Hi!
I just wanted to let you know about a great website that has a tremendous amount of info about Lyme disease. It's www.lymenet.com I was clinically diagnosed w/Lyme this year. I find many many answers to even the craziest of symptoms from their forums (On its home page click on "Flash Discussions" to get to the forums). It's strickly people living w/Lyme, not DR's. But, if you post your symptoms there, you may be surprised of the responses you'll get. You may find others w/exactly the same problems. Lyme can attack every part of the body if it wants to, and can very often mimic many other diseases. Good luck, I hope you can find some answers on that site. I know I do! Take care!
Hi Dave,
I'm kind of in the same boat as you... many pains,stiffness in my right foot/calf (especially when I first get up in the morning). I have continous twitching in my right calf, a slight tremor of the jaw and SEVERE eye floaters and dark spots in my vision. It all started after two lumbar injections for sciatic pain I was having. I have no weakness, no atrophy... in fact I still jog and lift weights. I have had these symptoms since Jan of this year. I have been to multiple Doctors, Neuro's and an ALS clinic. All determined I did not need an EMG and that this is all Benign Fasiculation Syndrome (BFS). I don't know what to think anymore. I'm continuting with my PT/Chiro visits for my back pain and just going on with my life. I know how frustrated you are... but it's a good thing they haven't found any major thing wrong with us. Hang in there bro... your not alone.
First of all, keep in mind that I am unable to diagnose you because I am unable to examine you, this forum is for educational purposes. The symptoms and history that you have provided is concerning for ALS with bulbar onset, but can also be seen in other disorders, such as Parkinson's disease, myasthenia gravis, vocal cord paralysis, polymyositis etc. The type of EMG that you need is called a Laryngeal EMG (Available in large academic centers). This is an EMG (Electro Myography or "nerve-muscle test") of the thyroarytenoid and cricothyroid muscles (muscles in the larynx). I would also recommend that you repeat the general EMG for signs of ALS since you are having a more systemic spread of your symptoms now, with stiffness and fatigue (these symptoms are non-specific but can be seen in a number of the disorders all ready on your list, such as ALS and Parkinson's). You should seek out an expert in ALS (there are several around the country) and have them do the laryngeal EMG/general EMG, to take advantage of their ALS protocols for doing EMG and their interpretive skills (EMG is subjective and requires one know what they are looking for).
I hope this has been helpful.