@alex199407 I think it is a somewhat normal fear to think about ALS when you don't know what is wrong. I had those thoughts too at the beginning when I had symptoms worse on one side. The key here is what you said about body position changing the symptoms and pain that you feel. That pretty much does link it to the spine because the spinal cord has to be able to move a bit inside the spinal canal as you bend and twist. That will pull on any area that might be compressed. A person with ALS can't change the symptoms by changing their body position, and a diagnosis of a structural spine problem is very common. My first symptom of cervical spinal cord compression was if I turned my head, I got a pain in my ankle. I could turn that on and off by turning my head of looking forward again.

Here's the other secret you should know. Your brain is wired to respond to fear of the unknown as a survival mechanism. So you can thank your brain for alerting you, so you took the responsibility and went to your doctor. Check that off your list until you get further more specific information. Now is the time you can ask yourself why you have this fear, and how did it get triggered? If you can explore that and really understand how you are coming to a conclusion without having the information you need to make that judgement, then you will start deprogramming that fear. This is life changing when you can do this and truly amazing when you can understand yourself and redefine how you will respond to something. That was my great lesson in my journey through spine surgery. It helps to write all this stuff down, and then you can stop thinking about it and get it off of your plate. When fear is allowed to run wild, it affects your health and your heart.

Here is a discussion dedicated to confronting fear.
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/how-can-i-defeat-my-anxiety-about-medical-tests-and-surgery/
Jennifer