches and pains now that bother me.. :( you will be fine xx
 
Hey Wolvesbite, anxiety is horrible.... Last night for no reason I started to feel really anxious and I still am feeling funny today but as I started to feel that way I rolled up my bottoms to look at my calves and they are twitching like crazy on loads of different spots and I couldn't really feel them... I felt some but that just made me more anxious ...I was more or less calm for the past 2 weeks with underlying anxieties but when it comes to a head like that its horrible. My calves are still going all over, but my tongue has been constant every day for 9 weeks or so now which is what kicked all this off..you need to try eat and get normal routine into your life to stop / reduce your worrying, I was reading about things to do and simple exercises such as sit up straight and take a deep breath in and hold it for 4 seconds and slowly exhale and repeat this about 6-10 times..This apparently helps take you body out of the fight or flight mode.I find that trying to get on with work even on the bad days actually helps me to not focus on it 100%...
 
Thanks for support. I can't talk to anyone for fear they think I'm just stupid. Although my mum understands. You read stuff on the Internet that makes you positive, for example I've just read that ALS mainly present distally, in the hands and feet, but then read some cases presenting proximally. For every good there is a bad. I know I should just stop searching. Bubbles I also have the twitch just above my knee in the same right leg as my thigh.
 
you realy need to stay off those websites wolvesbite..its just going to make you more anxious!stupidly i done it for months but have only been on this site since i joined it....
 
Quote "I've just read. ......."STOP reading things. The best thing when you feel like this is do something active like the gym or swimming - can you take yourself off to do this now? X
 
Well, as a neuro of one of our fellows said, "it is virtually anything possible in ALS experiense".Becasue you are searching for most unusual, strange and not typical stories in ALS, why do not get at least to Wikipedia and read a story of Steven Hocking?On my point of view, his story is really UNIQUE: he had failry early onset at 23 (most of onsets are after 50), and he survived for well over 50 years for now doing virtually EVERYTHING he wanted to do ever (including zero gravity flight as far as I can remember), several marriages, reputation of enfant terrible in modern physics etc. etc.Both issues (onset time and subsequent lifetime) are VERY unusual for ALS.That story should really be a highlight for all of us who are scared of ALS. Not all of us are so smart as Steven, but we may successfully utilise his policy and basic prinicple to live the fulles possible life (especially becasue he finally had ALS and still did that and we do not have it and often decide not to do this).
 
Anxiety is horrible, it makes you feel awful physically. But if you accept that it affects your body then you also need to accept that it affects your mind. 'Fight or flight' also turns off our reasoning (you don't want to reason with a tiger that is racing towards you!) and this is what I suspect is happening to you. Your anxious mind can't see that you have only a vanishingly small probability of having ALS (or of being involved in a fatal car crash in the next week, or of being struck by 'blue ice' etc).The calm, rational, objective reality is different from your own (understandably) biased analysis. I can't 'force' you to see this, but I can say that your experience is no different from hundreds of people here (and millions? around the world) who have twitching that is not in any way related to neurodegenerative conditions. I really hope you are able to feel better soon.GlowGreen.
 
GlowGreen,Yes what you say us very rational and logical. But as soon as the same twitch starts up again in the same place all that goes out my head and I feel sick and just want to sleep it away. I know I have the same irrational fears as all others on this board, I never used to worry about my health, that is until my heart failure post pregnancy, a benign ovarian tumour operated on during pregnancy and then my child diagnosed with CDH during my pregnancy scan. Very eventiful pregnancy and after birth, all of which. was rare happenings. I now have kidney disease. I eat healthy, I excercise. My heart has recovered (I'm very lucky) and yet I worry more than anything about my twitch, because Google has fuelled this anxiety. I know it has. It's an terrible thing to google but like a lot of other people focus on the minority bad. Maybe that stems from the fact I had a condition that affects 1/15000 births (still not as rare as ALS) my child's condition 1/1500 births. I just want to be free to live and enjoy my life with my daughter (whom is totally fine now btw)The last two years have been an anxiety nightmare and all I've ever said is if I didn't get physical symptoms I wouldn't worry. But I do! :( I get the physical symptoms then the anxiety comes. Or is it chicken and egg? Which came first?
 
GlowGreen,Your message totally made sense. This week I've just been diagnosed as having "acute clinical depression" I went to the doctors in a state and broke down. I'd actually gone over the thigh twitch, they ran a panel of tests, including liver panel. Which came back abnormal. abnormal for bilirubin. Being how many times I've consulted DR Google I never learn. I've gone from worrying about my twitches to worrying I have pancreatic cancer. They doctor assures me this not the case, but I always look at worst care scenario. It also goes to show that no matter what ailment you google there will always be severe life threatening causes for everything. Most of which are least likely, but people like me and many others on this board focus on the worst case, same with the twitching. I know I do this, but I can't help myself and it causes immense anxiety and stress. I blame a lot of it on google, there probably wouldn't be a quarter of people worrying about their ailments unless they really had to. I really do think people's health anxiety the cause is google! Although I have had a traumatic event previously, google has fuelled this. I and others need to think differently, but it is so much easier said than done.
 
What is good, even if you can't appreciate it now, is that you understand what the real problem is here (plenty of people don't). I don't know what country you are in but hopefully with the depression diagnosis you can now start to get some of the psychiatric support that you need.I agree with your point about Dr Google. There is a recognised condition termed FASIC (Fasciculation Anxiety Syndrome In Clinicians) because some doctors with twitches freak out that it may be ALS because they, and only they, had the medical knowledge to worry about what it might mean even if it is highly unlikely. Now we all have the medical knowledge (or think we do) due to google (other search engines are available :) ). This doesn't just apply to twitches either.Really hope you feel better soon.GlowGreen
 
Thanks GlowGreen. I thought exactly the same thing last week...re medics getting twitches when they learn about the disease, and I thought it's the same with the layman, we read too much since the medical world was opened up on the Internet. Like a doctor once said to me, it's good to educate and read about a condition....if you have it. Don't try to interpret something you think you may have just by googling. I'm in the UK. Our healthcare system has ups and downs, they saved my life 2 years after wrong diagnosis initially and could have saved me trauma from trying to breathe and collapsing, but I'm here, they saved my daughters life which must have caused thousands of pounds. So I'm grateful. So grateful. And I cannot fault my GP practice. My doctor was very thorough and said She is going to see me every week to help my state of mind and learn to think differently. She hasn't prescribed any medication because of my recent diagnosis of kidney disease and also she doesn't know what is causing this bilirubin issue, therefore she'd rather give me the therapy each week as medication for depression can have side effects in existing illness. I know the anxiety is all around my health, and I know that I if I knew for sure I had my health and will watch my daughter grow, then I know I will be happy. I wouldn't care If I was poor and lived in a shanty hut, I just think all that matters is health and family. That's all you need in my book to get by. :)
 
Hi dearbut high bilirubine can be related to twitches (it is called Gilbert sindrome) and it is pretty harmless compared to what you can imagine. It could be also increased slightly or even moderately due to any possible reason from congestion of bile caused by chronic bilial tract spasm (by the way stress promotes spastic reactions all over the body) aor just normal age-related bile ducts congestion, or whatever. Even my 20 years old daughter had that type of congestive cholecestitis. it takes her one support course per year or so.You should not think high bilirubine is the end of life and practically it is rather indicator of your bile ducts troubles than pancreas or liver problems.well my grandpa had died from pancreas cancer and believe me he was not twitching - he was vomiting, had certain pains, he become rather gaunt, but he was not twitching at all.And considering how many stresses you have for the last few years, acute clinical depression is 100 % plausible diagnosis, and it is absolutely manageable and I glad to read that you would have weekly support in that condition.Our little babies need us so much till they are 5-6, absolutely... and often their first years are full of such fears, anxiety and depression for us (I was not an exclusion, with my chronic GAD) that we can not be in real contqct with them.So I wish you good relief of your depression and fears, and you daughter's freindship would be a greatest ever reward (know that by myself however I was late with my own therpay a bit, for 10 years or so - and still, solid and less anxious mom even for 12 years old girl - it was a precious gift for both of us.Sorry for tons of words. My main message is that I am 100 % sure you would be OK and would really enjoy your daughter and the life itself. Just keep on the way.
 
Thanks ladies for your immense support and advice. I'm sorry to learn that of your grandpa Yulsir. I don't for one minute think the twitches are related to my fear of Pancreatic cancer. I had returned to my GP as I had the fear of this constant thigh twitch ( which is now feeling tender and sore it's twitched that much) and for whatever reason she ordered lots of bloods, probably standard in her eyes, one of them being a liver panel. I didn't even know they were checking my liver. I'd only ( approx 4 months ago) had a liver Panel done, which to my knowledge was normal (biliribin was slightly elevated then, but they didn't tell me) I'd had this first liver panel done because (and this is going to make me look neurotic) i knew I had it in my urine, I knew I was passing protein and when I tested it myself it showed Trace bilirubin. My GP said at the time they don't worry about trace unless it's elevated in the blood, I also noticed the sclera of my eyes when I pulled my eyelids down were yellow. But my nephrologist said this was normal from blood vessels. Anyhow my GP did mention Gilbert's, but I don't think it's this because in hAve direct bilirubin in my urine, Gilbert's raises indirect bilirubin and doesn't pass into the urine. My GP has said its "isolated rise in total bilirubin" therefore all other liver enzymes are normal, so I had to have more tests today so they can differentiate/fraction out between indirect bilirubin and direct. I'm hoping its indirect. As direct would point to possible blockage of the common duct, which is where I am getting my pancreatic cancer fear from. As for my daughter, we are best friends, she is my soul mate and we need each other. All I ask for is to be in her life till she is Middle Aged! Thank you for your kind advice and wise words, I know where my mind needs to be, but it's hard getting there and trying to rationalise things.
 

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