Help! Do I have ALS?

[mikeholder]

I am 40 yrs old and have somehow convinced myself I have ALS. Starting in Oct, I started taking Lipitor for High Colesteral. At the end of Oct, I noticed soreness in my calf muscles and ankles. I stopped the med (at Doc's orders) and the symptoms started to improve. ( Lipitor sometimes causes this reaction in people). Anyways, even through Dec I have still have had problems with my legs, mostly stiffness in my calfs and shins. My calfs feel like that are always tight and kinda ache. Sometime the pain runs into my thighs). Also some tingling in my foot. I have had about 4 legs cramps throughout the year, mostly after running. I have frequent muscle twitching (2-3 times a day) in my legs which last a few seconds (but I do feel them) I have had a lumbar MRI and Xray as well as a EMG on my right leg (cause of most of my pain), as well as full bloodwork. All were normal. Also a segemental and venis doplar were normal. I probably should have never looked up ALS on the internet as I am driving myself crazy. I havn't really noticed any "weakness" in my muscles. I'm sure I would have noticed??? Anyways..... What should I do?? I read they "drooling" and saliva issues that sometimes comes with ALS patients, and even though I dont have these, I have a bad habit my monitoring my saliva and how much I swallow. I'm sure I have something wrong with my legs, so I guess I assume its ALS because of the muscle twitching. Any thoughts of additional testing or should I go back to a neuro?

[GI_WILD]

HI! all, It has been awhile since I posted here, although I continue to read all the post. I am doing well, My ALS is still progressing slowly in my upper extremities, arms and shoulders. Mike, many of the post here are from people like yourself, looking for some answers to unknown questions about their symptoms, and wondering if it could be ALS. I too did the same thing, the unknown is a scarey thing, that we all deal with, on a daily basis.
I think, in an ALS situation, time is the key factor for the diagnosis. All my symtoms started after I had cervical fusions in my neck, only, 4 years after.
When my left arm, started wasting, and becoming weak, My Dr. thought I still had problems there, however, after another surgery, with no improvement, did they start looking for Neuro problems. Emg, blood work, mri,spinal tap,muscle biopsy, pulminary.
I showed signs of de-nervation in all the muscle groups, ,had wasting of muscle in the shoulder,, and arm, yet, they said it was still not conclusive that I had ALS. This all started in May of 2002, Finally, after waiting 6 months between visits to the Dr. and more test, did I get an actual Dianosis. During that time , I was slowly loosing muscle in right arm, and getting weak in hands, finger stiffness, but, no pan, tingling, numbness, or things like that.
I believe, that after looking at my symptoms, reading the post ,and reserching on the internet, I new I had ALS before the Dr's confirmed it.
In your case though! I believe you are putting a lot of undue stress on yourself
so early. I think the EMG would have shown that you had symptoms, not always
conclusive, but signs of problems. ALS affects different people in different ways, Mine is all in my shoulders and arms, and hands, no other signs, Try not to worry, only time will actually tell you if it is a progressive problem, or just a nerve reaction from some other activity.
My prayers are with you, and ALL others, Hope this helps you.

[slaughter17]

Hi. Just to inform you about the drooling and swallowing diffeculities that come along with ALS. Those symptoms usually happen in people diganosed with the bulbar onset. Sometimes you will get those symptoms "later" in the disease if you were diagnosed with Linb onset ALS. My father just recently passed away from limb onset ALS. He also was taking lipitor and had the same symptoms you describe. The doctor took him off of the medication and almost a year later he was diagnosed with ALS. The doctors that treated him for ALS did not believe that lipitor caused his ALS. Rather he already had the disease laying dormet in his body. The lipitor was just one of the triggers for him to have ALS strike full blown. Most people I have talked to say they have had some sort of trigger cause ALS. Such as, a virus, exposure to chemicals, medications. I hope you can go see a good doctor that sepecializes in ALS. Let us know what happens.