Not long after returning home, my wife mentions to me, “Have you ever noticed that you twitch a lot? ” I really hadn’t, but now that she brought it to my attention , of course it is all I can focus on. I will bring it up to my PCP when I see her about the carpal tunnel referral.
Around October, I finally get in to the doctor’s office. She agrees to refer me to an Orthopedic doctor. I bring up the twitching and she conducts an assessment as well as an MRI. The tests are inconclusive , so that will accompany me to the ortho.
Of course, now I’m concerned. So, I did what any reasonable person does… I googled that shit! Let’s just say that the results were less than desirable. Really , leave it to the professionals to diagnose you. The Internet may say you have bubonic plague ! Unfortunately , for me , this is one time it was on to something.
Fast forward to my ortho appointment. He doesn’t believe what the assessment and MRI indicate have anything to do with my twitching situation. He sends me to a neurologist to run a couple of tests to confirm carpal tunnel and to look at some things that might be the culprit of my twitching.
Upon completion of the EMG/NCV tests, the neurologist says that he saw some abnormalities but he is going to send me to a specialist to follow up. I head back to the ortho to figure out the plan from here. Results indicate carpal tunnel but are not definitive for my other issue. That is when he casually mentions ALS. He says, “It’s a rare disease and it is doubtful you have it. We just want to cover our bases. It’s worst case scenario and we know ALS is a death sentence. “
They send me on my way with a ” Don’t worry too much ” and now I have this dark cloud above me…