@alex199407 Welcome. You've come to the right place. Dr. Google doesn't see patients and really has no expert opinion that can specifically be about you. I do know how that feels when something is wrong and your mind runs away with you. A doctor did authorize your MRI, so there must be some sort of followup in the future. It is scary when you get the first news that there may be a spine problem. I knew when I found out I had central canal stenosis in my neck that the only way to resolve that was surgery and I was afraid of surgery. My experience of actual spine surgery was that the spine surgery wasn't that bad, and the experience of breaking my ankle with 3 related surgeries and a longer much more painful recovery was a lot worse. I had spinal cord compression at C5/C6 which did cause pain all over my body and weakness in arms and legs. Spine problems do cause pain that can be referred to the body, and every mapped nerve root exits the spinal cord between the individual vertebrae. If you have nerve compression there, it is very specific as to where you will feel pain. If you have spinal cord compression, it is pot luck as to what nerve pathway is getting compressed in that big bundle.

Spine issues change things and you learn to adapt and not do things that could make it worse. Because the spinal cord has to move inside the spinal canal with different body positions, take note of what activities and body positions cause your symptoms so you can tell your specialist. Actually that is a good sign if you know what to do to reproduce symptoms. If you really had ALS, symptoms would be random. I talked with an ALS patient at Mayo in the waiting area while I was waiting for my testing appointments and I could see muscles twitching randomly all over his arm, and not always in the same place. Hopefully, that will ease your mind a bit until you have an official opinion about where your symptoms are coming from.

Have you been referred to a spine specialist for a consultation?

Jennifer