Was hoping I could get a little advice from some of the Veterans. My story in a quick nutshell... first experienced minor twitching in Jan 2011.... got freaked out and made a Neuro appointment for March. By the time I saw the Neuro the twitching was pretty much gone and I was at ease. He gave me an EMG juts for more peace of mind and it came back clean but showed fasciculation . Of course right after the clean EMG, I started with Sensory symptoms in April which really freaked me out and brought me to a 2nd Neuro. He examined me and looked over my EMG and told me I didn't have a neurological disease.Since then my twitching has picked up tremendously!! When I first started there were days where I didn't even think I felt any or maybe had 10 - 20. Now I'm at the point where some days I have several hundred a day that I can feel if not more. I've been back and forth with struggling with the mental aspect of this, which I know is the hardest part. I had been doing pretty well and kind of put this out of my mind but its getting harder and harder as the twitching is becoming more frequent.Here are a couple questions I'm hoping you can help me out with:What is the meaning by "True fasciculation "? I read a thread in this forum that was posted in Why I don't have ALS that said in BFS twitches don't show up on an EMG because they are not true fasciclations. I copied the thread below.... This has me really freaked out because my EMG was clean but showed Fasciculations. I was hoping someone can shed some light on what the difference between "true" and a normal fasciculation is? "BFS twitches do not show up on EMG’s most of the time because they are completely different (not true fasciculations) and are not even remotely related to ALS twitches (which ARE true fasciculations"Also both of my Neuro's I saw didn't have any bed side manner and really didn't take the time to explain to me why I couldn't have ALS. I still struggle with this sometimes because I'm the type of person who has anxiety about his health and need to know answers and i don't want to go to Dr. Google!!Maybe some of you can help:1)If I had a clean EMG that showed fasciculations in March, when should I go back and have another one done?2) Twiching in ALS is usally preceded by wekaness or weakness comes a short timer after?.. right?2) No matter how much I continue to twitch, a clean EMG in March would mean NO ALS... right??? Can't have ALS with a clean EMG??Thanks in advance for those that respond. Like I said I had been doing pretty well and accepted the fact that this was BFS but with the increase in twitches and after reading that thread about " True Fasciculations I'm having a bit of a relapse right now!Thanks!
Seeking Advice from Veterans on Twitching
- Thread starter RockyBear
- Start date
My 2 emgs fasciculations were present in both, as was Denervation I have slowly developed bi lateral flat reflexes in both lower legs ***RainDog, I deleted your reports because they have your personal info on them. If you want, put them back up and I will not delete them again, but I don't recommend that you do without editing out your info. Take care - Gary***Still here and enjoying life 
) ATB
) ATB"True fasciculations" are absolutely common in BFS. There are many that have them, including myself. There are a segment of people that don't have fascics show up on emg, but in my opinion, most do. To answer your other questions, here are my 2 cents. First, if you had a clean emg coupled with a clean neurological exam by a competent neuro, you don't have als. There is a big debate going on right now about how long a person has to wait to be "sure" about the benign dx, but I for one believe that given the above conditions 99.9% of all people are in the clear after the initial exam. Almost all neuros will tell you when you should have the follow up emg, most will recommend about 6 months to a year, with a "call me if anything changes" disclaimer. So rely on your docs. Finally, if your doc says clean emg and no als, you should believe him/her and get back to living your life. Work on conquering the anxiety that comes with this condition and forget about als....you can save yourself much torment and needless worry if you do.Take care,Gary
Thank you Gary and Raindog!! I wasn't 100% sure what True fasciculations meant and I realize that I have to let this go and trust in my Dr's. I was actually doing pretty good for a while but I will consider this a minor setback.I guess now that I think about this with a rational mind, it makes me feel even better that the EMG picked up Fascics because that means the Neuro was able to see them right then and there and determine that they were benign. No way he would have sent me on my way if they were abnormal or anything to worry about.Thanks again for your feedback!