August came and suddenly the muscles in my left arm were quivering… all of the time. I opened my mouth to look at my tongue and was shocked to see that it too was quivering uncontrollably. I was pretty sure that my tongue somehow looked thinner and ‘wasted’ too. We looked up ‘muscle tremors’ (fasciculations), ‘slurred speech’ and ‘cramps’ on Google. The answer was motor neurone disease.
I booked an appointment to speak to a doctor about my symptoms on 6 August. The only one available was with a doctor at the Watford Extended Access Hub. It was a telephone consultation and we talked through my numerous symptoms. I said, ‘I think I might have motor neurone disease’. The doctor didn’t disagree, and he said he’d refer me back to my GP practice for a further consultation.
The next day I had a video consultation with a GP from my surgery. After talking through the problems again the doctor asked me to lift some weights on camera and she looked at the fasciculations in both my arms and in my tongue. She immediately initiated an urgent appointment for me to be seen by a neurologist. The possibilities to be explored were either a brain tumour, or MND.
I could now feel fasciculations all the time in both my arms and in my back around my waist. It was a funny tickly feeling that has never gone away.