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ALS Like Symptoms
I am a 20 year old male. I am in extremely good shape. I recently caught what I thought to be a stomach bug on a ski trip. I then 3 days later developed an episode of stroke like symptoms which resolved within 5 minutes. About every test you can imagine has been run on me which has ruled almost everything out. However, a couple days later I began developing bowl symptoms along with loss an appetite. I then began developing lower back pain along with mild and spotty leg pain mostly in my left leg. Maybe a couple days after that I began feeling as if my left leg was weak and I am noticing twitches all over my body. They are not stopping me from sleeping or occurring while I’m using the muscle. As more and more things become ruled out I am becoming increasingly scared of ALS. Is this a typical way this will present. I can’t get a straight answer from anyone they just keep telling me I don’t have it but then they tell me it hasn’t been ruled out.
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Hello @dymooney and welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. It sounds like you have been very intentional about keeping tabs on your symptoms and doing research as well. In case this is helpful, I wanted to share a link to a wealth of information from symptoms to diagnosis to treatement, below:
- Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS): https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/amyotrophic-lateral-sclerosis/symptoms-causes/syc-20354022
How are you currently being treated based on what your doctor has learned so far?
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2 Reactions@dymooney
My cousin had ALS and his first symptom was muscle weakness.
It may vary from person to person???
Good luck,
Jake
Hi. This sounds a bit similar to what happened to me. I had a bad viral illness including stomach symptoms a year and a half or so ago. The same day I got sick, I started having fasciculations all over my body. I also developed muscle cramping and numbness. It never affected exercising or sleeping for me, either. For me, it turned out to be benign fasciculation syndrome. Check out the benign fasciculation syndrome page on this forum. There is also a group for this online. Many people seem to have it happen after illness. I still have it, but it's much improved. Any illness (especially stomach) causes the symptoms to come back. Try not to jump to conclusions. I was terrified at first, too, that I had ALS. Best wishes to you.
My Dr recently told me you don't have pain with ALS just weakness.