New Twitches: 2 Months and Counting

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voyager212

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I am a 28 year old male and my twitches, or fasciculations, are new to me. They started for me the same weekend that I had a heartburn incident which I mistook for something much worse and ending up going to the ER for. The twitches started that weekend and have been going every day for about 2 months now. I ended up going to a neurologist who did an exam, some blood work and an EMG and everything came back normal so he diagnosed them as benign fasciculations. Some days I seem to be able to cope with the twitches very well while others, like today, I just cannot stop thinking about them and letting them bother me. I am hoping that others have similar experiences which they would be willing to share with me to provide me with some reassurance. My twitches come and go all day and just happen in random parts of the body. Sometimes I get them in my neck or in my head which for whatever unknown reason have always particularly bothered me. Sometimes they cause my foot or leg to move but most of the time they do not. I don't know if this is common but my twitches usually just happen one at a time rather than having successive twitches in one muscle. In other words, I will have a single twitch in my leg, then one in my arm, one in my head and so on but each twitch in a single muscle is not followed immediately by more twitches in the same muscle. So it's not a constant twitching. Is this common or do others experience this? Here are some other symptoms I have:Pain in back right side of head which comes and goes very quickly and does not occur every dayRandom short pains throughout body, much less often than twitchesFeeling of having something in my throat at night - this has been waking me up latelyAgain, any reassurance that people can provide would be greatly appreciated. I am particularly interested in knowing whether the twitches will eventually go away or if this is something I am faced with for a long time. Also, any ideas people can provide to help lessen the twitches or to take my mind off of them woud also be greatly appreciated.
 
Sounds like classic BFS. I've had this for 6 months now. Twitching all over but my legs are the worst. I've also had normal neuro exam, EMG, bloodwork. Neuro said "benign fascilations" also. He told me they could last for years. Once you get past the scary stuff & anxiety the twitching won't bother you as much. There are many of us here with the same stories. ~Leslie
 
Hi Ship. I agree with your Neuro, (not that my opinion matters at all compared to a Neurologists' lolol) you have BFS, and what you describe, is totally BFS normal.Your BFS was most definitely brought on by anxiety, specifically, health anxiety. My advice, (again for what its worth) is to seak treatment for that, and I promise the twitches and such will subside.I am 28 years old as well, and this has been one hell of a ride for me, but I hung on and rode it to the end, and so can you. ;) ~*~Amy~*~
 
Hey Ship. People, including myself tend to call these random single twitches "pops"And the name fits at least for me.I also get pops all day long. Just had one in my left hip now. Unfortunately I also have non stop multiple twitches in my calves all the time.I dont have any pain, but a lot of other people do. These single twitches are really nothing to worry about. They are annoying, but thats about it.To answer your question I dont know if they will ever go away. I think thats a common question we would all like to know.hang in there, youll be fine.Keith
 
Hi FriendsMy name is Chris Sewell and I pop back on site now and again to help reassure all, that this Bfs is benign and can settle down and you can return to normality. I joined this site in2005 after mass twitching, weakness, pain, limb twitching, tongue buzzing, exercise intolerance, self ocd examining and, so on, and so on.Totally out of character for me. The most annoying thing for me was feet pain, and not being able to accept that this thing was benign. I thought it was the end of the world for me. I sold my bicycle, never socialised and was a total wreck.It took about 18 months to three years (total) for me to get over this thing, but hey!! I did, as you will too.Yes three years may be a long time, but fortunately with this condition you have time.I now run, cycle, socialise, etc, etc. I am back in the land of the living, my mental state is 100% and I only get the odd twitch, which I totally ignore. Pain is minimum, very minimum!! Most likely age ,lol!I went through hell and back. But got there, as you all can too, Tips, although hard, I know !Try to accept that this condition is benign.Always stay positive.Read posts like this over and over.Tell your self there is hope, there is proof (me) that this can go.Ignore the nasty neurologist who snub you, as they know very little about bfs.Accept the good neurologist diagnosis of benign condition.Stay on safe sites like this one.Anyone needing advice just pm, or Facebook me ( Christopher Sewell) I may take time to reply due to work, but I will get back.Hope this helps.Take carechris
 
Hi all!!!I have pops too!!! In my arch of my right foot on and off... sometimes the other foot, also random spots too. No rhyme or reason, some days hardly at all some days a lot more. I did start taking zoloft, a calcium/vit d supplement, magnesium and potassium... I am not sure it helps or not. Some days are good, some I twitch a lot. I have some pains in my calves and my arches. I also have what I think is carpal tunnel in my right wrist/hand. The pain and achiness comes and goes too.I have not been formally diagnosed w/ BFS, but have been told that I am pretty much a healthy 35-year old. I had an emg on one leg, and it was fine, MRI, lumbar puncture, TONS and TONS of blood work. So far they just keep saying, normal, normal, normal..... though I have a f/u on the 14th.GOOD LUCK. You are not alone!!Andrea
 
HiBeen there and got the T-shirt, believe me what you have is BFS,/PNHE, (peripheral nerve hyper excitability) good luck and fight it, you will win.Take careChris
 
Hi Ship,26 year old male here. I'm gonna join the choir: Congratulations, it's BFS!In truth, man, BFS should be called BFD... Buck F*cking Deal.Sounds to me like you have anxiety-induced BFS, which is how I got mine. Basically, you had a very stressful event happen in your life that really scared you. It got everything all amped up and this is how your body is reacting to it. Now, if you get amped up over this, too, it might be a self-feeding cycle. So, step one is to chill out.Remember: One of the rules of neurology is that twitches without weakness signify nothing. And you would know if you had weakness. You would have noticed that way before you saw any twitches so don't go around doing any silly self-tests or anything. All the rest of your symptoms are stuff that I've had, including the "something caught in my throat feeling." Annoying as hell but it -- like all this craziness -- went away after a couple weeks.So, should you be worried about BFS? Well... Is it sometimes a pain in the ass? Yes. Is it something anxiety-inducing? Yes. Could we be much worse off? Oh, hell, yes.As I type right now my right thumb is twitching away. It's been at it on and off for 1.5 weeks. It's annoying. I'll deal.And so will you, man. Just don't let it eat at you.
 
Follow-up, dude:1) On the pain in the back of your head: I had a really sharp pain happening on the left side of my head for a while. I thought I was having the warning signs of an aneurysm. Scared me to death so I went to the hospital. $16,000 in CT scans and spinal taps later (the spinal tap didn't hurt, but there's a sickness associated with it that made me think I was literally dying) and it turned out it was a slipped disc. :rolleyes: 2) I didn't see that it's only at night there's a sensation of something in your throat? Giving your previous history, I suspect it's acid reflex. For a while that was waking me up, too, gasping for breath. Is this what you're experiencing? If so, don't eat soon before going to bed. Take some antacids, too. If this doesn't work, try tilting your bed up slightly so you're not laying quite flat.
 
Thanks to all for the reassurance. It sounds like as long as I focus on living my life then the twitches will either go away or become completely bearable. I actually came down with the flu about 2 weeks ago and was obviously completely focused on that. As the flu went on, I thought about the twitches much less and they have subsequently subsided quite a bit. I still have them but I am actually able to sit at my desk at work or watch TV at home now without thinking about them because they occur so much less frequently now. That was quite a relief.Jesse - on the pain in the back of your head and your slipped disc, did you have any other symptoms? Any pain in your back or anything like that? Was your pain constant or happen every day? I have completely pain-free days and then others where it hurts all day. Also, what was the treatment for your slipped disc?Thanks again to everyone for the reassurance. Anybody else that would like to chime in with some reassurance, please do.
 
I can just reiterate what the others said, which is that what you described is the classic scenario here. Mine started with twitches lasting minutes but many, many, lasting just one twitch. The one twitch wonders happened all over the body, which clued me in that this was a systemic issue that was hitting suddenly. It was not a matter of noticing something that had always happened but something was really happening. I get plenty of the more the longer twitches but few last hours or days, with the exception of one in my left hand that has not stopped in over a year. I have had no loss of strength so that is very good. I will add that some think this is all anxiety-related and suggest that getting rid of anxiety can stop the twitching. This is not always true. You may have another reason for the twitching. For me, I have some evidence that it is autoimmune-related which could have been triggered or worsened by anxiety but anxiety alone is not the problem at least for me. Some have had twitching just go away. I hope this happens for you. If it doesn't and you just have to cope with it, you will find good company here on that front too.Krackersones
 

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