gorillazfan
New member
Hi guys***GOOD NEWS****Well I had my EMG last night. Arrived at the clinic only to find that my neurolgist wasnt gonna be doing the test as I had expected (although i suppose he never said it would be him doing it). As I entered the room i explained to the doctor performing the test that I was very afraid and was hoping to see my neurologist for some answers. He asked me "do you want answers today, because I can tell you". I said yes and he said "even if its bad news, you want to know". I answered yes, whatever it is, i want to know. This of course, scared the life out of me to start with.Anyway, he proceeded to firstly stick a needle in my right calf, asked me to move my foot arond in different positions, lift my leg slightly etc, etc. The noises coming from the machine were scary to say the least and I found myself panicking thinking they must be "bad" noises. Iasked the doctor who said "i havent finished yet, I will let you know" which made me even worse!!!He then stuuck needles in my left calf, then my right thigh. He then uttered the first words of reassurance. He said "I have not yet seen any significant fasciculations out of 3 muscles. If you had ALS I would have seen lots by now". That made me feel a bit better. He then carried on with my right arm and hand (which was the most painful), then my foot. After much moving of feet, hands, legs, etc, he said "ok, we are done". He looked at me and said "THIS IS NOT ALS". He then explained that he had been carrying out EMG's for 20 years, that he sees approximately 100 ALS patients a year, and that not one of them has ever presented with fasciculations as a first symptom. He said that the vast majority of the time, they present with weakness as the first symptom. He also said that ALS patients very rarely feel their fasciculations.He said that I do have fascicualtions but none of any worry. he actually let me hear a couple from my right foot. I could hear a couple of very small "blips" on the machine. I asked him what causes this and he replied, "this is what we call BFS". THANK GOD!!!!!. He also said I have no loss of muscle fibre He continued to do an NCV which was fine. Hs finished by saying his report to the Neurologist would say that his diagnosis is BFS. WOooooHooooooo!!I left there feeling a mixture of elation and weirdly, a kind of shock that I didnt have ALS. I had actually convinced myself I would be told I had ALS!! I now need to deal with my main problem of major health anxiety. I am still twiching and my arm is still hurting now and then but I dont care. As long as it wont kill me, i can deal with it. I still need to see the neurologist to oficially get my EMG report but I dont want to pursue this any longer afterwards. I want to thank you all in a BIG BIG way for your kind words of reassurance which really did help me in my darkest of times. I will still be looking in and will still post when and where I can.
.... good for you