EMG Results: No ALS Detected

Highlights Only
R

Resilientgirl

Well-known member
Hello all ,I went to a neurologist today and had an emg done on 3 extremities and no active denervatuon has been detected. The neuro ruler out ALS completely and said that's not the problem. However he did see some motor neuron abnormalities and thought that it was due to poli when a child (viral infection ) and its fingerprint of this version is going on but I don't remember I had poli as a child. My fear is when I asked about BFS. he said this is not ny case. For 8 month I was hoping it is bfs I was told by two other neurologist that it is bfs but the third neuro said it might be SAM SPINAL MUSCUKAR ATROPHY and recommended a blood work to rule it out. They test some type of protein it is a genetic testing. I am very worried now about SAM. Is it possible that my symptoms are SAM RELATED. I hav been crying all day. Please I need your support. How ma y of you have been given this possibility and if any had this test done. Can anyone explain to me what is SAM. does it kill. I know it kills babes but on my case he said if I have SAM IT WOUKD NOT PROGRESS TO ANYTHING but I have been reading that it will cause disability weakness atrophy in limbs and death.Please I need your support
 
There seems to be a trend in human nature that we latch onto the worst possible scenario, no matter how slim the chances of it coming to fruition, and we obsess over it as though we are planning on it being inevitable. I know because I was there, and I see it in so many of these posts. We seek reassurance from anyone willing to listen hoping that it will calm our fears. The honest truth is that you are the origin of your fears and you are the only one that can move on from them. People can post and tell you their similar stories and tell you that everything is going to be alright, but ultimately it is you that decides to either hang on to your fears or move on and let them go. Constantly seeking external sources for validation or reassurance is a bit of a trap, because you will always come back for more later when the next event triggers more fear.The solution lies within. When you don't let 'what is' determine your happiness, you are truly empowered to live your life to its fullest. You control your happiness and no one else. We give this power away almost too freely to external circumstances and other people. We allow them to impact our state of being. When you reclaim this power, you are empowered. Everyone knows anxiety is a driver of their symptoms but they also feel powerless to do anything about it. Realize this connection and look within. There is a knowing within you that has always been there, perhaps forgotten and overshadowed with all the dramas and excitement of our daily lives. This knowing is a part of your very soul. You are now and always will be just fine, but you've forgotten and lost sight of this. Fear is very powerful when we give it that power. But it is powerless when you reconnect with this inner voice. Hopefully you will be willing to do the work necessary to find yours and reconnect with it. We all leave this Earthly plane at some point, but the terms under which we do so are far more in our power than most realize. Find your inner peace and reclaim your power. We often look for complicated answers to complex problems, but the true solution is commonly quite simple when you boil it down. Take care and good luck. You will be fine!
 
Not being a doctor I can tell only that I read recently a blog of a 20 yo girl suffering SMA from the childhood - she is not dying but she is really disabled and has significant vital troubles because her muscles can not hold her spine on (severest scoliosis endangering normal heat work). BUT: she has that since the childhood, and it was slowly progressing for over 20 years.I doubt SMA can strike an adult person out of the blue as ALS does.as for polyomyelitis: thanks to vaccine, it could be any episode of diarrhoea in spring-summer-early autimn season in your childhood, especially if there vere epidemic cases. It does not always manifest as child paralysis even without vaccination, but if you had a vaccination, then maximum you could have would be mostly fever and leaky guts for a while however virus still loves neural tissues and could dmamge them a bit too.I would suggest you not to get to the panic mode, because anyway neither of us (with several exclusions only) seem to be knowlegeable enough to imagine why your third doctor told you that possible you have SMA or explain this diagnosis to you, but please remember that if you lived safely till now, then therer are many chances that you'd live well decades after, and especially because even your doctor told you that your consition most probably (if ever it exists in you) would be non progressive. I suppose your doctor is not a complete idiot to frighten a patient with idea of having severe inherent muscular disorder and then telling to you that it would be Ok like if you'd be a little baby. probably the thigs are really like that^ you may have some non-ALS neural damage (some of our fellows have that) and it would not progress to anything sinister. Do the test and then you'd be able to stay on much more solid ground (I mean it is highly probable that you do not have anything sisnister).
 
Thank you both for being kind enough to take the time out of your busy schedule to write me back I am not on here to get an external reassurance. All I wanted to learn more about SMA since the doctor had mention it today. I didn't want to make the same mistake and google. I wanted to see if any of you has ever heard of it. The doctor told me its not ALS and rules it out completely. Fasiculation were notes in calves muscle during Needle emg it manifested as a popping sound however there was no denervation he then told me that I do not suffer a chronic disease He said I could have lost some muscle fibers due to a motor neuron damage but its not progressing. Would SAM show up on emg as denervation I forgot to ask him. He didn't confirm I have SAM but recommended the blood work that take one full month to come back. I am very confused I m back to this fear cycle. How come none of the two neuro told me something like that. They both performed an emg and told me was clean. Do emg changes from one month to a other or could they possible miss it.
 
Please don't take offense as I was not trying to be critical. I was simply offering my perspective on breaking the cycle of fear. No matter what the fear or worry is about, generally they boil down to us wanting to control some aspect of our future. I believe we have far more ability to influence our future in the positive direction when we focus inward and find peace rather than endlessly searching for answers in fear. Peace itself is so much more powerful than fear. The word itself disease is born of dis-ease. No matter what the disease, no matter how sinister or benign can be greatly influenced by our state of being, which is entirely up to us. I'm not sure there is a person on this forum that has not experienced a relief in symptoms when they overcame their fears and anxiety. You do not need to know anything about SMA in order to overcome your fear of it. You 99.999% likely don't have it anyway, so why give it that power? Just my 2 cents... Good luck.
 
Secretagentman i am not mad at you and you did not offend me in any way. I appreciate your effort to help me out and what you said made alot of sense to me. Thank you I went back to my first neuro and I just got out. I wanted to see what he thought about SMA an if I have it or not. He called the third neuro an a**hole for telling me all this nonsense. He said there are three major MNDLower , upper or lower/upper which is ALSHE checked all my reflexes and he dismissed the other neuro possibility. He also stated that SMA will show up on an EMG as denervation which he didn't see not the neuro I went to see today. I still not sure why he mentioned this possibility of SMA if clinically I showed nothing that point out in this direction and my EMG did not show any denervation. My first neuro wanted to offer me a free EMG on two of my limbs to prove the other wrong. He said he is confident that I have no sign of any MND and he said in today world we are missing the old school doctor.
 
Just a quick question If ALS affect both upper abd lower. Would a genetic test for lower (Sam) also can rule out als if it comes back negative since als also affect the lower motor neuron. So if SMA is ruled out using the generic blood work then als will also be rules outCan anyone answer that.
 
I don't know if anyone said this yet or not, but adult onset Spinal Muscular Atrophy has absolutely no effect on lifespan. So you can breathe a huge sigh of relief :D) Adult onset version can cause some disability which can be monitored for, but your life will not be shortened even by 1 day because of it.Best thing is to get the protein test you mentioned and discuss the options with your doctor.It seems like good news all around for you. No ALS and even the big "maybe" is not deadly at all.Hope this helps.-Burger-
 
Thank you very much but the neuro said its a nasty disease and causes death. Why would he say such thing. But thank you for making me feel little better. Would adult SMA shows up on emg as denervation ? I will def get tested and let you guys know the out on of it. Also I have read somewhere that SMA adult onset is in most cases a firm of als
 
Hi,EMG practically shows any denervation regardless of the nature. nerves can die locally due to trauma, it could be demielinisation like in MS, it could be death of spinal neurons or central ones, in every case EMG shows that. But there are (I think) specific changes in each case which allow to check if it is related to local trauma. spinal neronal units death or troubles in the central brain (at least when I was taking my EMG doctor told me that 'therer are also no sign that something goes wrong with your upper neurons', so I mean they can see that).EMG could be a bit different from one day to another, maybe from one month to another, because we ar not the same every day, but it is also depends on if the doctor uses stats program to process results or relies only upon his or her eyes, ears and experience. Then of course it could be some 'mistranslations' so to say.Hope this would help.
 
BFS Burger is right, adult onset SMA would not shorten your lifespan.Describing your EMG findings as "old denervation" is a bit strange, it would of course be helpful if he had told you what he has seen. But if your EMG does not show ongoing denervation which is the actual process that is going on in SMA, I am wondering if that guy read an article about SMA while drinking his breakfast coffe and just decided to diagnose it to the 4th patient that walks into his practice ....NO, a gene test for SMA will not rule out ALS, because -although parts of the same neuro "levels" are affected-it is a different pathomechanism and also gene that is involved (SMA is relatively strictly genetic while in ALS, a genetic predisposition is discussed but very unclear). The symptoms you show are not at all typical for SMA but a lot for BFS, especially the pain part it all started with and not to forget the crazy way you got your BFS back then. But now, as the train is already rolling, I would suggest doing that gene test to get SMA out of your head. And then, honestly, guys, stop neuro skipping. If you have a good neuro you trust and he tells you to leave his practice now and NEVER come back for twitching there's a reason: this guy is not mean. He just knows you don't have anything bad, and wants you to go on with your life. Wherever the answer to BFS lies, it is likely not in a neuro practice. The worst thing you can do is to search for another neuro then. The number of neuros you see, increases your chance to find that one one **** that will freak you out for no reason.I have witnessed 3 times now ( and one more or less live) cases in which a doctor told a young healthy person that he or she has likely ALS and almost ruined their lifes due to "something" on the EMG. People that in reality only had BFS. And they had days or weeks of a nightmare , until a skilled specialist proved the first neuro wrong. So get this test, and then stay away from neurologists for anything that goes along with BFS.
 
Thank you all. TomorrowI am going to get the EMG that my first neuro offered and I will let you know what he says about it. He has given me emg around Feb. he is going to tesr same limbs and compare then he will do the needle part. I let you know the outcome. You guys are awesome. Christi bfs burger yuliasir yiu have been always there for me. Thank you secret for teaching me how to break that cycle I will follow your tips hopefully one day I can recover and focus on more positive things rather than searching for something that don't exist
 
There are several forms of Spinal Muscular Atrophy. But they're based on age of onset for the most part. This means your doctor's description of the scary ones is correct. If you were currently 6 years old. :) There is congenital, childhood, and juvenile onset forms. Like with most diseases, children get hit the hardest. The adult body doesn't have as much of a problem, in this case. So your doctor was likely mixing all his knowledge into one big blob ... including congenital childhood and juvenile, but not differentiating adult onset.-Burger-
 
Hey guys,So I saw my neuro and an EMG was done on one side of my body where I have my symptoms. The nerve conduction test was clean then he went on to do the needle part. he stuck the needle in my legs and arms muscles and waited 10 minutes to hear the sound each time he put the needle. we heard a poping sound once in awhile and he told me this is not fasiculation it is mplate I didnt understand what he means by this but it was not serious. he only spotted one place where degeneration is going on and it was the right Detloid but he was not too impressed. he told me that in this area we excpect to see at least 25% of the degeneration and told me not to be scared.After the EMG he concluded that everything was normal/clean and I have no als nor SMA nor any MND lower motor neuron damage whatsoever. he also told me not to do the genetic testing for SMA he is confident that I dont have anything serious. he told me that he cant give me the diagnosis of BFS because he didnt pick up any fasiculations on the EMG. I asked why I twitch? he told me it could be many reason but def you are not twitching due to any MND. he was very patient he waited 10 minutes each time he stuck the needle to see if he can catch anything he even tap my muscles hard enough to activate the twitching but nothing was picked up. he then told me that in case of MND you wont wait that long to hear the BAD sounds EMG will pick it up soonest the needle go inhe asked me to go enjoy my life and not worry about ALS he said a clean EMG is good forever at least 10 years after each clean one. He said after all the blood work MRI EMG that my symptoms are in my head. he also told me that from his physical exam he knew nothing was wrong with me but he did it because he felt being challenged by the other neuro. I promised myself from today to focus on more positive things in life and move on with my life for good. I am not going to waste one more minute looking up ALS or any other MND. I thought I would share it with you guys.thank you all
 
Very interesting thank you Just quick question why does deltoid muscle can have minimal degeneration. According to my neuro it can have up to 25% degeneration. Any clue to why. He didn't seem impressed after he saw active degeneration but very minimal. It got me thinkin but I promised myself not to dwell on it. I am way over it now from tonight :love:.I ll follow strictly diet and work out Just like you recommended on your writting.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 1 (members: 0, guests: 1)
Back
Top