Did Anyone's Symptoms Start in their Upper Extremities?
Posted , 2 users are following.
I'm hoping to find some reassurance/answers. I've had some symptoms the past few months that I'm not sure what they all mean. Personally, I'm freaking out that it is ALS, but logically,I just turned 36, so this would be very young for that. I have a neurology consult that needs to be scheduled, but thought I would reach out here in the meantime. Below are my symptoms outlined up to most recently.
Roughly 6 months ago: Nothing that I can specifically put words to, but just felt like my legs weren't working right.....no strength issues, but like it almost felt difficult to slip my feet into my shoes, like it was taking way more effort than it should. Also, I felt like one of my feet wanted to turn in some, kind of crampy.
2.5 months ago: My hand/thumb twitched. That area of the palm right under your thumb. This continued for a few days. When you google this, you will think you have ALS. At that time, I didn't connect the dots, but noticed that my eyes (both) were randomly twitching, though my left way worse and more frequently than the right. In the weeks following, everything began to twich (or fasisculate). Literally everything, everywhere. My abdomen, my vagina, everything. A couple of weeks ago, I significantly cut back on my caffeine usage and the muscle twitches improved drastically.
Somewhere between the 6 months and 2.5 months, I started to feel the same way about my hands as I did my feet and legs. It just felt like they did not work as nimbly as before. For example, reaching into my purse to grab something, it's like my hands can't move or sift through things .
Past 2 weeks: I feel like my arms don't work anymore. I would not say weak, as I can still lift my children, carseats, etc. They just don't move like I want them to. An example of this, putting socks on my 4 year old is a struggle (more than just putting socks on a 4 year old normally is). Also, the other day I noticed like it felt like my whole right side went numb. I could feel things, but it just felt like it was number than the other side. From what I' ve googled and read, this might be due to spasms....like my arms are in some sort of spastic movement. This sort of makes sense, as last week we were doing some cleaning and re-arranging around the house, and it seemed like any major, big body moves caused a spasm somewhere.
Other info: I do have iron-deficiency anemia apparently (haven't met with the doc to see how bad, but must be somewhat significant as they called to say don't miss the appointment), major anxiety, and I had a baby a year ago (possibly what triggered all of this). I just don't think this is anxiety at this point.
Thanks for reading until this point.....info/feedback appreciated!
0 likes, 2 replies
Bethiebeth hank1457
Posted
Hi Ashley! I am so sorry you are experiencing these spasms and weakness and so on. I have iron deficiency anemia as well and anxiety. I feel like these symptoms you are mentioning sound more like the low iron. I was having the same spasms and weakness and had 2 iron infusions and they have gotten much better. Some more things to check out that often go hand in hand with anxiety and low iron is low vitamin d, low b12 and hypothyroidism. I have all of these and in joining groups with other women related to these deficiencies have noticed many of them do as well.i DO NOT think this is ALS. I know it is easy to fall in that rabbit hole because we tend to jump to the worst possible explanation when we have anxiety but ALS is very very rare. And there are so many things just low iron causes that I would get that up before ever considering ALS again.
hank1457 Bethiebeth
Posted
Hi Beth,
Thank you so much for your reply! I ended up with an iron infusion after my baby last November....they would have preferred it before, but things couldn't be coordinated in time. I think their original plan was 3 infusions, but my IV went bad during the second so I barely got that one. I can't really tell you if that one made a difference or not.....I definitely wasn't having these symptoms while pregnant. However, between having a baby and exclusively pumping breastmilk for 8 months, my body has probably become deficient in something. I had Vit D levels checked during my pregnancy and those were actually ok. I will ask my PCP though.