Hi TDBM,
It is not a matter of hating you; I don't think anyone on this board hates you, or even dislikes you for that matter. It does get old though rehashing the same things over and over again.
It really doesn't matter who said what on which board, it is all anecdotal information. There is a huge difference between an EMG which doesn't show anything specific and a normal EMG. What patients perceive (and quite possibly even what their doctor told them) was a "clean" EMG, may in fact be one which showed nonspecific changes that could not be diagnosed as anything at that time. Remember that it takes fairly strict criteria to diagnose ALS. There have been several accounts of patients taking 18 months or more, requiring multiple EMGs to actually be diagnosed with ALS. I have even read of one account of a patient that had twitches for 4 years before developing weakness. His EMG however, was abnormal from the first time he was tested. It was not abnormal enough to diagnose him with anything specific, but it was clearly not normal!
In my opinion, we should restrict ourselves on this board to information that is verifiable, not anecdotal stories from people we don't even know. We have already had one instance on this board of someone telling us they were diagnosed with ALS when it was not true. Remember this is the internet and I'm sure that you can find people out there that will support or not support any theory you wish them to!
I can tell you that I have searched (on medline) every major medical/neurological journal available for verification of the theory you speak of "Clean EMG followed by development of ALS". Medline is a search engine that looks at thousands of medical journals from all over the world going back to 1966. Do you know how many hits I got, ZERO! I have done this on more than one occasion and have used various catch phrases. I can not find even one instance of this ever happening, anywhere. You would think a reportable event such as this would be listed somewhere if it has ever happened! Now I'm not saying that it has never happened; all I'm saying is that I have never found evidence that it has. If you can cite a reputable journal article that shows different, please do so!
There are however several sources cited on this board and elsewhere that agree that a "normal" neurologic exam (No atrophy, hyperreflexia or weakness) and a "normal" EMG in a patient means no ALS period!