CanadianChick
Member
Hi everyone!I found this website yesterday afternoon and it has been stopping me from going into full blown panic.I am a 45 year old woman who is very active (I run many races, including half marathons), a full time teacher, and mother of 2 boys. I am also more anxious than the average person and a bit of a hypochondriac.At the beginning of March, I started to get a very annoyong twitch under my right eye. I dismissed it as fatigue (I have had twitches in the past, all of them have gone away within 2 weeks and all of them had been in a single location).After 2 weeks of under eye twitching, I googled ''muscle twitch'' and yes, you guessed it, I read that twitching was often the first sighn of ALS. Although scared, I tried to rationalized the situation and even found a name for the prolongued eye twiching. But then, about 3 weeks into the whole thing, I started twitching in other parts of my body. About 98% of the twitches are single and random ones, anywhere on my body (back, stomach, legs, feet...you name it).Some days I barely twitch and some others I twitch like crazy.About 5 weeks into this (this week), I started to feel a weird sensation on the side of my left foot (and leg), something like a buzzing. I also started feeling some pins and needles in my hands and feet, but it went away. On Thursday evening (April 5th), I had a headache and when I went to bed, the pins and needles in my legs were intense. They were the same (p & n)when I woke up on Good Friday. I started going into panic mode and called a friend of mine who is a nurse practitioner. She told me that yes, the symptoms that I have were those of scary diseases but the fact that I am a runner, anemic and that I train hard could be that I have a vitamin deficiency (like B12) or a calcium one. I calmed down a bit but I got more and more panicky throughout the day. I was supposed to go see a movie with hubby in the afternoon but being in full panic mode and not being able to function, I told my husband that I needed to go to emerg. Having dealt with my hypochondriacness and anxiety in the past, he was understanding.After a couple of hours of waiting (yes, lucky...we have 2 hospitals in my city and one for non traumas), I saw a very nice intern and I told him my story from beginning to end. He looked at me straight in the eyes with a smile and said: ''I promess you that you don't have ALS. I was very surprised (and happy since that promess was the last thing that I expected) and I stood up, gave him a hug and told him ''Thank you! I love you!''. 
He went on to consult with the attending physician who came back to talk to me and told me the same thing: ALS present itself differently. I need to go see my family doctor next week and get blood workup. He also suggested that other things can cause what I have (diabetes, Graves disease, auto-immune disorder).I got back home all happy, hugged my family and told them that I was goingto be around for a long time. All was good until yesterday. The pins and needles were very intense but so were the twitching in my feet. I went into full panic mode again. What if the pins and needles were non stop twitching? What if I am getting worse and indeed have the dreaded disease. (I ran 5 km in the morning and felt great. Anytime I move, the pin and needles sensations stop and I have very less twitching). I looked at my feet and I noticed that they were indeed twitching on and off. So I went back on the internet and found a name for what I had and fortunately this website.Last night, when in bed, I was twitching all over. I have been very stressed out this week and I will try to come down so hopefully the symptoms will lessen.Does it sound like BFS? Although reassured, I am still scared.Happy Easter everyone!
He went on to consult with the attending physician who came back to talk to me and told me the same thing: ALS present itself differently. I need to go see my family doctor next week and get blood workup. He also suggested that other things can cause what I have (diabetes, Graves disease, auto-immune disorder).I got back home all happy, hugged my family and told them that I was goingto be around for a long time. All was good until yesterday. The pins and needles were very intense but so were the twitching in my feet. I went into full panic mode again. What if the pins and needles were non stop twitching? What if I am getting worse and indeed have the dreaded disease. (I ran 5 km in the morning and felt great. Anytime I move, the pin and needles sensations stop and I have very less twitching). I looked at my feet and I noticed that they were indeed twitching on and off. So I went back on the internet and found a name for what I had and fortunately this website.Last night, when in bed, I was twitching all over. I have been very stressed out this week and I will try to come down so hopefully the symptoms will lessen.Does it sound like BFS? Although reassured, I am still scared.Happy Easter everyone!
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!Bref, just to say your are in the good place here ! BobJazzy or other people in that forum give more assurances ! I'm in that nightmare since 9 month, but now I try to relativize.. it's hard, but if doctors says no, there nothing to care about ! believe me !The one thing most important is to try to manage your anxiety !!see ya !