Noobie Seeking Reassurance for Twitching Foot

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jaredmamba

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Hello, I'm a noobie to this whole twitching thing, and I just need some reassurance, because the whole "***" thing is quite frightening. I am a 25 year old male. Currently my left foot has been twitching constantly 24/7 for the past 2-3 weeks, most notably in the arches of the foot. Sometimes it feels like a worm is squirming around down there and others it is barely noticeable. Now occasionally, I will get a twitch here and there throughout various body parts (mostly in my right leg), but its nowhere near as constant. I also seem to have some muscle soreness in my legs. Sometimes I feel weak, but I can still climb stairs albeit my legs start to burn after climbing 2 flights. I also can stand on my toes and walk on my heels and all the other strength tests... but I can't help feel that my legs are not 100%. One other thing I noticed was that I will usually not feel the twitches when I am walking, which may be significant or it might be the act of walking is masking the fasciculations. My arms on the other hand feel fine. Also, I remember having twitches in one of my eyelids last year, which only lasted a couple weeks, and randomly disappeared (not sure if that has anything to do with my current symptoms). I went to a GP who gave me a blood panel test, which came out clean. My question is, how long do I have to wait from the onset of fasciculations to breathe a sigh of relief that no weakness will follow?Thanks for reading.
 
Mr Tape.Welcome to aboutBFS. SOrry to hear you are concerned about ALS, you needn't be at all. As you know, ALS is not just twitching, muscle soreness or any kind of feeling, and the uncommon disease rarely ever strikes someone 25 years old. To answer your question - ALS twitching comes soon after or soon before the weakness, like a month, but of course are stories of people with ALS who hardly ever twitch. I saw a neuro 5 months after I had an EMG and they said if I had ALS it would be noticable by then. There are articles on the net that say three months, you will get many different answers here I suspect. SO the best thing is breathe a sigh of relief RIGHT NOW, you have no weakness, enjoy the rest of you twenties, they go by faster than you think! Best, RB
 
I just sent you a PM but I figure I should try to answer your question here as well. I'm brand new on this forum (today!) but have done lots of reading about BFS and have picked my neuro's brain. First, this sounds pretty similar to my onset. Mine began in my lower right calf and foot and felt like "worms squirming". Other twitches throughout the body were random. Also I'd say that most peoples legs start to burn at least a tiny bit after two flights of stairs, particularly if they don't lift weights.It's a good sign that they don't twitch while walking! Congrats on the clean blood test-- you can at least feel relieved that something weird isn't going on with your blood!At your (our) age, the chances of developing ALS are absolutely tiny. I've read that a couple months is definitely sufficient to rule out most forms of ALS, but you cannot let yourself sit around thinking about it for the next couple months! Go get busy doing things you love :D)Cheers!
 
Clair and Runningbear are giving you some good info and some very good advise. You do not have ALS, you just dont, so there is absolutely no reason for you to worry about it any longer than you have. So many of us wasted so much precious, irreplaceable time worrying about this very uncommon disease. You are young, enjoy it, live your live. Trust me, 40 will be knocking on your door before you know it, 14 yrs goes by all too fast, so dont waste a minute of it worrying, its so not worth it.Not trying to lecture, but I really hate to see younger ones such as yourself, feeling miserable with worry.Take care and we are here if you need us.Robynn :D)
 
duckytape,I struggled with the issue of weakness for a year after I first experienced symptoms (like you, the arches of my feet, particularly my left foot, at first, and later -to a lesser extent- my right, felt like there were worms crawling underneath the skin; it's been two years, and the twitching in the arches of my feet has remained.) My right leg would would burn after walking or climbing for any distance. I told people it felt like I had always just finished doing a heavy squat workout the day before. But I also felt weakness in my hands: They felt tired after typing or opening a jar or simple things like that. The feelings of weakness have almost entirely vanished, but I still have twitching in the arches of my feet and random parts of my body along with some skin sensitivity on my chest (and an occasional feeling of difficulty swallowing.)So, I worried about weakness and had all the neuro tests (blood work, 2 MRIs, and an EMG). After two years, the twitching is still here, but the feelings of weakness are mostly gone (the back of my right thigh occasionally feels a little crampy if other symptoms are aggravated for some reason, but that's it.)-Joe
 
Feet and calves twitching are the most common form of BFS. The feeling of weakness etc. I know that and to me, physical excerice helped me.
 
thanks you guys for the responses.i had another question for you guys. do your legs ever feel heavy or sore? mine feel that way, but when i walk it seems fine. the feeling only comes on when I am standing still. I can still walk up several flights of stairs ok so hopefully its not due to some kind of weakness onset.also, do you guys also have a variety of twitches? my twitches are a grab bag of ones i can see, but not feel to ones where the entire foot is going crazy (i experienced one of these episodes this morning).thanks
 
I just came back from the neuro yesterday, and he freaked me out a little bit. The phrase he said that got me concerned again was "patient was concerned about @@@, and rightfully so". Also he said that muscle twitches in the gluteals was a cause for concern. He scheduled me for an EMG, so hopefully that goes well. Anyways, I still have the muscle twitches all over my body, although they are still concentrated in my legs. Good news is, I can still climb stairs!
 
That was the weird thing. He didn't do any strength testing. He observed that I was twitching, did the babinski test, which was negative, and then proceeded to talk about BFS and ALS.Anyways, I'll update when I finish getting my EMG in a couple weeks.Thanks for the support!
 
Every neurologist who is not familiar with BFS (and that is many, many of them) will be concerned about MND if fasciculations are observed, especially in proximal muscles and diffuse. Concern is normal reaction here, do not worry, it just means he wants to know what is going on.The fact he just tested babinsky itself signalizes that he knows only basics about ALS so just do not take his words too seriously. More knowledgable doctor would perform jaw jerk test, hoffman sign test, clonus etc in order to pick up upper motor neuron signs.Your age and symtom distribution strongly points to BFS, nothing more.PS: You said he was speaking about BFS, so what did he say?PSS:Especially in gluteals muscles, benign fasciculations are not uncommon. Here is part of older text:Benign fasciculation, known as myokymia has been extensivelyinvestigated. Purves-Stewart and Worster-Drought said it is especially common in theorbicularis oculis but occurs also in the largermuscles of the limbs, particularly the deltoid andbiceps of the upper extremities and the gluteal andquadriceps of the lower extremities.
 
In regards to BFS, he said that it was a problem at the level of the muscle, and it had to do with hyper excitability (at least that's what i gathered from his explanation) I like your excerpt from the text about bfs, because the gluteals, quads, deltoids, and calves are where i feel the jumps most prominently!
 
Hi Ducky - Hope things are going well for you. I've had everything you have mentioned PLUS a lot more. I've had BFS for about 10 years and have had more neuro appointments and EMG's than you can count. :) Although I am not a doctor, I did gain a lot of knowledge about this whole BFS thing and can probably answer many questions you might have regarding *** fears. I don't check this forum very often so you can feel free to e-mail me at my AOL address --- it is "ryans2u". Best of luck - Ryan
 

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