Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Support Group

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, sometimes called Lou Gehrig's disease, Maladie de Charcot or motor neurone disease) is a progressive, almost invariably fatal neurological disease. In ALS, both the upper motor neurons and the lower motor neurons degenerate or die, ceasing to send messages to muscles. This community is for those afflicted with the disease or who know a...

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Brain & Nervous System
/ Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Support Group

Symptoms and diagnosis

ValB
ValB

Can people tell me what their first symptoms were and how their doctors diagnosed them?

keepmegoing
keepmegoing
My husband started with a sensation of arthritic type symptom in his index finger of his right hand. He shrugged it off as he'd been working outside and thought that it had gotten too cold. It gradually began to affect his whole hand and went up the arm until it became not much more than a paper weight.
He had several EMG's and a MRI with the local neurologist scratching his head. We were sent to a teaching university hospital where they did more EMG's and some other testing. Then we were told we think you have ALS. They also took 10 vials of blood for testing as there are other diseases that mimic ALS that are curable. They came back negative.
He felt the 1st symptoms in December of 2002, diagnosed March 2005 and passed October 2009. Hope this helps.