Early Symptoms ALS or what is this ... ?

@dashboardben
You may want to get checked by a neurologist for a pinched nerve in your neck causing radiculopathy down your arm. You could also see an orthopedic spine specialist since this could be a structural/mechanical issue and not necessarily a nervous system disease.

@dlydailyhope Thank you! I will do that. I also read that stress, dehydration can cause this. Today was a busy day, and I did not at least feel the tremors until I got back home. And that too for a few seconds. Does that indicate something in the direction of radiculopathy?

@dashboardben
Cervical radiculopathy can feel like pain, numbness, weakness and pins/needles/tingling. It could cause muscle spasms/tremors due to communication breakdowns between brain/body and body/brain.

1.
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/22639-cervical-radiculopathy-pinched-nerve
2.
https://www.spine-health.com/conditions/neck-pain/cervical-radiculopathy-symptoms
3.
https://www.boneandjoint.org/patient-education/cervical-radiculopathy-cervical-nerve-compression/

@dlydailyhope Thanks a lot.

I'll check that out.

BTW, is there any information on how the "feel" of the ALS related fasciculation feel different compared to radiculopathy, or BFS? As much as I can read, it says ALS would be in all areas, and *follows* muscle weakness, i.e. that it does not start with twitches and then muscle weakness etc.

Is there any confirmed information source on this? Honestly, I am a bit concerned.

@dashboarden
I definitely think your doctors need to rule out everything else before landing on ALS. It is important to look at symptoms and diagnoses that mimic ALS.

I thought I might have ALS and my neurologist ruled out MS. I had a lot of autoimmune and neurological blood work to check for deficiencies and toxicities plus autoantibodies.

Take a look at the links below. I needed to work through 8 years of diagnoses to get to iron deficiency, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, cervical degenerative myelopathy and radiculopathy plus lumbar spinal stenosis/disc degenerative disease and neurogenic claudication which was behind my long list of symptoms.

1.
https://www.healthline.com/health/diseases-that-mimic-als
2.
https://www.als.net/news/als-mimics/
3.
https://www.neurology.org/doi/10.1212/WNL.90.15_supplement.P4.465
4.
https://scarysymptoms.com/2017/09/22-diseases-mimic-als-symptoms-can-lead-misdiagnosis/

@dashboardben
See response above. My @address got shortened.

Hi @dlydailyhope

Many thanks, I would need to book an appointment with the doctor.

At least reading through Cervical radiculopathy, I don't seem to have much in that sense, e.g. (sensory), there is no numbness or reduced sensation in the skin, no motor weakness, no reflect losses. Doctors appointments here ... just a GP, no idea even how long it takes. Emergency medicine (A&E) can land one with a 7-hour wait!

What I have is twitching ... just the muscle twitching in the biceps – I wanted to really rule out the worst ALS.

Wondering: In ALS cases, let's say absolute initial, is the twitching throughout the day? Or sometimes only?

Is there an idea of "micro-twitching"? E.g. I can sometimes see visible movement in the bicep, other times, I feel a "tremor". Again, not through the whole day, like today, nothing until 18.00 ... the whole day, I went about my work – nothing.

Can it start with just one muscle only?

@dashboardben

A pinched spinal nerve in your cervical spine can cause muscle cramping and twitches. Read the information here.
https://www.medicinenet.com/when_should_i_worry_about_muscle_twitching/article.htm

@dashboardben

You may want to have a neurologist do EMG/nerve conduction studies to see how your upper limbs receive signals from your brain/central nervous system to move your muscles in your arms.

@dlydailyhope thanks a lot, I have to try that out in the near future. As I had mentioned, I am based in one of those hyper socialist incompetent medical systems where the first route (exaggerated) is always "take an NASID or acetaminophen (Tylenol)" x 3 months!