IcebergTayCircles
Member
Hey everyone,I’m “brand new” to the board, but I’ve been checking the site out for the better part of several years. 
I’m just going to be up-front: I’m at my wit’s end. Needless to say, my symptoms are leading me to believe that I have an progressive, malignant disease.I’m a twenty-four-year-old male, college graduate, living and working in Chicago. I live with my partner in a lovely apartment on the North side of the city. Roughly three or four years ago (when I was living in an apartment near the university I then attended) I began noticing that, while lying in bed, my feet would twitch. Relentlessly. Non. STOP. I thought that maybe it was my feet adjusting from wearing gym-shoes all the time to wearing sandals and other less-constricting footwear for the summer (I noticed the twitches in the warmer months after having worn boots and whatnot all winter). My feet would also sometimes cramp up because they were twitching so crazily. I ignored these issues for the majority of the remainder of my undergraduate days. There was also a point where I was diagnosed with walking-mono while I still lived at the apartment, so… not too terribly sure if the two are related.Fast-forward to today. I am all but literally WIGGING out. The twitches are EVERYWHERE. Seriously, you name it: lips, cheeks, neck, back, butt, genitalia, calves, neck, chin, eyelids, eyebrows, head, behind my ears, fingers, feet—the whole shebang.I’m also concerned about my strength and muscle tone. Granted, I haven’t lifted weights in months (I used to be a relatively active guy); I’m afraid that I’m noticing a decrease in muscle mass as well as strength. My arms sometimes feel jittery or wobbly, as do my legs. I experience some rather violent trembling whenever I ball a hand into a tight fist or flex my biceps. There is a very subtle, but recurrent tingle that I sometimes feel sprinkle itself anywhere along arms, fingertips, back and/or legs. Again, I don’t know if this is due to my rather deskbound lifestyle (I work in an office M-F) or if I’m really in the throes of something …bad.To top it all off, in recent months, I’ve noticed a subtle heaviness in my face around my nose and above my upper lip whenever I move my mouth to speak.Months back, I went to my GP for an appointment regarding a minor injury to my forearm, and I told him about these twitches. His DX? BFS. Though… He told me that my twitching should subsist within a few weeks. I have an appointment for a consultation with a neurologist this coming Monday, and you best believe that this hypochondriac has already word processed a list of all symptoms to date.My question to you, the good public of AboutBFS.com is: The weakness, arm trembling and tingling, is all of that characteristic of BFS? Needless to say, Dr. Google has really gotten the best from me (I know, I know… My own fault) and I’m truthfully and unendingly frightened.Thoughts? Comments? Questions?(My apologies about the length of this post... It’s all been on my mind for some time.) Thank you for taking the time to read this!
I’m just going to be up-front: I’m at my wit’s end. Needless to say, my symptoms are leading me to believe that I have an progressive, malignant disease.I’m a twenty-four-year-old male, college graduate, living and working in Chicago. I live with my partner in a lovely apartment on the North side of the city. Roughly three or four years ago (when I was living in an apartment near the university I then attended) I began noticing that, while lying in bed, my feet would twitch. Relentlessly. Non. STOP. I thought that maybe it was my feet adjusting from wearing gym-shoes all the time to wearing sandals and other less-constricting footwear for the summer (I noticed the twitches in the warmer months after having worn boots and whatnot all winter). My feet would also sometimes cramp up because they were twitching so crazily. I ignored these issues for the majority of the remainder of my undergraduate days. There was also a point where I was diagnosed with walking-mono while I still lived at the apartment, so… not too terribly sure if the two are related.Fast-forward to today. I am all but literally WIGGING out. The twitches are EVERYWHERE. Seriously, you name it: lips, cheeks, neck, back, butt, genitalia, calves, neck, chin, eyelids, eyebrows, head, behind my ears, fingers, feet—the whole shebang.I’m also concerned about my strength and muscle tone. Granted, I haven’t lifted weights in months (I used to be a relatively active guy); I’m afraid that I’m noticing a decrease in muscle mass as well as strength. My arms sometimes feel jittery or wobbly, as do my legs. I experience some rather violent trembling whenever I ball a hand into a tight fist or flex my biceps. There is a very subtle, but recurrent tingle that I sometimes feel sprinkle itself anywhere along arms, fingertips, back and/or legs. Again, I don’t know if this is due to my rather deskbound lifestyle (I work in an office M-F) or if I’m really in the throes of something …bad.To top it all off, in recent months, I’ve noticed a subtle heaviness in my face around my nose and above my upper lip whenever I move my mouth to speak.Months back, I went to my GP for an appointment regarding a minor injury to my forearm, and I told him about these twitches. His DX? BFS. Though… He told me that my twitching should subsist within a few weeks. I have an appointment for a consultation with a neurologist this coming Monday, and you best believe that this hypochondriac has already word processed a list of all symptoms to date.My question to you, the good public of AboutBFS.com is: The weakness, arm trembling and tingling, is all of that characteristic of BFS? Needless to say, Dr. Google has really gotten the best from me (I know, I know… My own fault) and I’m truthfully and unendingly frightened.Thoughts? Comments? Questions?(My apologies about the length of this post... It’s all been on my mind for some time.) Thank you for taking the time to read this!
) Its good that you are going to see the Neuro because you will get some relief from your anxiety just by getting some questions answered, and YES do take a list so you dont forget to ask something that is really important and you kick yourself when you forget. A word of advice though, Neuros tend to not respond well to a long list, it almost screams at them anxiety and believe me you dont want to be chalked up to an anxiety case by this guy. So my thoughts are to keep your list short, consolidate your symptoms and try to make it a list of 5 important questions and by all means be honest with him about your concerns, so he can offer you some reassurance from his knowledge. Dont be surprised or more worried if he does want to run some test such as blood work or MRI's or an EMG. Some neuros can look you over and decide whether these test are necessary but most will run them just to be safe and to provide you with some peace of mind.Now when it comes to your symptoms...You just described every symptom I have had or still have with this since it all started. I actually just started a thread about the shaking last night. I was talking about the shaking in my legs when I walk, stand in place, or bend over to pick things up, but in my earlier days with this (and still on occasion) I had the shaking in my arms as well. I've tingled everywhere, random numb patches of skin and limbs, hell I've had it all when it comes to the sensory stuff. All my MRI's were clean, clean EMG, and so far clean blood work, so that either means I caught a virus that caused this (my theory all along) or I stressed myself into an auto-immune disorder, or I had one hell of a nervous breakdown 
Most of the opinions I've received from the docs I have seen is that it is all related to a virus that wormed its way into my nervous system and it caused all the mis-firing. Its no fun whatsoever but things do begin to improve once you realize that you arent dyeing, LOL.Feel free to post anymore questions you might have, there some awesome folks here and lots of support. Stay off google (but you already know that), and welcome to our world 
It was so bad today that I thought I was experiencing breathing complications—Went just a tad overboard there, huh?My next question/concern is this: is there a manner in which I can determine whether or not my muscles have atrophied? I'm left-side dominant, and my left bicep and shoulder have typically always been bigger than my right, however, both bicep muscles look smaller than, say, 12-24 months ago, but they're still visible upon flexing. (Accompanied by all sorts of crazy trembling, just for kicks, right?). Just to re-mention, I haven't worked out/lifted weights close in just about a year's time, and I'm not sure if that would have any bearing on weakness and/or atrophy.Also, since I've been twitching for the better part of 4 years, wouldn't I have noticed weakness/atrophy sooner if I were dealing with something really bad?Thank you to everyone for your kindness; your supportive responses have been incredibly appreciated.
I'm hoping that my appointment with the neurologist on Monday will bring me peace of mind in addition to what I've attained since joining this site.My major concern is the violent trembling I experience upon flexing any part of my body; if I push the palms of my hands together and exert a moderate amount of strength, my arms and chest tremble pretty badly. Flexing my biceps also gives me the same effect. I hadn't noticed this up until very recently (last weekend) and I don't know if this is perceived weakness or if it's clinical weakness due to atrophy... yadda, yadda. I'm certain I sound like a broken record, and for that I apologize.My hands tremble ever so slightly if I lift my fingers and hover my hand above the keyboard—I'm sure that many more people than I think are afflicted with this—and aren't necessarily suffering from a life-shortening disease. Am I grasping at straws here, or does anything in this post present a red flag to anyone (besides my incessant anxiety)?Forgive me if all I'm doing is ruffling feathers—my intention is not to annoy. I'm trying to withhold from self-diagnosing and whatnot, I'm just having a relentless bout of uncertainty here.