Introducing Myself, Health Struggles

[DirtySouthwestGuy]

Hello everyone, i have been "lurking" on here since about July of last year and I have replied to the odd post here and there. I thought that i would now post my story, so here goes. I am a 32 year old female. I have up until March of last year felt myself to be fairly healthy. In the past i have had some health related anxiety but never this bad. I have for quite some time noticed that i twitch, however this never really bothered me too much until..........I had an episode of pins and needles in my left foot and quite by accident read a magazine article on MS. Of course this listed twitching and pins and needles as one of the symptoms. From that day to this my life has been turned upside down. After that I began scouring the internet and have convinced myself that I have some truly afwul illness. I have had countless trips to my GP, i have driven my family and friends insane. What was quite in frequent twitching has become unbearable at times and has resulted in an MRI scan, which thankfully was clear but has done nothing to allay my fears. I also experience a feeling of numbness in my left leg from the knee down which becomes worse at night. I also have a "strange" feeling in my left which never seems to go away and worsens on sitting. My arms and legs ache from the slightest bit of strain or exercise, it hurts just to walk up the stairs or simply change bedsheets.I too carry out all the strength tests on myself constantly and the thoughts that i may have something bad never leave me.I cant tell you how much you guys on this forum have helped me. I have had some truly dark days and nights going through this hellish experience and the one thing that helps me is coming on here and reading everyone else's stories and knowing that i am not alone and possibly not crazy!! I only wish that i could put you in my pocket and carry you all around when times are bad!!!!!!I am trying to keep this under control but it is hard, I twitch everywhere and all the time. One night my left thigh twitched for the whole of the night and with NO let up. I only hope that this really is BFS.

 

[simonw00]

Hello thereJust to repond to your message and hopefully give you some reassurance. Your symptoms are completely consistent with BFS and, if you had ALS/ MND or MS, the relevant symptoms would by now have declared themselves. The anxiety that many of us feel around this condition seems to be all too common. I am a 44 year old GP who is completely sane and logical but I have at times had health related anxiety to some extent. But the development of my fasciculations 5 months ago gave rise to anxiety symptoms which were off the scale for me and at times still are. I have had a normal clinical examination by a neurologist and a normal EMG but, for reasons I am unable to logically explain, the anxiety still lurks around. At times the anxiety becomes very intense. For example, I tripped over twice yesterday and on both occasions my weight was on my right leg at the time. I decided that, that was it I really must have ALS/ MND after all and that this was the beginning of the end. I did multiple self checks and loads of exercises, I moped around much to the annoyance of my wife and was unable to concentrate on anything else. Today I am slightly better but just feel so stupid about my anxiety yet totally unable to control it. I just want it to all go away. Good luck with your struggle with what sounds to be a very similar plight.Regards from New ZealandSimon