Twitching More than Ever at 40

[jsageurge]

I've always had some sort of twitch going on somewhere on my body, but never for long. Now, I'm over 40 and it's getting weird. This past few weeks, I've had two alternating hot spots: my right upper cheek, right under my eye and my upper abdomen, just left of my solar plexus and below my rib cage. The abdomen one is making me nuts. (Though througout this episode, I've had little rumblings in my legs and arms.) Really not enjoying any this.

I guess my concern is that I've read all over this board and haven't seen any reference to an upper abdomen hot spot.

I know ALS symptoms are not all over, but what about MS?
In BFS twitches, is it always the case that if the muscle is being used, it stops twitching. Thus far, if I flex or press on the spots, they stop.

 

[LisaQ.]

Yes. I get that exact spot, below the rib cage. Sometimes I'll feel the muscle just pull/twitch a few times. I wouldn't call it a hot spot, because it’s intermittent, and never bothered me. But just one time, about a week ago, while I was driving, it started to really pull and get tight—it almost got to the point where I was considering asking my wife to drive. Later, after walking around a while, it went away. Watch out for the twitching and driving.

Cheers,
-Bill

 

[totaltwirls]

Sorry, I forgot to login. Also, I meant to add, yes, I can stop some twitching by using the muscles. But for me, things like finger twitching will continue (although I can control the muscle) even when using them. -Bill

 

[JohnnyRocket]

Hi,
I had a twitch under my left ribcage for a really long time. I still get it if I lie down at a certain angle. I wouldn't have said it is an abdominal twitch, but I guess it is

Twitching isn't generally associated with MS. MS starts with eye symptoms, double vision, blind spots in your visual field, jerky eyes, etc. It also usually presents with sensory changes, such as TOTAL numbness of a body part, and is almost always focal in the beginning-- involving either one side of the body, upper or lower limbs (not both,) a single limb or even part of a limb.)

In addition, MS is characterized by exacerbations and remissions, meaning one day you just wake up and you can't see out of part of your eye, and it is painful. It stays that way for days to months, then resolves either its own, or more likely with IV steroid treatment that your doctor gives you. Then you could go months, years without any symptoms at all and then suddenly, you can't feel your leg or walk on it.
Again, IV steroids, improvement/resolution of symptoms and remission.

In the later stages, the remissions get shorter and the symptoms don't resolve completely in-between.

This is a very different pattern from what I'm having with bfs. I rarely go a day without some mild twitching, and I when I do develop subjective weakness, it is self-limiting and fluctuates throughout the day. This is NOT the characteristic pattern of MS. Once you've been hit with an exacerbation, that weakness hangs on like grim death until treatment and time either cause it to improve (or not, depending on how long you've had MS.) Remember, with MS you are talking about brain lesions, a physical presence in your nervous system that imposes itself on nerve tissue and causes consistent and PERSISTent symptoms. Until said lesion begins to heal, the symptoms don't go away, wax/wane, or decide to cut you some slack the way our bfs does.