16 year old male worried about A.L.S
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Hi. I'm new here so sorry about any bad formatting. I'm a 16 year old male who's very worried about potentially having A.L.S, or Lou Gehrig's disease. This fear started last week when I noticed a weakness in my thumb and pointer finger. I could barely pinch at times. This has happened before and I assumed it was from my increase in dirt biking, which required me to exert a lot of force on my wrists, so I took a break from it. But things I barely noticed are getting worse. My neck feels tight and my head feels too heavy. All fingers and toes feel weak, especially in the morning and there've been a few times when curling my toes have left my lower legs with the worst cramps I've ever had. My original problem thumb shakes on its own sometimes and every time I move a limb or finger, rather than a fluid motion it shakes a little. I've also lost some weight, which is bad because I'm down to 125 lbs at 5 foot 11 inches. Physical exercise like push-ups, flutter kicks, biking, etc. doesn't seem to be affected, I'm actually continuing to improve my strength exercises. But I've lost weight. All my movements seem jerkey and twitchy to me.
So what's the prognosis? What should I make of this? I'm a relatively healthy 16 year old with no family history of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (A.L.S) nor do I live near any military bases (apparently that somehow connects to A.L.S.) I suffer from anxiety and had severe health anxiety in my preteen years. At age 12, there were actually several instances when I had anxiety attacks and was convinced I was about to die. But I'm worried this is different. I was just at a doctor for a potentially cancerous mole, and can't afford to go back. Please someone give me reassurance or advice. Should I be worried? I am getting help for the anxiety if you're wondering. Thanks for reading this.
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