sabrinastar
New member
Hi everyone,Just wanted to introduce myself, since I have discovered this board and it has been a life-saver for me. I cannot tell you how it has eased my mind and fears over the last few months, so I thought I would stop in and share my experience.I am 37 and have two toddlers. I am a professional polynesian dancer and "look" like the picture of health. Now I will attempt to describe how my bfs started, in case it helps anyone. Even if it means saying, "wow. That happened to me too, I feel better about that now". That is my goal. In April of 2000 I started to feel twitching on my left upper torso. I mistakenly thought it was heart palpitations and had (I believe) a major panic attack one night while in bed. It involved severe tingling down my left arm, a feeling of doom/panic, etc. I'd had one (I thought) six years before. However, I never truly believe it was only a panic attack. Why? Because the tingling/numbness lasted for weeks after the panic attack went away. For anyone who knows about panic attacks, they last a few minutes or an hour, not weeks, right? But no doctor could diagnose me.Okay, so after that awful experience at night, that is where my problems really began. I began to notice new twitches every day, as well as the tingling/numbness, burning in my toes, unusual sensations that are hard to describe, but felt like an electrical current running throughout my body, etc. Honestly, I don't remember all the symptoms but those were the main ones. I went to doctors, I had all the tests, and was convinced I had MS. Spent hours online researching, got severely depressed, etc. You know the drill. In fact, when I first read about ALS, I was convinced I had it and I don't need to tell you the fear I felt.So...okay, that is phase one. After about a year and many tests that all came out negative, I was forced to try to ignore it and move on. While the tingling and burning sensations did disappear, the twitching never did. But I managed to live with it and ignore it.I had two babies--after years of infertility problems and treatments. Then in my first pregnancy at 34, appearing to be vibrant and glowing in health, I had a t.i.a. (mini stroke) and was diagnosed with a blood clotting disorder. That is another whole story (and forum) altogether. While I have been told by many doctors that they don't see a correlation between the blood problem and the twitching, I don't believe it. I believe in more of the chinese medicine or natural health philosophy: that all parts of the body are related. I don't know the relation here, but I don't believe it's a coincidence. I also think the infertility is tied in somehow (I was never diagnosed with a problem and later had baby #2 without trying). I'm not a believer in "stress causes infertility". Rather, I think the aspirin I took as a bloodthinner had to do with curing my infertility for baby 2 (strange and undocumented by anyone, but true). My hematologist has had many women get pg after aspirin therapy. (Sorry to get off-track, but there is just so much to my story and I didn't want to leave that out).Okay, with the business of two babies I had forgotten about my twitching till I stupidly read a story about a local man with ALS, and realized that if I ever stopped to pay attention, I was still twitching constantly (still am). How often do I twitch somewhere? Well, if I were to stop and notice, I don't think 10 seconds ever goes by without a twitch. And sometimes if I'm in bed and pay attention and the twitching is bad, I will have multiple twitches at any given time.I should note I also have had weakness in the left hand, and only in the morning. And what I thought was mild wasting in the right hand. But I don't know. I have spent hours examining my hands and stuff and I am so done with all that. I am strong on the tests and everything, and another recent series of tests came out negative, including the emg, etc.My latest philosophy on all of it is that it has to do with a severe toxin/chemical overload that we are all exposed to throughout our lives in the way of chemicals in our food, cleansers, the environment, etc. OR severe stress that set off some kind of reaction. Because I was under stress before the inital episode in 2000 (depression and stress). I don't know, but after reading Kevin Trudeau's "Natural Cures They Don't Want You to Know About", I am pretty convinced it is along those lines. Thank you for all your stories and for helping to ease my mind a lot. Thanks to all of you, for the first time I am actually able to believe that I do have BFS, and to move on. Though I am not giving up on curing it. I am so sick of the twitching.Erika