Seeking Diagnosis: Benign Muscle Fasciculation?

[BitchzBitchy]

First, I'd like to thank Alonzo for his supportive PMs. By now, I'd be in the nut hut without them. As a BSF newbie I've been spending lots of time on this site looking for/finding relief. Three weeks ago my left thumb started twitching (Parkinson's? MS?) Two weeks ago I saw my PCP about it. He told me it was a benign muscle fasiculation but for peace of mind to see a neuro about it. I saw my neuro (NY Medical Center) the following week. I showed the neuro my thumb but it wasn't twitching at the time. I also explained that I'd started feeling fascs on my left knee and thigh. The neuro didn't seem too interested in my fascs. He put me through a series of strength/balance/eye tests and even had me stick out my tongue. He diagnosed me with BSF. He told me to put Parkinson's fears out of mind: ("Parkinson's doesn't present itself that way.") HOWEVER, my neuro did namelessly mention one very serious condition associated with fascs, when muscle weakness or atrophy are present (I didn't know what he was talking about at the time, but I sure do now). However, the neuro left my panic attack door wide open with a comment about how 99.9% of the time fascs didn't presage the thing I'm now worrying myself about. Seeing how tightly wrapped I was, the neuro wrote me a 30-day script for .5mg Clonazepam (I still haven't taken any). The neuro told me to relax and to come back anytime I wanted to (I called his office a few days later inquiring about an EMG but was assured by his assistant that he was very thorough and would've scheduled one if needed).The neuro visit was a week ago this past Monday. Now my left forearm is acting up. As much as this site (Alonzo) have helped I'm now putting myself through hell after digging into other *** sites, which refer to rare cases when fascs turned out to be the early symptoms of ***. My mind's in a whirl; I'm exhausted with fearful thoughts. Any helpful insights would be greatly appreciated. PS. Thanks again, Alonzo

 

[angusglover]

Hi mateI have been here. Please look at my recent posts, you will see that I went to a neuro with twitching thumb, forefinger etc. My neuro laughed as he had the same thing.Also, fasics WITHOUT NOTICEABLE WEAKNESS \ ATROPHY IS NOT ALS.Please remember that and stop looking at ALS sites. It will *beep* you up!!!

 

[DonJose]

Hi Chick, in this case the 99.9% of the time that your doc said is going to have to be good enough. Nothing is 100% and no doctor is going to ever say with 100% certainty that we don't have ANY disease. If your neuro says you are ok, you have to believe him or you will get stuck in a bad place mentally.Linda

 

[BitchzBitchy]

Linda and Anguslover...thank you, very much.A mentally bad place is where I'm at. I hate feeling like this and I'm going to try my hardest to shake the feeling (starting with a personal ban of ALS sites). I love my wife and life too much to drag the rest of my days to the finish line. Pray for me

 

[DJH621]

Chick,I'm a VERY long term sufferer of BFS. I've never had an EMG because my neuro exams were always normal. I think they do so many of the EMG's now because people have access to the internet, and of course, get frightened and then the doctors do the EMG's to ease their minds. Any serious issue would have shown up in your exam and then they would have initiated the appropriate testing. I'm sure, if you insist your neuro will do an EMG, strictly for your piece of mind, but your normal exam means you're fine. Best Wishes, Denise p.s. I still get "worked up" once in a while and think I'm going to get an EMG, then I "settle back down", things get better, another few years pass, etc......