Questions about weird symptoms

[Gopackers123]

I have had symptoms since January of 2023:
EMG was done in May of 2023- results below:
EMG was done with 25 mm sterile monopolar needle, tested bilaterally vastus lateralis, tibialis anterior, gastrocnemius medius, peroneus longus–intact there showed normal insertional activity and recruitment and did not reveal any abnormal resting potential. The patient tolerated test without complications.

I am still scared as I still have symptoms. Twitching, perceived weakness, etc

 

[ShiftKicker]

You haven't really asked a question. You have been cleared of ALS via the gold standard- a clean EMG. Plus you don't report the hallmark symptom of clinical weakness. Your doctor is the person to consult if you have concerns about your health. You can also read here for answers to the common questions people find themselves here for: Read Before Posting.

 

[Gopackers123]

My question is about clincal weakness. How is that determined? Is it truly about failing?

 

[ShiftKicker]

From the Read Before:

Clinical Weakness—ALS is about failing, not feeling.
ALS is about failure—falling down, being unable to stand on your toes or heels, being unable to button your shirt, being unable to lift your hand, being unable to open a ziplock bag, etc. It is not about these things becoming more difficult. It is about these things being impossible… no matter how hard you try. If you can do normal things, but it is more difficult, you do not have ALS. If you used to be able to do 100 curls and now one arm can only do 50; that is not ALS. If you used to run 2 miles and now you can only run 1; that is not ALS. If you used to run 2 miles and now you can’t lift up one of your feet, you may have clinical weakness.

It really does happen that something stops working all of a sudden. It is generally one muscle so it will not be a whole limb, but the movement done by that muscle is suddenly gone. An example is a calf raise. It won't happen. Think of it like your wifi signal. You are surfing the net, then signal is lost and you can't do anything online no matter how hard you try or how long you wait for a page to load. This is what happens to a muscle in beginning ALS it has lost the signal from the nervous system that tells it to work. First it is one muscle, then another ,then another so the things you can’t do increase. This is why you see progressive weakness mentioned

 

[lgelb]

Twitching and perceived weakness are very common. It's good to work with your PCP to figure out what the reasons might be, but the top 4 are stress/anxiety, dehydration, poor diet, and lack of refreshing sleep.

If the PCP finds clinical weakness at any time, they will let you know.